Probation Report

'Devices of valuation, measurement, calculation and

distribution of economic value: The case of Bristol and

Bath Pound.'

András Novoszáth

Sociology Department

Faculty of Social Sciences

Supervisors: Evelyn Ruppert and John Law

June 2011

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Currency. Definitions, problems.................................................................................3

1.1. The complementary currency movement..................................................................................4

1.2. The Bristol and Bath Pound......................................................................................................5

2. Literature..........................................................................................................................................6

2.1. Theories of non-theories...........................................................................................................6

2.2. Consequences for methodology................................................................................................9

2.3. Conceptualizing society and economy...................................................................................10

2.3.1. The new 'new' sociology of economics...........................................................................10

2.3.2. Modes of valuation..........................................................................................................12

2.3.3. Money and Currency.......................................................................................................13

2.3.4. The problem of core economy........................................................................................14

2.3.5. Big versus small currencies.............................................................................................16

3. What am I going to do?..................................................................................................................18

3.1. The implementers – Bristol and Bath Local Currency CIC....................................................19

3.2. The main phases of the Bristol Pound project........................................................................19

3.2.1. Phase 1: planning, preparation, background...................................................................20

3.2.2. Phase 2: implementation.................................................................................................22

3.2.3. Phase 3: 'back-to-normal'................................................................................................24

3.2.4. Phase 4: experimentation................................................................................................25

3.3. Writing up...............................................................................................................................26

4. Bibliography...................................................................................................................................27

2

1 Introduction: Currency. Definitions, problems.

This is a proposal for conducting an ethnographic research on the implementation process of Bristol

and Bath Currency. This 'socio-technical device' or agencement is going to be implemented with the

intention of creating a different, and possibly better, economy in the particular region. Here the term

'complementary currency' is, of course, not an accidental choice meaning some weak synonym for

the more broadly recognized 'alternative money' or 'alternative currency' but rather an explicit

emphasis on the refusal of making either-or decisions between the different kind of alternatives.

The focus on the topic does not come from 'mere' scientific interest. During the couple of few past

years or even decades concerns with the prevailing financial and monetary system strengthened but,

on the other hand, ideas about a radical break or renewal also became considered as 'impractical'.

Questions however became important about the technicalities of these currencies and about the

different agencies which can gain benefit from the use of them.

Accordingly, in this proposal I will argue for an approach where the economy in question is not

fixed but emerges from the interconnected co-work of practices, devices, and materially

heterogeneous entities. Drawing on the notion of 'economization' coined by Caliskan and Callon I

will examine this process along three main dimensions. The (1) performative effect of theories,

concepts and technologies mobilized in the procedure; (2) the practices and pragmatics of valuation;

and (3) the distributed feature of the agencies, responsibilities and knowledge practices involved.

Further, I will broaden the framework toward the scrutiny of those phenomena which are rendered

as 'non-economic', or 'social'.

3

My main research questions accordingly will be the following:

• What kind of economy is enacted by the practitioners? Which are the promoted and which

are the excluded or avoided peers and modes of relatedness performed by them and by the

technoscientific practices and devices they employ?

• How can this process of economization be related to the framework provided by Callon and

Caliskan regarding the emergence of markets? What can we learn from their occasional

differences, and would these differences require a new framework adjusted to cases like

this?

• What can we tell about the other, so-called 'social', side of the story? How the process of

economization co-enacts the 'non-economic' – but still related – entities?

1.1 The complementary currency movement

The main reasons to implement a complementary currency are usually economic. Advocates argue

that by gaining some kind of independence from the mainstream monetary system the particular

region/network of users can become economically more resilient, can have a beneficial effect for

the local businesses and will generate more 'social capital'. In addition there are several,

'noneconomic', or not directly economic reasons which include, for instance, promoting the

particular area, creating a local identity, generating discussion about economic issues (Ryan-Collins

2011). Accordingly several projects have emerged outside and, more recently, inside of the UK

which together – however loosely connected they are to each other – form a visible and relevant

movement.

The members of this movement – to which I will refer mainly as 'Complementary Currency

Movement' or 'CC movement' are involved in different kind of activities which in general seek the

4

application of these new modes of exchange. There are several different continuing experiments

around the world in which people try to utilize complementary currencies. Among these there are a

couple of quite large, almost legendary projects, but also many newer attempts which nevertheless

most of the time remain as conceptualisations or prototypes used by the core creators and their near

acquaintances.

1.2 The Bristol and Bath Pound1

The main topic and empirical 'site' of the research, The Bristol Pound (BP) is a complementary

currency (CC), a device which is at the moment under implementation

(http://www.bristolpound.org/). Compared to the other projects in the UK – regarding to its website

– there are three characteristics which distinguish it from other similar attempts. First, next to the

unique and locally specific bank notes the implementers would make it electronic transactions

available via SMS messages or through a website – both having particular security and privacy

functions built in them (e.g. request for confirmation messages, codes and secure information

transfer protocols). The electronic accounts will be provided by the Bristol Credit Union

(http://www.bristolcreditunion.org/) – a low risk investment organisation – which will also be the

main issuer of the currency (The BP is backed pound to pound by sterling deposits). The credit

union's involvement (by providing the account and backing the scheme with pound sterling, and

accepting the local currency as a payment and offering services in it) is the second 'novelty' in the

scheme. The third feature, obviously, is the particular locality of the currency, the Bristol and Bath

region, with around its 1 million inhabitants.

The scheme would be available to everyone for free but in order to have an electronic account one

has to get a membership in advance. This can be done without cost but the minimum amount paid

1 For a list of the most relevant organisations examples and academic publication in relation with complementary

currencies see the Appendix 15

into the account has to be 10 pounds minimum and a 10 pound deposit also has to be separated for

safety purposes. Otherwise the only cost arises when someone wants to redeem the BP for pound

sterling. This takes the form of a 3% fee redemption fee. The latter however – argue the developers

– will also act as an incentive to spend the money, and, therefore, as an accelerator of the circulation

of local money (resulting in a greater multiplier effect and in overall in local growth).

