Alternative Economy

An alternative economy is being built that goes beyond globalisation and neoliberalism. It draws on but breaks with previous paradigms and is complex, detailed and practical. It is based in pluralities, governmental and civil society, political and economic, and in its regenerative capacities can appeal across the political spectrum. It is being discussed and implemented by local governments, think tanks, academics, and national political parties. This article asks whether something localised and beyond global capital can avoid parochialism, inequality and the negative effects of competition, stretch to representing the interests of the public as a whole and work at national level. Can its embeddedness across institutions and plural actors protect it from reversal or does its shift to community power and interests and away from neoliberalism mean global capital will undermine it? The paper discusses what the new democratic economy is and how it can be implemented and maintained in the face of opposition.

Professional text, descriptive: Hundreds of financial crises have destroyed economies, enterprises, and individual existences over the last decades. Financial reforms are due. One contribution could be complementary monetary systems that are around since long. This paper is descriptive; it introduces how alternative currencies operate and examines proven examples. It looks at theoretical foundations provided by traditional economics, Silvio Gesell, Rudolf Steiner, Bernard Lietaer, and others. The article argues about pro and cons of complementary currencies and questions if they can fulfil the many promises and hopes. It is concluded that the idea of alternative money merits further examining and experimenting, not least because of the opportunities of the Internet and interest from civil society.

This paper will begin by setting the context of today with respect to the economy. I will then outline some of what I see as fundamental problems in dominant paradigm economics. It will discuss some of the more troubling aspects of the global monetary and financial systems. Entering into this discussion are issues of political, social, ecological, and moral concern. My goal here is for balance; if I critique the dominant system, I must also be prepared to propose a constructive alternative. This alternative -- community currencies -- is but one of many strategies for sustainable community economic development.

This article maps the contours of the community currency scene in Spain. In so doing, it reveals a diverse and vibrant landscape of almost 400 currencies. These are made up of both tried and tested community currency types: service time-banks and mutual credit schemes; a regional currency, the Bilbao-based ekhi and more innovative alternatives such as barter shops and loyalty schemes. The scene is national in scope and has undergone rapid recent growth.
The sources used in the study comprise scholarly books, articles published in the Spanish national and regional press, an online database, and interviews and focus groups conducted during field trips to Spain with academics with interests in alternative economic practices, some of Spain’s leading community currency pioneers and community currency user groups and activists.
In an effort to reveal the factors shaping community currency practice in Spain, the article discusses the role of municipal councils, community currency pioneers, the recent economic downturn, pre-figurative economic experiments conducted by radical social movements and ideological frameworks such as feminism and de-growth. The article also highlights the extent to which Spanish community currencies have been influenced by developments in Europe, the USA and Latin America.

The article sets out the thesis that the social-ontological account based on the form of life concept can be used to analytically and normatively reflect alternative economies and their attempt to overcome capitalistic structures. To develop the thesis, I provide conceptual work on the "economic form of life", pointing at its plasticity due to the general substitutability of economic practices. Against this background, I argue that Capitalism makes use of this plasticity to create a fully commodified, radical contingent form of life. Actors of alternative economies can wake up of from this dream world of Capitalism by using the substitutability of economic practices to deconstruct the capitalist form of life. The two most important practices for doing so are the practices of "in-sourcing" and "solidary out-sourcing". They also reveal the normative kernel of conviviality, namely to seek to do justice to the economicity of human life. The paper ends with locating the presented form-of-life-account within the strand of literature on alternative economies.

La gran cantidad de trabajos vinculados a la Economía Popular y Solidaria (EPyS) producidos en los últimos años nos invita a reflexionar sobre el rol que puede tener el enfoque geográfico para el estudio de las prácticas concretas bajo esa mirada económica. Por ello, en este trabajo nos proponemos realizar una aproximación conceptual desde la geografía que pueda ser útil para el análisis de esos procesos socioeconómicos locales en el contexto de una economía capitalista dominante. Para lograr esto, se tomarán algunas categorías geográficas que, puestas en contacto con nociones de la EPyS, nos permitan identificar herramientas conceptuales adecuadas para dicho análisis.

Abstract: The large number of papers linked to the Popular and Solidarity Economy (EPyS) produced in the last years, invites us to reflect on the role that a geographic approach may have in the study of concrete practices under that economic view. Therefore, in this paper we propose to make a conceptual approach from geography, which can be useful for the analysis of these local socio-economical processes in the context of a dominant capitalist economy. To achieve this, we will take into account some geographic categories which, in contact with notions of EPyS, will allow us to identify appropriate conceptual tools for the analysis

This pamphlet discusses the experience of the street museum, an activity of exchange and informal redistribution that is organised by the Colectivo Cambalache (Swapping Collective) in the streets of Bogotá, the capital of the Republic of Colombia. In this collective without members, we are working with the more or less fixed group of Luisa Clavijo, Adriana García, Carolina Caycedo, and the author of this text (Federico Guzmán), in addition to other friends and students at the University of the Andes and Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, who have been collaborating sporadically since the activity began nearly a year ago.