Follow the Money

BY MARY-BETH RADDON

Pour rbpondre ri 1 'incertitude financihe et ri la rarete' des Tooke).' The most prominent North devises depuis le milieu des anne'es 80, plus d'un millier de American models of community projets& monnaiecommun~utaireont uu lejourenAmbrique, are HOURS, a paper cur- en Europe, en Australie et en Nouvelle-Ze'lande. Cet article rency, and LETS (Local Employment The inherent examine les rnod2les nord-amhicains qui sont les plus andTradingSystem),anextended risks of financial importants: HOURS, une monnaie depapier, et LETS un re'seau "barter" network that uses crises are de troc qui utilise comme cridits des adollars-verts a. L 'auteure "greendollar" redi its.^ In commu- . . assure que quoique les efforts collect$ pour britir une n& money networks all manner of down loaded communaute' autonome soient une re'ponse ade'quate ri un locally produced goods and services f rOm the board syt2me pricaire d'un financement mondial, ces initiatives are exchanged, from accountingserv- demandent un investissementsocialetuneattention concertbe ices to zipper repair. Community room, dealing afin que le de'se'quilibrequi menace lesfemmes auxprises avec exchange provides a supplementary room and les impacts ne'gattji du financement et les fluctuations de source of credit and employment, as counting room march6 mondial, ne soientpas les seules & en porter l bdieux. well as an avenue for creating per- son4 ties of support beyond the to the kitchen. "Follow the money" is the best advice for understanding immediate circl; of household and the scope and impact of economic globalization. Not- familial relationships. withstanding the expansion of global trade, the financial Although men are prominent in economy now hugely outstrips the material economy. the community currency movement as leaders, founders International trade in goods and services accounts for only and spokespeople, women have greater involvement as two percent of the money transactions taking place daily participants. In the UK, where LETS have most proliferated, on a world scale (Singh). Financial volatility, gross distor- the majority of coordinators are women (Thorne). LETS' tions in perceptions of wealth, and excessive short-term attractiveness to women is a reflection of organization of risk-talung are among the effects ofcapital being unmoored the household economy such that women are more likely from production and allowed to flow to wherever the rate to seek flexible work, varied income sources, support of of return is highest. Intense competition between com- community networks, and opportunities to substitute munities to attract investment drives wages down, en- household production for purchased goods. It also reflects courages resource extraction and, most seriously, intro- the position of the household economy within the world duces awedge between social and financial As Diane economy and the onus on women to absorb financial Elson explains, the inherent risks of financial crises are shocks. That community are a collective move- downloaded from the board room, dealing room and ment involving women and men organizing at intermedi- counting room to the kitchen. In the event of collapse of ate levels between the household and the state is a positive financial markets, a small group of elite managers and sign that feminist goals ofequity, security and community politicians debatewho should be the "lender oflast resort" are not the exclusive responsibility of women. (Elson 4). Overlooked is the fact that women, as "provi- The measurable impact of community currencies to sioners of last resort," are most vulnerable to crises and date, in terms of participation, poverty alleviation, and absorb more of the costs (Elson 4). It falls to women to their contribution to local economies, has been modest.' provide the integrative, caring work in families and com- Yet these alternative projects represent a valuable critique munities when people lose jobs and savings, and social of financial gl~balization.~Their limitations in realizing services are no longer available. larger potentials must be taken as part of that critique. My As a response to financial uncertainty and monetary purpose in this article is to analyze the character and

scarcity, some communities are "following the money" by significance- of community currencies as a local response creating their own. Since the mid-8Os, well over a thou- to financial globalization from the perspective ofwomen's sand community money projects have sprung up in North participation. My arguments draw on participant involve- America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (Powell and ment in LETS for three years and interviews with 22 women Salverda; Williams, Aldridge, Lee, Leyson, Thrift, and in LETS and HOURS in four cities, and Ithaca, NY.

VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3 22 1 The Cosmopolitan Localism of Community renewal with the preservation of particular ways of being Currencies in a place, but it accepts that these ways are always conditioned by global ties of some form. David Morris of Community currencies have been considered as a form of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance expresses the selectiv- organized resistance to international monetary arrange- ity of aims characteristic of cosmopolitan localism: ments, and as a self-protective counter-movement of communities in the face of the hyper-mobility of capital We can have a global village and a globe ofvillages .. . (Rotstein and Duncan; Douthwaite; Helleiner). But it where a good idea moves from one side of the planet would be a mistake to frame local money too narrowly in to the other but raw materials and production sys- a dualism of movement/counter- tems are localized (qtd. in Button 16). movement. To see in community currencies only a movement of lo- Beyond securing improved living standards for the Manv local calism versus globalism- would be under-employed, a central goal of community currencies movements to miss the complex interplay of is to promote a place-based conception ofcommunity. By global and local in the oolitics of fostering direct, face-to-face exchange relations, LETS and W understand the movement. This complexity HOURS create a context in which various social relations- that ecological becomes visible when we think of ofhousehold, gender, race, and class---can be reconfigured, global/local as a relation. Logi- if only on a small scale, according to local norms. This and "lt ra l cally, all conceptual dichotomies opens up the possibility for new meanings to infuse local surviva I req ires are relations in that onesidewould currency activity, so that, for example, the caring work of a creative political not make sense without its oppo- women can be accounted and re-valorized, and exchanges site. But a sim~ledichotomous can be undertaken in the spirit of the gift, even while local response to notion of "global" as the negation commercial norms provide a framework for fairness. the fact of oflocal" .mist . be abandone&hen.. . we consider how globalizing proc- The Cosmopolitanism of a Local Movement nterconnectedness. esses actually bear upon local set- tings, including their differential Community currencies are cosmopolitan in terms of their impacts on women and men. physical mobility of their membership, the scope of the If globalization is understood as the project of connect- movement, and the ideology it puts forward; members re- ing people and places across space and time, the processes locate, travel and communicate well beyond their local by which global networks of production, consumption, money system, movement leaders organize on a global and communication incorporate local settings and groups level, and they base arguments for local money on evalu- of people are far from uniform or consistent. Conse- ations of the global economy. In terms of travel alone, quently, local places may assume a distinct identity, not in three LETS members I interviewed have had direct experi-

spite, but as a result of being- affected in particular ways. by . ences with distant LETS systems. One respondent was global linkages. Local social movements, and the type of previously a LETS member in western Canada. She joined gender relations they advance, are similarly shaped by a her current LETS immediately upon moving to Ontario. context that is simultaneously local, national, and global. Another respondent first learned about LETS on a visit to Conscious ofthis, many local movements understand that family members in Australia. The third returned from a ecological and cultural survival requires a creative political trip to the UK with ideas about how to improve the LETS response to the fact of interconnectedness. Wolfgang newsletter in her hometown, inspired by what she had Sachs describes their response as "cosmopolitan localism" seen of the London LETS. (1 12). International email lists and networked internet sites The broadest political objective of"cosmopo1itan local- typically portray local currencies as a worldwide move- ism" is to enable communities to select which, among the ment for money reform. Tallies of existing many ~ossibleglobal and local relationships, to privilege. organizations by country, and contact lists for LETS and Tobe able to make such choices implies awareness oflinks other local currency groups ~ublishedon the web are with the wider world, as well as a base of local knowledge. designed to demonstrate that local money is a global "Cosmopolitanlocalism," for Philip McMichael, describes phenomenon. In additon, leading organizers meet inter- "social action at the local level that takes into account its mittently at international conferences, such as the world historical, political, and social context in forming its social summits. The cosmopolitanism of LETS and HOURS political perspective and strategy" (295-6). That strategy is reflected also in common design features and shared may take advantage of global communications, it may computer software across different regions and countries. appeal to concepts of citizenship, social rights and entitle- A more profound aspect of cosmopolitanism is aware- ments, and it may invoke international law. It draws ness of global financial interdependence, which translates deeply on local traditions because it identifies cultural into commitment to local action. LETS and HOURS mem-