2 Literature

2.1 Theories of non-theories

Primarily I will draw on a variety of different literatures and approaches including post-

structuralism, postcolonial and (post)feminist science and technology studies (STS), actor-network-

theory (ANT), material-semiotics and agential realism (Barad 2007; Haraway 1991; Latour 1993;

Law 1994; Law & Hassard 1999). Though these differ from each other in the following paragraphs

I will give a short account of their common features and intersections.

First, they tend to be symmetrical when they explore the different actors that play significant roles

in a practice. Famously – and most importantly – despite being concerned usually with topics

traditionally regarded as 'social' they also treat non/human and (im)material agents in the same way,

arguing that anything can play an important role in the interaction (Michel Callon 1986; Latour

1987).

Strongly connected to this a further key feature: in practice anything can be relevant. If possible,

nothing should be assumed a priori about the agents and about their relations. Here there are

differences. Some of of these literatures stress that in the process of describing a situation, we

should try to use the terminology which we find at the field, or at least use it as a point of departure,

as a 'source language' in the process of translation to a different (e.g. academic) public (Latour

6

2005). Others, however, leave more space for theorizing and look at theories as part of a wider

'observing apparatus' with a greater focus on their generative role (Haraway 1997; Law 2004).

These approaches do not simply invite material agents into the picture. They also consider

knowledge practices to be intrinsically material, or simply, embodied processes. Neither

information nor knowledge are mere immaterial concepts, images or representations floating

independently from their 'bearer' and from the 'thing' they represent. Instead they are deeply

intertwined with them. Here unfortunately I do not have space to elaborate on this in detail. What is

important nevertheless is when we talk about some kind of knowledge practice such as describing,

representing or explaining, we understand these to be constrained and generated/made possible by

different materials (or rather material effects). A further consequence is that we won't consider these

observer-observed relations either as simple dichotomies between referent/referrer

(knowing/knower, signified/signifier) but as results of processes of differentiation (Law 1994).

The next shared fundamental of these theories is that they highlight the relational character of

things and practices. Grounded mainly in post-structuralist social thought (but also in practices and

theories of anthropology, ethnomethodology, Heideggerian philosophy, quantum physics, gender

studies, and many more) they argue that entities has always have their own specificities which –

expressing it in a very basic level – can 'counter-act' or at least can act as an obstacle against the

'powerful motions of society and nature'. Each agent is therefore a result of this kind of tension

between connected and related 'others' which define and construct it but which are also constrained

by its 'agency' (Law 1994; Latour 2005).

This brings us to our next point according to which this co-construction or rather relational co-

enactment is taken into account as a continuously re- and reiterated process rather than a finished

and closed off result. Accordingly, instead of closed-off, 'everlasting' properties, these approaches

focus on material-semiotic and heterogeneous processes and practices in-the-making. 'Reality is

7

performed' as some of the theories express it.2 Material/conceptual things are taken to be contingent

and emergent. By emergence here I mean that a thing is – or, at least is perceivable as – a result of

repetitive continuous ongoing reinforcements of different kinds. Accordingly solidification and

singularization are an exceptional and temporal sedimentation of practices. Combining this with

what I have already said about how knowing and its object are intertwined we arrive at those

examples about which the notion of performativity is maybe most famous: Utterances, explanations,

'neutral' and 'distant' descriptions and even mere observations which play a significant role in the

co-enactement of their object. As a result there are no independent observers that can give a 'realist'

account, or a 'mere' description on the observed 'object' (compared to a 'biased' one). These

practices do not just co-evolve with their object but also constrain and constitute their conditions of

possibility.

It’s important to keep in mind that this does not imply some kind of radical subjectivism or the

incomparability of different observations with one another. Instead, these material-semiotic

practices may not only have – through movements of exclusion and othering – a procreative role,

that is, a real effect toward the whole observation itself within which they are considered to be 'real'

and objective, but also can be seen as being interrelated with each other by practical means

(contrary, for instance, to 'epistemological rules') (Barad 2003; Barad 2007; Mol 2002).

From all of these what is important for my study is that I should avoid to use predefined categories.

At the same time there is a wide range of metaphors as it develops these arguments which, at the

beginning of the research, I 'cannot not' to mobilize for reasons of practicality and communication.

These concepts however also promote a desire to keep the investigation open toward the

2 However the notion of performativity is not fixed, but, on the contrary, is quite debated. For an example in the role

of economic theories and economists see (Butler 2010; Michel Callon 2010; Mcfall 2009; du Gay 2010; MacKenzie

et al. 2008)8

specificities of the object and toward 'being surprised' by novel features.3 Using them we look at the

entities and their relations as particularly structured and structuring collections of inter-, intra- and

transconnected – but even though in many terms singularised and separated – things, meaning

people, technologies, ideas, places and times and so on and so forth.

2.2 Consequences for methodology

Expressing in practical terms the results of the preceding proposed theoretical directions we could

say that what we are trying to do is a form of ethnography that does not necessarily stop at the

border between the academy and the field (both in a rather 'material' and in a 'conceptual' meaning),

but rather tries to 'go after' the relevant issues and take into account the 'there and then' occurring

groupings and structurations (Marcus 1995; Hine 2007).

Doing ethnography we move between different sites, and first try to describe the main relevant

frictions and translations between them. In this process both the knowledge practices and our

academic inquiry should be considered as a situated practice, that is, as a locally true account

located in a specific material-semiotic position gaining its objectivity from that very particular

situation (Tsing 2005; Haraway 1991).

This means that we do not just describe these sites and their relations but sometimes also connect

them together, and necessarily – sometimes more consciously than in other times – play an active

role in the 'story' we intend to describe. This issue however should not be left without reflections on

science studies and its emphasis on processes of intervention, engagement and action-research

(Zuiderent-Jerak 2007).

3 For the elaboration of some of the used metaphors see (Foucault 1980; Çalişkan & M. Callon 2010; Deleuze 1992;

Deleuze & Guattari 2004; Law 2004; Latour 2005; Reckwitz 2002)9

2.3 Conceptualizing society and economy

Of course, much can already be said about the topics and problems before we start our research. In

what follows, in the second part of my literature review, the concepts do not necessarily share the

same presumptions about the world as those presented above. Now, therefore, I look at literatures

on economies and currencies the touching topics of framing and overflowing; orders of valuation;

money; core economy; and the problem of big currencies.

