Think globally, transact locally: Green political economy and the local currency movement

Global Society

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 35-51

  Helleiner, E ^a  

^a Research Council of Canada   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CURRENCY MARKET; ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS; POLITICAL ECONOMY; TRADE-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONS;

EID: 0034101558     PISSN: 13600826     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13600820050001112     Document Type: Article

References (95)

1. For research help, I am very grateful to Andrea Harrington, Derek Hall, Laura Chrabolowsky, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Thanks also to Jennifer Clapp, Benjamin Cohen, Gita Sud and one anonymous reviewer for their very helpful comments.
2. See, for example, Stephen Gill, "Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neoliberalism", Millennium, Vol. 23, No. 3 (1995), pp. 399-423.
3. For among Hayek and Friedman's best-known books see, for example, Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944);
4. and Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1963).
5. For a recent overview of the emergence and global influence of the neoliberal movement, see Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw, The Commanding Heights (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998). For more detailed references to specific aspects of neoliberal thought, see footnotes 9, 24, 38.
6. The largest LETS network is in one region of Australia, with over 4, 000 members. Lawrence Scanlan, "LETS Make a Deal" Harrowsmith (June 1994), pp. 37-43.
7. At least one million US citizens were involved in local currency or "scrip" networks in a brief one to two year period during the early 1930s, according to Wayne Weishaar and Wayne Parrish, Men Without Money (New York: Putnam's, 1933).
8. See, for example, Thomas Greco, New Money for Healthy Communities (Tucson: Thomas Greco, 1994);
9. Susan Meeker-Lowry, "The Potential of Local Currency", Z Magazine (July/August 1995), pp. 16-23;
10. Ross Dobson, Bringing the Economy Home from the Market (Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1993);
11. Paul Ekins (ed.), The Living Economy (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986);
12. Edgar Cahn and Jonathan Rowe, Time Dollars (Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1992);
13. Margrit Kennedy, Interest and Inflation Free Money (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 1995);
14. Shann Turnbull, "Creating a Community Currency", in Ward Morehouse (ed.), Building Sustainable Communities: Tools and Concepts for Self-reliant Economic Change (New York: The Bootstrap Press, 1989).
15. See, for example, Makoto Maruyama, "The Socio-economic Role of LETS in Canada", Working Paper No. 66, University of Tokyo, Komaba, Department of Social and International Relations, February 1996;
16. L. Thorne, "Local Exchange Trading Systems in the UK: A Case of Re-embedding", Environment and Planning A, Vol. 28, No. 8 (1996), pp. 1361-1376;
17. C. Williams, "Local Exchange and Trading Systems: A New Source of Work and Credit for the Poor and Unemployed?", Environment and Planning A, Vol. 28, No. 8 (1996), pp. 1395-1415;
18. C. Williams, "The New Barter Economy", Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1996), pp. 85-101;
19. R. Lee, "Moral Money? LETS and the Social Construction of Local Economic Geographies in Southeast England", Environment and Planning A, Vol. 28, No. 8 (1996), pp. 1377-1394.
20. Some interesting, more theoretical, analyses can be found in Abraham Rotstein and Colin Duncan, "For a Second Economy" in D. Drache and M. Gertler (eds.), The New Era of Global Competition (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991);
21. L.D. Solomon, Rethinking Our Centralized Monetary System: The Case for a System of Local Currencies (Westport: Praeger, 1996);
22. Rachel Tibbett, "Alternative Currencies: A Challenge to Globalisation?", New Political Economy, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1996), pp. 127-135. My focus on the use of consumption as a political challenge to neoliberal priorities is, however, somewhat different from the focus of these writings.
23. The broad contours of "green" political-economic thought are outlined below in the paper. For a more detailed discussion, see, for example, Andrew Dobson, Green Political Thought: An Introduction (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990);
