Building Local Resilience: The Emergence of the UK Transition Currencies Josh Ryan-Collins new economics foundation IJCCR
[email protected] Abstract This paper examines the emergence of a new type of local currency – ‘Transition Currencies’ - in the United Kingdom over the past 4 years. The Transition Currency ‘model’, shared by the initial four schemes, is explained and the theoretical roots of the schemes reviewed. The paper goes on to examine the success and limitations of the currencies and reMlects on potential future developments and how the Transition currencies might upscale and deliver additional social, economic and environmental objectives. Introduction reimagining how settlements and local economies might be able to adapt the shocks One of the most interesting developments in these two phenomenon will inevitably create the UK complementary currency movement without creating major social and economic over the past 4 years has been the emergence dislocation. The notion of resilience is key to of local paper currency schemes in ‘Transition Transition thinking, deMined as: towns’. Following Totnes in 2007, the towns of Lewes, Stroud and Brixton in South London ...the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance have all successfully launched local ‘pounds’, and reorganise while undergoing change, so as the usage of which is restricted to independent to still retain essentially the same function, businesses in their respective areas. Broadly structure, identity and feedbacks (Walker et al, speaking, the goal of the currencies is to help 2004) re-localise production and consumption and To create greater resilience, Transition argues build economic ‘resilience’, a key tenet of the for the re-localisation of many aspects of Transition movement.