2.3.1 The new 'new' sociology of economics

First I turn toward those works on markets and economy which put in use some of the above

mentioned methodological insights.

Markets – but other kind of economies also – are held together by different kinds of so-called

market devices which act as focal points processing different functions like measurement, valuation,

calculation, distribution and so on. These devices are, of course, material-semiotic entanglements

connecting and involving very different types of entities and practices. As they do this they gain

their own, and quite important agency (Michel Callon 1999).

Furthermore, the different types and modes of working of the economy do not pre-exist particular

economic activities and relations but often result from the background work of these devices.4

Accordingly debates about which model of the economy works 'for real' should be concentrated on

those – mainly empirical – questions which focus on how economies work in practice and what

make them to do so, and there are many case studies which do just this (Michel Callon 1997;

Michel Callon 1999; Michel Callon et al. 2007; MacKenzie et al. 2008).

4 Maybe the most famous example is the achievement of the 'perfect' strawberry market in France by the generative

interplay of academic neoclassical economics education, strawberry farmers, a market designer were 'sent down'

from Paris, partition walls, boxes, displays and so on.10

In this literature economic activities are seen as the product of two main moves: framing and

overflowing. In a particular exchange the different given goods and resources are first of all 'framed'

by the relevant device, that is, are ordered by different framing practices. In this way initially quite

heterogeneous things are rendered into items relevant to and conceivable as a part of economic

activity. Different goods, services and activities are made accountable in relation to others. At the

same time however, since items and their relations are 'infinitely' complex and heterogeneous, some

characteristics and features are necessarily excluded from the picture. In these 'overflows' the

excluded things (resembling in some degree to 'externalities' in more traditional economic theory)

can have nevertheless real effects with serious consequences. Taking these into the picture, and,

thereby revealing the responsibility for them – is one of the core problems economic activity

(Michel Callon 1998).

As a result, instead of 'ready-made' economies, here the focus point is on processes of

'economization'. According to Callon and Caliskan the term would denote those “processes that

constitute the behaviours, organisations, institutions, and more generally the objects in a particular

society which are tentatively and often controversially qualified, by scholars and/or lay people, as

'economic'.”(Çalişkan & M. Callon 2009: 370). The authors also propose a more detailed

framework for the task of examining the more particular process of the emergence of markets,

'marketization'. Regarding to it the main focal points should be taken into account are (1) the

pacified goods; (2) the marketizing agencies; (3) market encounters; (4) price settings; and (5)

market design and maintenance (Çalişkan & M. Callon 2010).

Having accepted these insights the main moral of this approach is that economic problems could be

and should be solved, or at least approached, at the level of 'economic design', that is in inventing,

testing, and constructing the frames in which economic activity takes place – and will do so

appropriately. In this process many different actors can have an important role among which the

11

most accessible group of actors for academics are other academics who 'officially' deal with

economic topics. Accordingly some of the later research from this approach has been made on the

possible role, or, using the already introduced term, on the performative effect of economic theories

and of the discipline of economics itself (Michel Callon & Muniesa 2006; Guala 2007; Mirowski &

Nik-Khah 2006; Michel Callon 2007).

2.3.2 Modes of valuation

As I have already mentioned, conceptualizations and questions of economic value also inform this

research. As it is widely known, the activity of coping with questions of value in a systematic

manner usually falls under the academic discipline of political economy and under the label of

'value theory' (e.g. Fine 2003).5 This approach however, at least for now, cannot really find a

common voice with the a framework I described so far (Fine 2005).6

Lacking a working conceptualization and because of my approach, in the research, instead of value

as such, I will look at practices of valuation. In order to do this, however, I will draw upon the work

of Boltanski, Chiapello and Thevenot. They argue that in society one can examine occasions and

situations of justification, where people (or groups, organizations etc) are valuated based on

different dimensions. These modes (called 'cité's) are not necessarily exclusive but also are not

absolutely fluid. Furthermore there are periods when particular modes of justification emerge while

others stop to be active or just loose from their relevancy resulting in a dominant 'spirit of

capitalism' (Boltanski & Chiapello 2007; Boltanski & Thevenot 1999).

Similarly, but emphasizing value instead of justice, I will follow the argument not by seeking the

5 For attempts to synchronize Marxist value and economic theory with Local Exchange Trading Systems (a particular

version of complementary currency systems) see (Nishibe 2006; North 2010).

6 For a consideration of the question of value from an Actor-Network Theory point of view in addition to Callon's see

(Lee & Stenner 1999). For a relatively later, even though quite short, attempt, encounter value, see (Haraway 2008).12

real source of value but by trying to look at the main practices of valuation and how they work in

action. At the same time applying the before mentioned general framework on this set of concepts

we have to make a few adjustments. First, I look at valuation (and the distribution of 'value') not as

a necessarily discursive formation but rather as something which most of the time simply just

'happens' without any comment. What the authors take as events of justification are very special

occasions: they emerge at times of breakdown when the usual practices does not seem to work. We

join to this approach but furthermore would add that even at the times of breakdowns several other

things have to be 'in place' for a whole discourse of justification to emerge (for instance a

sociologist with a list of interview-questions) and most probably this is not the case all the time.

Consequently we are looking rather at the practices of valuation, measurement, calculation and

distribution with or without any discursive comment. These cités nevertheless will have a role in the

research and in the dissemination period too. The question of value is not 'just' a problem of

description but also of responsible engaged practices involving humans. Accordingly, by our

enquiry, we will also try to 'co-enact' the relevant modes of justification on the field but without the

intention of using them as some kind of 'last sphere of communication'.7

2.3.3 Money and Currency

In 'traditional' monetary theory money is considered as some kind of mean satisfying different kind

of so-called money functions. However the list of these core variables varies from author to author,

the three most important functions are medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. (and

another two often added features are means of payment and standard of deferred payment) (Dodd

1995).

