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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, currency 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 currencies 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 Ontario 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 local currency 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.

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