Chapter 4 Alternative currency networks as utopian practice

Abstract

Money is not often conceptualised as an object of protest or a tool for constructing alternative communities, economies and societies. Yet from the original utopian socialists Owen and Proudhon to contemporary alternative currency networks people have attempted to construct networks using new forms of subaltern money as a tool for building a more liberated economy and society. This chapter reviews the successes and failures of utopian money networks, arguing that although empirical success is ephemeral, the need to localise economies as a response to dangerous climate change might mean that their long-term future is brighter.

Citation

North, P. (2010), "Chapter 4 Alternative currency networks as utopian practice", Leonard, L. and Barry, J. (Ed.) Global Ecological Politics (Advances in Ecopolitics, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2041-806X(2010)0000005008