Shifting our attention toward the question of money however has quite similar consequences like

7 For an attempt toward a research design focusing on the 'modalities of valuation' (versus 'regimes of value') see

(Çalişkan & M. Callon 2009).13

we had experienced it in the case of market and value. The approach toward the role of money in

the more mainstream versions of economics but also in a critical political economics was a general

denial or sometimes the mere consideration of the sum of the money as a liquid space in which

economic activities took place without any kind of effort. Applying a practice-based and materially

aware framework on this topic however mean that here we cannot look at money as a mere system

of symbols coined into some particular kind of matter but instead as an overarching reign of

heterogeneous things and practices. In a specific situation money does not seem to have a neutral,

transparent, invisible mediatory role and furthermore it also changes its way of functioning from

case to case. Next to money there are several other agencies and actors (e.g. legal systems, rituals,

technological infrastructures, people etc) which together are enacted in these processes of exchange.

Regarding to this instead of the concept of money we will use the term 'currency' which notion

intends to involve those – sometimes not even known – features, entities and activities which are

not always considered when we are talking about money (Michel Callon 1997; Zelizer 1997;

Zelizer 1998).

2.3.4 The problem of core economy

In the realm of complementary currencies – in accordance with everyday trends – academic

research and the actual practice of implementation is not always that separated from each other as a

more 'traditional' academic approach would presume. Several members of the movement are based

in a research group or even hold a position at an university. Accordingly they also reflect on the

questions of money in a more scientific manner.

In “The New Wealth of Time” discussion paper where the members of the New Economic

Foundation (nef) – one of the most important 'think-and-do-tank' involved in the complementary

currency movement – present case studies and arguments for the use of time-banking, the authors

14

shortly introduce their idea of core-economy which is not only a subset of the market, but moreover

constitute its base of functioning as well (nef 2008).8 They state that the market economy – just like

in the case of environmental issues caused by or related to its operations – do not tend to take into

account the existence of those activities and contributions which happen in this core economy for

those – in most of the cases – take place in a nonmonetarized environment in the form of unpaid

labour. Furthermore while the market assigns value through price only to goods and services which

are scarce relative to demand or which take time to develop, in the case of the production of public

and core goods the possible resources are abundant and their valuation do not come about in terms

of their relative scarcity. Not just markets but also public services organized in a 'top-down' model

meet of this problem too since they define people by their deficits and needs, and, by doing so, they

create a corrosive and self-fulfilling culture of dependency motivating the costumers of 'coming

back with bigger and bigger problems' in order to get recognized by the service providers (nef 2008:

10.).

By shifting the main site of production from a market toward a core-economy the authors hope that

the members of a particular economy will obtain more power and control over the process of

definition and the improvement of their needs and over the ability to meet them. Furthermore they

emphasize not only the ability to meet but also to prevent avoidable needs arising and be paid for,

and, by doing so, to maintain themselves self-sustainable. Finally, as a third aim, they would like to

grow the core economy both in regards to public services and to co-production supporting systems

either. As a result they would like to achieve a “system where everyone could make a contribution

and where everyone's contribution was valued equally”(nef 2008: 1.). A core-economy based on co-

production (and probably on valuating systems like time-banking or with the use of a

8 For more on the New Economics Foundation, on its ideas about currencies and monetary systems and on it 'Local

Multiplier 3' – a research design developed to measure the local effects of a currency – see respectively (nef 2000;

nef 2002; nef 2003).15

complementary currency) would enable to reach and motivate those who – for some particular

reason – could or did not contribute to the common services in the economy dominated by the

market and the top-down public services and would enable to enlist the most vulnerable members of

active citizens too.

2.3.5 Big versus small currencies

The problem of 'big currencies' is expressed by the term 'optimum currency zone' a concept

introduced by Robert Mundell in the early 60's and which basically claims that every particular

currency has its optimum zone or region of use, meaning that the application of it in a bigger level

would cause drawbacks for a national economy in terms of structural and regional unemployment,

loss of the government's ability of controlling and balancing economic disadvantages, and “a

ruinously over-efficient market”(nef 2003a: 4.). According to this questions like, for instance,

choosing between the Euro and the Pound is problematic from the very start for they simply try to

replace one, in their terms, 'big' currency with another. Big currencies – because of their nominally

standard change causes different results in different places, industries or simply sites of the

economy – tend to widen the wealth gap between rich and poor and, as a consequence, to generate

pressure on the government to assess great transfers between them (and via its own budget) which

however is considered to be problematic for many several reasons (e.g. inefficiency, corruption,

temporal and financial costs etc). Especially this is the case because another effect of big currencies

(and in particular of international, above-the-government types, like the Euro, but national ones as

well in many terms) is that it weakens (or absolutely eliminates) the possibility of the government to

control the monetary dimensions of the economy. Beside the households and the government, big

currencies cause many disadvantageous effects for small businesses either, for they have to compete

with transnational retailers which, first of all, are not that sensitive to the changes of the currency

16

and, as a second, the profit these later produce in a particular economy will escape that particular

region, as opposed to the small businesses who produce and consume at the very same place.

Answering these above problems of big currencies what the nef researchers suggest instead is a

model based on 'multi-currencies' and in the general possibility of currency choice. Using the above

introduced term, these parallel existing money systems would work in a (more near to the) optimum

currency zone and therefore would be able to back small, local economies also not just by making

them independent from the globally driven changes of currency rates but also by making themselves

to be taken into account at least in a regional level.

Complementary currencies do not differ from 'mainstream' currencies (and from each other) only in

terms of being locally specific, but also based on other very heterogeneous phenomena. The nef

paper for instance distinguishes at least five plus one main types, namely, local- and regional

currencies, barter systems, loyalty schemes, social and volunteer currencies and, the plus one, the

Euro itself. However each of them has its very own special locality and spatiality nevertheless ways

of implementation, the range of possible users, and the whole legal/technological and conceptual

infrastructure maintaining their work has very particularities which make almost every case really

individual. For instance, inter-business barter currencies have their own well-tested computational

and agreement schemes which works quite independently from the primary financial markets.