222 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME bers deem globalized production and money systems to be I think it? really important thatpeople support the unstable and unsustainable, and harmful to communities. I;malQ businessesandthepeoplein their community. . . I Such cosmopolitanism calls forth localism as a response to don 't believe ingoing andspending a lot of money in big analysis of extra-local conditions. One woman explained business that: not really going to better thepeople in my she supports HOURS because it is, "the diametric opposite community. of the multinational, oppressive, corporation-type economy," which she does her "very best" not to support. For some, community currency provides a way to None of my interviewees told me that fear of a global practice voluntary simplicity, while others come to it from financial collapse was their main reason for signing onto circumstances of involuntary poverty. For Dorothy, a LETS or HOURS,but several did report that participation has single mother of four in her early subsequently changed the way they think about money, 50s, LETS provides an added survival including making them more aware of the precarious strategy, aswell as away to overcome The potential of underpinnings of the international monetary system. For feelings of dependence and depriva- local cu rrencies example, a woman in her 40s says she has gained some tion generated- by. a punitive- welfare insights since joining~~~sthat have made herwant to "get system. LETS extends her ability to to revitalize up on the soap box and get everyone's attention": "pay cash as little as possible" and "never sho~retail." She relates these local economies, Mutualfinch is my next big target, because this concept survival skills to a family tradition increase the of everybody investing is ludicrous. Became ifeverybody and local culture of frugality and capacity for local invests, everybody can't aljo collect. The economy will self-provisioningthat is not demean- shut down.. . . I want to diagram that. I really want to ing. Dorothy is a skilled potter, but autonomy and see and find out where [money] is comingfiom and unable to support herself and her reiuvenate going! children with her earnings. LETS provides asteady market for her place-based This member's critique of investment reveals her ques- work, and gives her'opportunity to CO~l77 U tl if ies a re tioning ofwhat actually happens to investment money, as purchase with barter credits things key motives. well as concern that an interdependent, centralized money she could not otherwise afford. Ar- economy could fail, with disastrous consequences. tistic achievement and self-reliance More often, members explain that support for commu- are major points of pride. "I love to try and beat the nity economic interests spurred their involvement. They sysrem," sheexplains. "And LETS isalovelyway to do that." see efforts to attract international investment as a misdi- Community currencies are a form ofcosmopolitanism, rected strategy for regional development. Transnational then, to the extent that they are aimed at "[beating] the business with little stake in local communities uproots system." They advance away oforganizing a decentralized when lower production costs can be achieved elsewhere. money system to address, on the local level, problemswith Meanwhile, the compromises involved in creating local the national and transnational organization of money. conditions favourable to transnational business in the first place-expensive infrastructure, reduced environmental The Localism of a Cosmopolitan Movement and labour standards, and the region's dependence on its large employers-make the pursuit of alternative strate- The localism of community currencies may be more self- gies all the more difficult. Medium term gains in the form evident than their cosmopolitanism. The potential of ofwages are mitigated by the outflow of money through local currencies to revitalize local economies, increase the corporate retailers, as money too quickly drains from the capacity for local autonomy and rejuvenate place-based community towards financial centres in search of higher communities are key motives, as I have explained. Local profits. What is needed, they say, is a money system that money should harness under-used capacities (skills, knowl- keepsvalue in the communityand, at thesame time, keeps edge, creativity, physical infrastructure), boost employ- community in tact. Three women expressed it this way: ment and income by continuous re-circulation, foster more direct ties between producers and consumers, im- [My reasons far joining are] just keeping money in the prove wages for primary producers and artists, and reduce community andgetting to knowpeople here. Because it? wasteful advertising and transportation. A narrowly dzfferentfiom justgoing into a store and buyingsome- economistic analysis, however, would misrepresent the thingandIfiguredthat way I'dget to knowpeople. Just holism of a movement that insists that the quality-. of to seea dzfferent way oftradingwithpeople, mingmonq, material life and the quality of life in community are but not using Canadian . always mutually dependent and mutually reinforcing. At the mall [I'm buyingj+om]some faceless corpora- In addition to improving material well-being and eco- tion who I'm not as interestedin supporting. Iwouldlike nomic security, by its very organization, local currency is to supportpeople in my community. thought to enrich local communities in non-economic

VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3 223 ways: by its symbolism of the local, its promotion of local Purchasing card [jom a LETS member] was very nice ties among diverse members, and the cultural regenera- becduse .. .youget to know thatperson through the work tion that comes about through a symbiotic circulation of that thqdo . . .It? more formal in a store . . . You- just fo- gifts and stories along with money exchange. Interest- to buy a card and thepersonjust takes your rnonty, and ingly, these functions flow from how the local money is that; it . . . You don't hear the personal stories of the designed to meet the institutional requirements of money people who are making the cards. in general. All monies depend on a network of users who accept its validity within a territory, a set of shared When Michelle passes along the greeting cards as gifts, expectations, shared meanings, and a fabric of relation- she tells her story ofgetting the card from an artist in LETS, ships (Dodd). and the artists' story ofwhere he got the picture, and so on First, the social organization oflocal money is tied to the for the card's recipient. In this way the social fabric O~LETS symbolic construction of the place in which it circulates, and HOURS communities becomes a tapestry of stories and of the "local." Agreement to accept local money about the relationship ofeach to others. This overlaying of knowing that it can only be re-spent within that territory economic, personal, and social dimensions of relationship can be an act of celebration of place. As Susan Witt of the is the ground of community and local culture. E.F. Schumacher Society describes it, spending home- It should now be clear why the goals of economic town money is like voting for one's neighbours (Swann revitalization and community building are so intertwined and Witt). As carrier of communal symbols, the currency in the localism of community currency organizing, and itself symbolizes place-based identity, just as national why women are the predominant organizers. The.work currencies symbolize nationhood. The identifications a involved in creating awareness among members of the currency draws upon and promotes are not necessarily network about what each has to offer, and fostering new limited to place, however. A sub-group of the norms concerning value in exchange, has the twin effects

LETS,the East End Women's Barter Network, was organ-- of creating conditions for the money to flourish and ized on the basis of neighbourhood and gender. Currency creating avibrant community. Exchanges in local money organization could centre around racelethnicity, age, or can create ties between people in many sectors of the local any combination of social identities. The widespread economy: people offering casual services, home-based and acceptance of a community currency depends on active store-front businesses, non-profit service organizations, loyalty to a community; at the same time, the currency voluntary associations and local government. The success becomes a channel for expressions of loyalty. of the local currency depends on and fosters a strengthen- Second, for a community currency, as for all money ing of these local connections. Women's traditional skills forms, perceptions, attitudes, and expectations about the and responsibilities for weaving relationships are critical money are crucial to how it actually performs. The net- to the whole enterprise. work of users is bound by a generalized trust that the The limitations of community currencies are, there- money will hold its value-members must believe that fore, reflective of the pressures on women's capacity to after accepting it as payment they will be able to spend it organize-to provide a "third shift" of community la- for goods or services that they want in the future. The bour, in addition to the increasing demands of domestic fiduciary strength ofthe currency depends on its effective- and marketed labour. Although community currency ness as information. The social relations of money have exchanges themselves are avenues for re-valuing "wom- such informational content that money may be thought of en's" work, the relational and informational work of as a system of information about who is willing to offer community currency participation, not to mention or- what products for exchange, under what conditions, and ganizing, is often unseen and unvalued. As a result, for what value equivalence. Money's success as informa- conventional divisions of labour whereby men earn and tion depends on people communicatingenough to achieve women both earn and shop become patterns of participa- some degree of common knowledge and shared tion, especially among heterosexual couples. Consider understandings. It depends on people knowing who else this woman's description of how she uses the LETS direc- is a member of the monetary network,and having enough tory to spend the credits she and her husband jointly earn agreement- about the value of the currency to be able to through their market garden: negotiate deals that seem fair to both parties. Finally, all exchange is embedded in social relationships When the [newsletter] comes in some time between the in which the material aspect is but just one dimension. day it comes in and about 3 to 4 days afterwards. I The multi-dimensionality of local currency relations is usuallygo over it with a highlighter, highlight everything evident in the personal character of exchange and, even that interests me, mark down notes. I'vp now, since I more tellingly, in the way transfers of local money are receive it on email, Ijustprint it up so lget a hard copy, accompanied by the circulation of gifts and stories. Take put it in a duo-tang, highlight the things that I want, Michelle's purchase ofgreeting cards from a photographer and because itiprintedoffemail there? enough space to in LETS,for example: write comments beside it. So for all those that Icall and