24. Herman Daly and John Cobb, For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment and a Sustainable Future (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989);
25. Eric Helleiner, "International Political Economy and the Greens", New Political Economy, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1996), pp. 59-78.
26. See, for example, Gill, New Political Economy, op cit.;
27. and Eric Helleiner, States and the Reemergence of Global Finance (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994).
28. Kennedy, States and the Reemergence of Global Finance op cit., p. 119.
29. Paul Glover, "Ithaca HOURS", in Susan Meeker-Lowry (ed.), Invested in the Common Good (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1995), p. 156.
30. Guy Dauncey, After the Crash: The Emergence of the Rainbow Economy (Basingstoke: Green Print, 1988), p. 62.
31. Eric Helleiner, "Historicizing Territorial Currencies: Monetary Space and the Nation-state in North America", Political Geography, Vol. 18 (1999), pp. 309-339;
32. Eric Helleiner, "One Money, One Nation: Territorial Currencies and the Nation-state", ARENA Working Paper No. 17, ARENA, Oslo, 1997.
33. See, for example, Helleiner, States and the Reemergence, op. cit.
34. For more detailed discussions of "green" political-economic thought, see the references in footnote 8. The discussion in the following paragraphs draws from Helleiner, "International Political Economy", States and the Reemergence, op. cit.
35. Vandana Shiva, "The Greening of Global Reach", in W. Sachs (ed.), Global Ecology (London: Zed Books, 1993).
36. See, for example, Rotstein and Duncan, "For a Second Economy", Global Ecology op. cit.
37. For Polanyi, see Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1944).
38. See, for example, Rotstein and Duncan, The Great Transformation op. cit.;
39. Dobson, Bringing the Economy, op. cit.
40. For Braudel, see Fernand Braudel, Civilization and Capitalism: 15th-18th Centuries (3 Vols), Sian Reynolds (trans.) (London: Fontana, 1985).
41. Rotstein and Duncan, Civilization and Capitalism: 15th-18th Centuries op. cit. This historical world was also one in which "bad" money often pushed out "good" according to Gresham's Law, a point that local currency advocates have not explored in much depth.
42. James Robertson, Future Wealth (London: Cassell, 1990), p. 125.
43. Dauncey, Future Wealth op. cit., p. 58.
44. See, for example, Hayek, Future Wealth op. cit.
45. See, for example, Helleiner, States and the Reemergence, op. cit.
46. See, for example, Lawrence White, Competition and Currency (New York: New York University Press, 1989);
47. George Selgin, The Theory of Free Banking (Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield, 1988);
48. Steve Hanke, Currency Boards for Developing Countries (San Francisco: International Center for Economic Growth, 1994).
49. Kennedy, Currency Boards for Developing Countries op. cit.
50. See, for example, Greco, Currency Boards for Developing Countries op. cit.
51. For these arguments, see, for example, Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations (New York: Random House, 1984);
52. David Weston, "Green Economics: The Community Use of Currency", Paper presented to The Other Economic Summit (mimeo, 1985).
53. Kennedy, The Other Economic Summit op. cit.
54. Williams, "Local Exchange", The Other Economic Summit op. cit.
55. Kennedy, The Other Economic Summit op. cit., p. 128.
56. Silvio Gesell, The Natural Economic Order (San Antonio: The Free Economy Publishing Company, 1934).
57. Glover, The Natural Economic Order op. cit., p. 156. Michael Schuman notes that the Barter Potluck has given Ithaca Hours to groups such as the Stop Wal-Mart Campaign, Ithaca Rape Center, Senior Citizens Center, and the Committee on US-Latin American Relations;
58. Michael Schuman, Going Local: Creating Self-reliant Communities in a Global Age (New York: The Free Press, 1998).
59. Glover, Going Local: Creating Self-reliant Communities in a Global Age op. cit, p. 155.
60. Thomas Greco, "The Essential Nature of Money", Earth Island Journal (Winter 1995), p. 36.
61. See also Rotstein and Duncan, Earth Island Journal op. cit.
62. Quoted in Lee, Earth Island Journal op. cit., p. 1383.
63. Dobson, Bringing the Economy, op. cit., p. 163.
64. Andrew Leyshon and Nigel Thrift, "Moral Geographies of Money", in Emily Gilbert and Eric Helleiner (eds.), Nation-states and Money: The Past, Present and Future of National Currencies (London: Routledge, 1999).