Corporate loyalty system, besides being a 'mediator' and mean of payment, serve the function of

'remembering' the given customer's loyalty history, similarly to community time-banks where the

volunteering currency measures the individual's contribution to the particular community. Last but

not least the Euro – besides its alleged monetary functions – is strongly intertwined with a political

agenda and not significantly is one of the main actor in the construction of an European identity.

These different currencies then can work (and do work) in different systems and practices

maintaining or, in some cases, competing with each other, being in play with their own materially

17

heterogeneous and specific ways of functioning (nef 2003).

Even though these above conceptualizations will have crucial importance in my research – since

mostly these, and other similar, theories influence in one way or another the behaviour of the

implementers in decisive situations – I will 'translate' them into a language more compatible with

the framework of the 'new' new sociology of economics and the other infra-languages I work with.

Accordingly I will consider the identified core economy as a result of framing (with its occurrences

of overflowing) and the distinctions between big and small currencies as material-discursive effects,

that is, as the results of differences between spaces, fields or networks of agents in terms of

accessibility, inclusion, visiblity, measurability, scale and so on and so forth.

Obviously, I will also examine the theories themselves by 'comparing' them to my empirical

findings. By doing this I hope to gain productive insights both about the complementary currencies

and about the theories trying to frame and describe them.

3 What am I going to do?

In order to underline my methodlogy first I outline shortly the situation the currency will have

during the next year, and – based on this – I sketch up periodization of the research process. This

will be followed with a more or less detailed elaboration of the different methods and issues I am

going to deal with.

Having in mind the unavoidable contingencies of the resarch process I will try to structure the

methodological steps to be quite robust around a particular core set of issues and approaches

(namely at the so-called 'descriptive' part) having continued by a main thread which then can be

extended and adjusted along several further dimensions but nevertheless also can be left away too if

it's unnecessary. 'Being strategic' in such a way however does not mean that during the research

itself I won't have to make decisions or furthermore that new problems and methods won't come to 18

the fore, but even in these cases – at least regarding to the usual requirements of methodology – I

have to be aware of these changes and probably plan them in advance.9

3.1 The implementers – Bristol and Bath Local Currency CIC

The developers – legally members of the Bristol and Bath Local Currency Community Interest

Company (BBLC CIC) – practice many synchronous task in order to prepare the launch, and later

to maintain and support the currency during the fist year trying to make it more self-sustainable

(especially in financial terms) for the later periods. A very important process they are involved in is

the inclusion of different businesses into the scheme in order to be able to provide at the time of the

launch a sufficient amount of 'points of acceptance' for the everyday users of the currency.10 The

involvement however does not cover only persuasion of other parties but also a co-operative

process of training and preparation for the use of the currency (e.g. finding partners, suppliers with

who can they use the currency together, helping to manage the two types of currencies

simultaneously etc.). Furthermore the members of the BBLC also seek sources of funding (e.g. local

council, grand bodies, charity banks, businesses etc), try to make the BP more ubiquitous (e.g. by

persuading the local council to accept payments of taxes and council rates paid in the

complementary currency, and bigger local organisations in general to pay their employees in the

BP) and make more robust (with the backing of the BP by the Bristol Credit Union), and lobby

legislators (for instance to make a law accepted which would allow credit unions to hold company

accounts and not just personal ones).

3.2 The main phases of the Bristol Pound project

The project will be launched at the beginning of 2012. Accordingly my actual fieldwork (starting in

9 For a proposed timetable of the research see Appendix 2.

10 Regarding to their website at the beginning from Bristol 300 and from Bath 100 businesses will be involved.19

October) will be divided into at least three phases.

During 'Phase 1' I will look mainly at the process of planning and implementations and

simultaneously I will try to gain a detailed insight into the material-discursive apparatuses (e.g

theories, information technologies, the city and region of Bristol, relevant agents and relations)

maintaining the currency. After the launch I will turn my focus on the use of the currency involving

end-users and businesses. In this phase my role will also change: Here I will participate more in a

more active manner (most probably in the form of voluntary work) in the process, or will try to use

the currency in a manner which hopefully can be fruitful for the researchers and to the

practitioners.

Based on experiences of other, earlier projects of complementary currencies and of other such

devices significant difference tend to occur between a relatively short interval right after the launch

and the period after it. While in the former case an overall 'hype-factor' provides a burst to the use

of the currency, later this effect declines and makes earlier non-recognized issues and problems

regarding the work of the payment system more visible. However my core activity in this, third,

phase won't necessarily differ from the earlier ones in terms of method, but I will have to readjust

the focus and rephrase the particular questions I am interested in.

An optional fourth phase will be considered before/in the last months of the research. Assuming, I

will have a solid grasp on the field and have the necessary skills, knowledge and contacts, I will set

up artificial circumstances and environments which would, hopefully, generate interesting and

useful findings about the work of the currency.

3.2.1 Phase 1: planning, preparation, background

At this stage (a period of three months) the practitioners continue to organise and plan the Bristol

Pound and prepare it for launch. Most of the members have different tasks and other affiliations

20

which they will actively mobilize during these months. They meet, communicate and co-operate

with each other and with other, related agents in meetings, mailing lists and other forums. Also they

try to run preliminary tests with the currency. During this interval I will study the process of the

planning and organisations and I will try to answer the following questions:

• What are the main agents in the planning process, how do they interrelate with each other

and with the end results, and how well are they recognized by other agents?

• What kind of theories, methods and measurement devices are mobilized during the planning

process and what are their specificities? How do they explain, describe, measure and how

are they enacted with their object?

• Can these material-discursive apparatuses be looked at as 'modes of justification and

valuation'? If so, then what kind of morality is inscribed in them and how is it performed?

Here my core task will be to observe or participate in conversations and practices. I will visit

meetings and read the discussions. For me not just discursive processes that are interesting but the

whole apparatus of problem-solving (technologies, spaces, temporalities, theories etc) as well. I will

touch particular issues of knowledge, agency and decision making in. I will also obtain possible

insights regarding the significance of the space the researchers occupy during observation and the

possible constitutive role of the act of 'gazing' itself.