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME I want information I always indicate: "Called. Date. In Argentina." Journal of Community Currency Re- Lefi message. Spoke to them. Made arrangements. Bhh, search. 2000. Online. www.geog.le.ac.uk/ijccr/ Re- bhh, blab, "andyou know, do it that way. There have trieved: February 2002. been a lot ofproducts on the system that have interested Dodd, Nigel. The Sociology of Monq: Economics, Reason me and, you know, you callandyou leave a message and and Contemporary Society. Cambridge: Polity Press, you never hear backpom them. Sometimes it takes three 1994. or four calls, but you just do what you can. So, [sigh] Douthwaite, Richard. Short Circuit: Strengthening Local generally that j how it > done. Economies for Security in an Unstable World. Dublin, Ireland: Lilliput Press, 1996. The labour-intensiveness of community currency in- Elson, Diane. "International Financial Architecture: A volvement for women is hidden in the satisfactions of View From The Kitchen." Paper presented at Interna- relationship and the belief that such work comes "natu- tional Studies Association Conference. Chicago, Feb- rally" to women. So, although collective effort towards ruary, 200 1. building self-reliant local communities is a necessary Helleiner, Eric. "ThinkGlobally, Transact Locally: Green answer to a precarious system of global finance, these Political Economy And The Local Currency Move- initiatives require social investment and concerted atten- ment." GlobalSociety. 14 (1) (2000): 35-51. tion to gender imbalance so that women, who bear the Lopezllera-Mendez, Luis DeMeulenaere and Stephen brunt of the negative impacts of financialization and DeMeulenaere "Towards An Economy In The Hands world market fluctuations, and do not also carry the major Of The People: The Tianguis Tlaloc Local Currency burden of response. System In Mexico." Journal of Community Currency Research. 2001. Online. www.geog.le.ac.uk/ijccr/. Re- 'There are also a growing number of "third world" exam- trieved: February 2002. ples. See Lopezllera-Mendez, DeMeulenaere, and De- McMichael, Philip. Development and Social Change: A b4eulenaei-e; DeMeulenaere. Global Perspective. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press, 'Other significant models include the Berkshares, the 1996. Toronto Dollar, JAK (Swedish model), WIR (Swiss model), Powell, Jeff and Menno Salverda. "A Snapshot of Com- SEL (French LETS)and the Mexican Tlalok. munity Currency Systems in Europe and North 3Asurvey ofStroud LETS in England (membership of326), America." cuso: Bangkok, Thailand, 1998. for example, showed that LETS income amounted to 1.8 Rotstein, Abraham and Colin Duncan. "For a second percent of total household income on average, and 4.6 to economy." The New Era of Global Competition: State 7.2 percent for the low-income members, 70 per cent of Policy and Market Power. Eds. Daniel Drache and whom say that LETS has improved their material standard Meric S. Gertler. Montreal and Kingston, McGill- of living, among other benefits (Williams et al). Queens University Press, 1991. 4Their symbolic significance is evident to members of the Sachs, Wolfgang. "One World." The Development Dic- media, who have given extensive coverage to local cur- tionary. Ed. Wolfgang Sachs. London: Zed, 1995: 102- rency groups. The Ithaca HOURS web archive, for example, 115. lists over five hundred newspaper, magazine and televi- Singh, Kavaljit. The Globalization ofFinance: A Citizen > sion stories about Ithaca HOURS. See http:// Guide. London, Zed Books, 1999. www.lightlink.com/hours/ithacahours/ Swann, Robert and Susan Witt. Local Currencies: Catalysts 5A survey of the largest LETS in Australia, Blue Mountain for Sustainable Regional Economies. Great Barrington, LETS,confirms that LETS experience helps demystify money. Massachusetts: E. F. Schumacher Society, 1995. Of the 73 per cent of members who said LETS had changed Thorne, L. "Local Exchange Trading Systems In The their life, "change in attitude to money" was the second United Kingdom: A Case Of Re-Embedding?" Envi- most common transformative experience they reported ronment and Planning. A(28) 1996: 1361 - 1376. (Chadwick). (Meeting new people was the most common Williams, Colin, Theresa Aldridge, Roger Lee, Andrew life change.) Leyshon, Nigel Thrift and Jane Tooke. "The Potential Of The Social Economy In Tackling Social Exclusion: References Some Lessons From Local Exchange And Trading Schemes (LETS)."Journal of Community Currenqy Re- Button, Dean. "New Rules For Localism: An Interview search. 1999. Online. www.geog.le.ac.uWijccr Retrieved: With David Morris." Orion AJield. 2 (1998): 15-16. February 2002. Chadwick, Martin "Blue Mountain LETS" 1995. Online. http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/list/econ-lets Retrieved: February 2002. DeMeulenaere, Stephen. "Reinventing The Market: Al- ternative Currencies And Community Development

VOLUME 21, NUMBER 3