65. See, for example, Alexander Shand, Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School (London: Routledge, 1990).
66. Daly and Cobb, Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School op. cit.
67. Thorne, Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School op. cit., p. 1365. But Williams' data contradict this, showing more economic reasons were most important in explaining interest in participating in the Manchester local currency network;
68. Williams, "Local Exchange", Free Market Morality: The Political Economy of the Austrian School op. cit., p. 1404.
69. Karl Marx, Capital: Volume 1 (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1974), p. 132.
70. George Simmel, The Philosophy of Money, Tom Bottomore and David Frisby (trans.) (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, [1900] 1978), pp. 128, 373, 377, 440.
71. Viviana Zelizer, The Social Meaning of Money (New York: Basic Books, 1994).
72. Eric Helleiner, "National Identities and National Currencies", American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 41, No. 10 (1998), pp. 1409-1436.
73. Virginia Hewitt, Beauty and the Banknote (London: British Museum Press, 1994), p. 11.
74. Glover, Beauty and the Banknote op. cit., p. 156.
75. Indeed, Lee (Beauty and the Banknote op. cit., p. 1382) reports that the naming process is often the subject of "fierce local debate".
76. LETS Toronto, "What is LETS?" (mimeo, undated).
77. Dauncey, What is LETS? op. cit., p. 61.
78. Glover, What is LETS? op. cit., p. 156.
79. Dobson, Bringing the Economy, op. cit., p. 189.
80. Williams, "Local Exchange", Bringing the Economy, op. cit., p. 1396.
81. Makoto Maruyama, "The Social Contexts of Money Uses", in Robert Albritton and Thomas Sekine (eds.), A Japanese Approach to Political Economy (London: Macmillan, 1995), p. 102.
82. Quoted in Scanlan, "LETS Make a Deal", A Japanese Approach to Political Economy op. cit., p. 40.
83. Dauncey, A Japanese Approach to Political Economy op. cit., pp. 63-64.
84. Helleiner, "International Political Economy", A Japanese Approach to Political Economy op. cit.
85. E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973).
86. Benjamin Cohen, The Geography of Money (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).
87. The Australian government invited Michael Linton to Australia in 1992 to discuss LETS and subsequently promoted the establishment of LETS networks with computer equipment, education, publicity, postage, and stationery; Patricia Knox, "A New Green Economy? LETS Do It!", Earth Island Journal (Winter 1994). The Department of Social Services actively encourages people on benefits to join local LETS and a 1995 Act declared that LETS earnings would be exempt from income tests for social security, as long as those unemployed were still looking for work. The European Commission has also incorporated promotion of LETS into its urban and regional policy;
88. Gill Seyfang and Colin Williams, "Give DIY Economies a Break", New Statesman (27 March 1998).
89. Michael Schuman reports that the first grant to the E.F. Schumacher's newsletter Local Currency News came from the conservative Bradley Foundation which has also funded the US-based Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute.
90. Schuman, Local Currency News op. cit., p. 137.
91. Friedrich Hayek, The Denationalisation of Money - The Argument Refined (London: Institute for Economic Affairs, 1990).
92. His ideas are cited in Ekins, The Denationalisation of Money - The Argument Refined op. cit., p. 197;
93. Robertson, The Denationalisation of Money - The Argument Refined op. cit., pp. 127-128;
94. Solomon, The Denationalisation of Money - The Argument Refined op. cit. Hayek's goals are in fact very different from those of the local currency advocates; he favours private corporate issuers of money competing in the marketplace as a means of promoting the values of laissez-faire economics and individualism.
95. Even in a country such as Britain, where the local currency movement has been relatively very successful, only approximately 20, 000 people are members of local currency networks (of which there are about 300) and often no more than 10% of each individual's economic activity is involved in the local currency system. See Williams, "The New Barter", The Denationalisation of Money - The Argument Refined op. cit. Similarly, Maruyama (The Socio-economic Role", op. cit.) notes that in Canada, participants in LETS networks conduct less than 10% of their economic activity within the network, on average.