The above activity will be complemented by semi-structured interviews with key practitioners.

These conversations (just like most of the other research activities) will not simply work as 'mere'

sources of information for further sites and practices but nevertheless will be conceived as possible

occasions of identity-making (for both parties), of discourse construction, and of the performativity

of the relation itself between researchers and practitioners.

I will occasionally (or, if it's necessarily, more programmatically) follow and observe one, or more

human actors in their problem-solving processes. This will however make it necessary to travel to

21

sites 'outside' of the field, for instance – depending of the followed agents – to funding agencies,

research centres, activist meetings. Between the sites I expect translations, transductions to appear

and to be enacted. Even though the researcher's movements won't be important necessarily enough

to be presented, nevertheless insights would be gained about the role of the translator/transductor

itself (Mackenzie 2002; Helmreich 2007).

Depending on the available time and need, parallel of the above core activities, I will also study the

material-discursive background of the field. This will consist most primarily of the extensive

reading of theories the practitioners elaborate on in their argument, to which they refer in their

discussions and on which presumably they base their decisions. Similarly I examine their writings

they disseminate (reports, academic working papers, books, journey articles, but also leaflets,

pamflets, magazine and newspaper articles etc.). I am especially interested in scientific or semi-

scientific works which claim some kind of authority to describe the world.

Another relevant and interesting site is the software and accounting system the British Pound will

be based on (http://project.cyclos.org/). Though I am still exploring this what seems to be important

are the systems of payments the software and the accountancy system of the credit union perform.

This I would like to examine by assessing some kind of content-analysis of the inscribed code of the

informational technology which hopefully can tell something about the conditions of possibility

enacted by it.

Last but not least the spatial-temporal location of the whole experiment, the Bristol and Bath region

also has its own particularity and will play a very relevant role and should be included accordingly

(e.g. in the form of some kind of spatio-temporal rhythm analysis).

3.2.2 Phase 2: implementation

From the beginning of this, second, phase – starting on the first weeks of 2012 – the British Pound

22

will be launched for the general public. Obviously this will be accompanied by a series of

celebratory introductory events following by a close monitoring and adjusting activity. Nevertheless

from here I can observe the actual use of the currency in practice. In addition to this I will also

continue to study the implementation process. During this stage however more emphasis will be on

the reactions to changes and the ability of crisis-management from the side of the developers. My

central questions here would be the following:

• How people become users of the currency? What are the main decisive factors, points and

entities which influence, constrain or actually make happen the implementation of the

British Pound?

• What role can the implementers play in this and what are the consequences of their previous

decisions?

Another also important aspect of the information technology is the use of the software itself which I

expect to explore through observing the process of buying and selling with the help of the different

kind of currencies. Since I am especially interested in how people actually become users this

would demand an inquiry into the questions of the materiality of the device (most possibly

revolving around the opposition of the use of banknotes versus the use of mobile phones versus the

use of the webpage).

In this stage most of the interviews would be with the end-users, with some of the members of the

participating businesses and with other, related institutions (however with the last two groups I can

also start the interviews in an earlier stage). Again, my primary object of concern will be the

reasons given for the (non-)use of the BP but I am sure that these things are also strongly

interrelated with other issues (e.g. identity, knowledges of the economy, discourses of valuation)

and by touching them in the interviews can tell us more about the whole process.

Important also that in this stage my volunteering work and my relationship with other peers will be

23

dominated most probably by my role on the side of the practitioners. Doing research in a more

participatory/activist way will unavoidably come along with the problem of balancing between the

different roles (or rather of shifting between them in a good rhythm), but also with tensions, mixed

and messy situations with full of possibilities to my research. This, more explicitly 'interventionist'

mode of doing research also will give me an opportunity to look at the rather 'immediate' effects of

the choices and decisions of the participants and of me, the researcher.

I will also be able to study the practice of the currency's use not just by observing it but also by

handling the different forms of the currency in a rather experimentally semi-formalized auto-

ethnographic way. What obviously comes into mind is for instance buying a particular type of good

for a given period by exclusively by British Pound. Situations and discussions into which the use of

the currency will bring me will be worked upon, raising questions of convenience, discourses of

(self-)justificatory and identity-making, in addition to the continuously prevailing performances of

valuation.

3.2.3 Phase 3: 'back-to-normal'

Presumably after a while some kind of 'shift' will be perceivable in the activities and behaviours of

the different peers. There would be a change in the overall situation which nevertheless in many

ways would be considered as a more 'relevant' order of things considering the possibility of

effective functioning of the currency in the future.

Here the main thing I have to keep in mind is to change my 'object' and/or mode of study, and to

change it in a good rhythm. This, of course can be prepared during 'Phase 2', but because of the lack

of definite separation between the two I have to actively look for further topics in advance. It is too

early to tell, but it is likely that I will shift the emphasis toward those practices by which the

implementers try to repair the experienced problems. Here the modes of inquiry won't change

24

necessarily, that is, they will include most of the methods I mentioned at the two former phases.

Instead, I will shift my focus to different situations which in many ways will be unavoidable if I

will try to keep in track with the implementers.

Accordingly, my major questions will change too. What I will be interested in is not how one

becomes a user but rather:

• How one stops using the currency, and what are the recognizable features which contribute

to this result? Furthermore how can one identify from among the visible constraints those

which are the 'crucial' ones?

• What are the main problems recognized by the implementers? What are the relevant

possibilities to cope with these problems? What kind of agencies do these attempts presume

and require?

