Money and Liberation - The Micropolitics of Alternative Currency Movements

236 Pages·2007·1.03 MB·English

by  Peter North

MONEY AND LIBERATION
This page intentionally left blank
money
and
Liberation
The Micropolitics of
Alternative Currency Movements
2
PETER NORTH
University of Minnesota Press
minneapolis | london
Parts of chapter 5 were originally published in Alternative Currencies as a
Challenge to Globalisation? A Case Study of Manchester’s Alternative Currency
Movements (Aldershot, Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2006); reprinted by per-
mission of Ashgate Publishing Company. Parts of chapter 6 originally ap-
peared in “Constructing Civil Society? Green Money in Transition Hungary,”
Review of International Political Economy 13, no. 1 (2006): 28–52; reprinted
with the permission of Taylor and Francis, www.tandf.co.uk. Parts of chap-
ter 7 were originally published in “LETS in a Cold Climate: Green Dol-
lars and Neo-Liberal Welfare in New Zealand,” Policy and Politics 30, no.
4 (October 2002): 483–500; reprinted by permission of Policy and Politics.
Copyright 2007 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
North, Peter, 1962–
Money and liberation : the micropolitics of alternative currency movements
/ Peter North.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8166-4962-4 (hc : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8166-4963-1 ( pb : alk. paper)
1. Money. 2. Monetary policy. 3. Currency question. I. Title.
hg220.a2n67 2007
332.4—dc22 2006038757
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to those who have traded labor notes,
stamp script, green dollars, and créditos from
Auckland to Budapest, from Manchester to Mendoza.
They all helped make a better world for my daughter, Polly,
who was born as I completed this volume.
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
8
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Thinking Economies Otherwise . . . . . . . xi
⁄. Beyond the Veil? Money and Economies. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
¤. The Politics of Monetary Contestation. . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
‹. Utopians, Anarchists, and Populists:
The Politics of Money in the Nineteenth Century. . . . 41
›. Twentieth-Century Utopians: Gesell and Douglas. . . .62
fi. New Money, New Work?
LETS in the United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
fl. Kaláka and Kör: Green Money,
Mutual Aid, and Transition in Hungary. . . . . . . . . . . . .102
‡. The Longevity of Alternative Economic Practices:
Green Dollars in Aotearoa/New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . .126
Ò. Surviving Financial Meltdown:
Argentina’s Barter Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Conclusion The Ghosts of Marx and Simmel?. . . . . . . 174
Notes 183
Bibliography 187
Index 201
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
8
there are too many people to thank for the production
of this book and the research from which it was constructed for me to
hope to name them all individually. I would like to thank colleagues at
the Universities of Bristol, Sheffi eld, London South Bank, and Liver-
pool who have helped and encouraged me and critiqued my work
over the years; in particular I would like to call attention to the efforts
of Paul Burton, Irene Bruegel, Roger Lee, and Colin Williams.
From the world of local exchange trading schemes (LETS) I would
like to thank Nigel Leach, Michael Linton, Liz Shephard, Angus
Soutar, and Harry Turner (sadly, no longer with us; he will be missed).
They all got me thinking. From Manchester LETS I would like to
thank everyone I met with, including (but not limited to) Malcolm
Allum, Jo Bend, Linda Bloomfi eld, John and Wendy Clifford, Mar-
ian Daltrop, Inland Driftwood, Bernard Ekbury, Spencer Fitzgibbon,
Peter Gay, Gilli Gladman, Siobhan Harpur, Karsten Jungnickel, Bob
Kirby, Steven Knight, Kos, Katrina Long, Margaret Mansoor, Alison
Milner, John Piprani, Mike Scantlebury, Rose Snow, Storm Steel, and
Lyn Woolry, John from Withington Cycles, and Andy, Chris, Fraser,
Kai, and Kryshia from LETSGo.
I would particularly like to thank Éva Izsák for involving me in the
development of Talentum and Kör in Hungary and then for trans-
lating “simple, clear, uncomplicated” Hungarian into English for me.
Who could have known what would come from a chance meeting
in the House of Commons? The British Council and the Association
of Nonprofi t Human Services of Hungary fi nanced my early visits. I
[ ix ]