3.2.4 Phase 4: experimentation

As I note above I will also consider a phase of experimentation. It is too early to specify this in

detail but first I will examine the possibility of undertaking focus groups, being this the most

evident and widely recognized such setting. Even though I can also 'experiment' with the

complementary currencies during the earlier months, now these activities can get a different angle

which can produce relevant cases by itself, or can act as a basis for comparison with the earlier

activities. Also in this phase the involvement of other peers will be stressed upon (compared to my

mostly individual attempts during the previous periods). Here and now I won't try to speculate too

much about the different possible problems I will be able to address with these processes but rather

will consider these additional tools and practices as means by which I can gain more narrow

answers for the same questions I try to answer during the previous phases.11

11 For a rather theoretical consideration about the 'experimental' role of the used methods see (Haraway 2008), and 25

3.3 Writing up

The last year of my research will be much more straightforward since the main task will be to write

up my thesis. Accordingly I will spend the first six month of that term-year (from October till the

end of March) with summing up my notes and producing conclusive remarks. This activity will

require also to deal with the concepts and theories in a more serious manner. During this, obviously,

occasional field-visits and final 'experiments' will also be considered.

From the sixth month, having a draft of the research, I will present the findings for different

audiences and conferences, adjusting them based on the responses. This will also involve a general

reconsideration of the different styles of presentation and writing in order to fit them to the various

needs of the aimed groups. During this period agreements with the cited or referred participants will

also be finalized about the possible ethical and legal issues of my research.

especially chapter 2.26

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31

Appendix 1 – Relevant organisations, experiments and

publications

The Bristol and Bath Pound: http://www.bristolpound.org/

The Bristol Credit Union: http://www.bristolcreditunion.org/

New Economics Foundation (nef): http://www.neweconomics.org/

During the last one-two decades the nef published several reports, working papers, articles and

books from among which I list here some I found related to the 'Monetary reform' they propagate

(links http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/monetary-reform and

http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/plugging-leaks).1

Their project on economic measurements (http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/measuring-

our-progress).

Under this latter umbrella-project they created several different type of tools of measurement of

economic/social impact. The most important are

the Social Return on Investment http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/social-return-

investment

and the Happy Planet index http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/happy-planet-index

the so-called Local Multiplier 3 Tool which is a research design to map up money flows

(and the impact of local investments) through the local economy:

1 For a comprehensive list of all the NEF material related to money, currencies or timebanks see:

http://www.neweconomics.org/search/apachesolr_search/currency%20OR%20money%20OR%20timebank.

http://www.proveandimprove.org/new/tools/localmultiplier3.php and

http://www.lm3online.org/

Main related publications from the nef:

The New Economics Foundation, Beyond Yes and No | the new economics foundation.

Available at: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/beyond-yes-and-no [Accessed

March 2, 2011].

The New Economics Foundation, Creating New Money | the new economics foundation.

Available at: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/creating-new-money [Accessed

March 2, 2011].

The New Economics Foundation, The New Wealth of Time | the new economics foundation.

Available at: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/new-wealth-time [Accessed March

2, 2011].

The New Economics Foundation, Towards a 21st Century Banking and Monetary System |

the new economics foundation. Available at:

http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/towards-a-21st-century-banking-and-monetary-

system [Accessed March 2, 2011].

The New Economics Foundation, How poor is “poor”? | the new economics foundation.

Available at: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/how-poor-is-poor [Accessed

March 3, 2011].

The New Economics Foundation, Reimagining the high street | the new economics

foundation. Available at: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/reimagining-the-high-

street [Accessed March 3, 2011].

Other publications of nef members:

Some of the members of these projects themselves published or were involved in the writing of

books on alternative/complementary money and currencies in a more journalistic or semi-academic

format.

Boyle, D., Funny Money: In search of alternative cash. Available at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0006530672/qid=1078670650/sr=1-

22/ref=sr_1_2_22/202-1601003-3236650 [Accessed March 2, 2011].

Boyle, D., The Little Money Book. Available at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1901970515/qid=1100020533/sr=1-

4/ref=sr_1_3_4/202-3760848-0239069 [Accessed March 2, 2011].

Boyle, D., The Money Changers: Currency reform from aristotle to e-cash. Available at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1853838950/qid=1078670218/sr=1-

18/ref=sr_1_0_18/202-1601003-3236650 [Accessed March 2, 2011].

Cahn, E.S., 2000. No more throw-away people: the co-production imperative, Edgar Cahn.

Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ZSSlXgVXcjEC&pgis=1 [Accessed March

2, 2011].

In the core of what I consider as the academic publications however resides the journal on

complementary currencies.

“IJCCR Home.” http://www.ijccr.net/IJCCR/IJCCR_Home.html.

Other relevant researchers from the UK:

Gil Seyfang: She is the editor of the IJCCR journal, and maybe the most important researcher on

CCs in the UK. Besides she manages the homepage of the 'Grassroot Innovations' research group

which has a 'Complementary Currencies' cluster.

“Grassroots Innovations Blog.” http://grassrootsinnovations.blogspot.com/.

“Grassroots Innovations: Complementary Currencies.”

http://www.grassrootsinnovations.org/Grassroots_Innovations/GICC/GICC_home.html.

Publications. Available at: http://www.uea.ac.uk/~e175/Seyfang/Publications.html

Peter North: He made several case studies where he looked at social movements which were

organized around or tried to use complementary currencies in the UK and abroad.

North, P., 2005. Alternative Currency Movements As a Challenge to Globalisation?: A Case

Study of Manchesterʼs Local Currency Networks (Ashgate Economic Geography Series)

(Ashgate Economic Geography Series), Ashgate Publishing.

North, P., 2010. Local Money: How to Make it Happen in Your Community, Green Books. A

North, P., 2007. Money and Liberation: The Micropolitics of Alternative Currency

Movements, Univ Of Minnesota Press.

Articles and further publications: http://www.liv.ac.uk/geography/staff/north.htm.

Not in the UK but still very relevant is Georgina Mercedes Gomez who conducted research on Ccs

in Latin America and in Argentina in particular.

• Gomez, G.M., Argentinaʼs Parallel Currency / Monographs / Pickering and Chatto

Publishers - Shop site.

• Further publications: http://www.iss.nl/iss/profile/AA6463

Another important node is the “Complementary Currency Resource Center.”

http://www.complementarycurrency.org/. Here the practitioners and the researchers collect data

about themselves and literally map the different initiatives related to the topic

(http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccDatabase/maps/worldmap.php).

Moreover they collect together most of the English-language written materials in their ccLibrary.”

http://www.complementarycurrency.org/materials.php. (at the time of access the number of

documents were 359)

Other ways of the movement's way of (self-)representation are its video Library.”

http://www.complementarycurrency.org/ccvideo.html

An important place is the wikipedia article “Complementary currency - Wikipedia, the free

encyclopedia.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_currency (and the topics of currency,

alternative currency, timebanks etc etc). Here not just the article itself is important but also the so-

called discussion and statistics pages too.

A CC manifesto:

“Open money manifesto.” http://www.openmoney.org/top/omanifesto.html.

A regular skype meeting (!) between complementary currency practitioners and advocates:

“The CC Open Collective | Currency Solutions for a Wiser World.”

http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/the-cc-open-collective/.

An online magazine about CC-related news.

“Community Currency Magazine.” http://ccmag.net/.

Further important contemporary sources of thoughts and concepts:

Bernard Lietaer: Maybe internationally the most frequently cited author. He not just studied

currencies academically but was the member of the Belgian Central Bank and had a quite important

role in the implementation process of the common European currency, the Euro, too. His main

books are:

Lietaer, B., Of Human Wealth | Currency Solutions for a Wiser World.

Lietaer, B., The Future of Money | Currency Solutions for a Wiser World.

Lietaer, B. & Hallsmith, G., Creating Wealth | Currency Solutions for a Wiser World.

A video of him: Lietaer, B., tedxberlin - bernard lietaer - 11/30/09. Available at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nORI8r3JIyw [Accessed March 2, 2011].

a recent interview: http://ccmag.net/bernard-lietaer-interview

Another key author is Thomas Greco: community economist, were involved in the creation of

'Tucson Traders', a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS), and published several books on the

topic:

Greco, H.T., 1990. Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, Knowledge Systems.

Greco, H.T., 1994. New Money for Healthy Communities, Greco Pub.

Greco, T.H., 2009. The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, Chelsea Green

Publishing.

Greco, T. & Green, C., Money.

Another significant branch of writings come from the E. F. Schumacher Society which is also

involved in (mostly US-based) local currencies and time-banks. One of their main researcher was

Robert Swann. Publications:

“The E. F. Schumacher Society • Local Currencies.”

http://www.schumachersociety.org/local_currencies/articles.html.

“The E. F. Schumacher Society • Publications • Robert Swann.”

http://www.smallisbeautiful.org/publications/toc_swann.html.

Other contemporary relevant writings on money and currencies.

Dodd, N., 1995. The Sociology of Money: Economics, Reason and Contemporary Society,

Polity Press.

Douthwaite, R., 2000. The Ecology of Money, Green Books.

Hart, K., 2000. The Memory Bank: Money in an Unequal World, Profile Books Ltd.

Ingham, G., 2004. The Nature of Money, Polity Press.

Lapavitsas, C., Social Foundations of Markets, Money and Credit.

Leyshon, A. & Thrift, N.J., 1997. Money/space: geographies of monetary transformation,

Routledge.

North, C., 2011. Serious Fun: Ingenious Improvisations on Money, Food, Waste, Water and

Home, Findhorn Press.

Besides the above the papers I skimmed through referred to some more earlier2 theorizations of

money and currencies, a couple of examples of which are:

Gesell, S., 1934. The natural economic order: A plan to secure an uninterrupted exchange

of the products of labor, free from bureaucratic interference, usury and exploitation, Free-

economy Publishing Co.

Jevons, W.S., 1923. Money and the mechanism of exchange, Forgotten Books.

Knapp, G.F., 2003. The State Theory of Money, Simon Publications, Inc.

Riegel, E.C., 1944. Private enterprise money: a non-political money system, Harbinger

house.

Riegel, E.C., 1976. The new approach to freedom: together with essays on the separation of

money ..., Heather Foundation.

Simmel, G. & Frisby, D., 2004. The philosophy of money, Routledge.

Weber, M., 1978. Economy and society: an outline of interpretive sociology, Volume 2,

University of California Press.

Other organisations and websites dealing with CC-issues.

Positive Money - Fixing Social and Economic Problems by Ending Fractional Reserve

Banking —.” http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/.

The MetaCurrency Project. http://metacurrency.org/.

“Community Currency.” http://www.communitycurrency.org/.

“Access Foundation.” http://www.accessfoundation.org/.

New currency frontiers: http://newcurrencyfrontiers.com/wagn/About_This_Site.

“Transaction Net: Enabling Markets Online.” http://www.transaction.net/.

2 As a general rule I consider to be 'early' most of the writings before the 50's, but, as a matter of

fact I have not found too much related original publications between the 50's and the end of the 70's.

Complementary currency softwares and ongoing implications:

“Alternative Currency Software | Hugh Barnard.” http://www.hughbarnard.org/?q=node/3.

“Barter Software | Global Exchange Trading Systems.” http://www.getsglobal.com/.

“Barter System-Barter Sotware-Barter Services-.” http://www.curomuto.com/.

“Bitcoin P2P Virtual Currency | Bitcoin.” http://www.bitcoin.org/.

“Welcome to the Community Exchange System.” http://www.community-exchange.org/.

“Home - Cyclos Project Site.” http://project.cyclos.org/.

“LETSystems - the Home Page.” http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/.

“WIR Bank Portal.” http://www.wir.ch/index.cfm?

DC86BF333C1811D6B9950001020761E5&o_lang_id=1.

Appendix 2 – Timetable

2011/2012October November December January February March April May June July August September

Observing, following and interviewing the implementers

Examining the used theories and technologies

Examining and interviewing the participating businesses

Observing the use of the currency

Experimenting individually with the currency

Interviewing the end-users of the currency

Preparing focus groups and other experiments involving other peers

Conducting the experiments with other participants

Reviewing and summarizing the previous findings

2012/2013October November December January February March April May June July August September

Writing up my findings

Presenting my findings

Discussing ethical and legal issues with the peers

Occasional, posterior field-visits and experiments

Further literature review and connecting my findings to others' work

Reviewing phases

Writing up my conclusion

Editing and final readjustments