Crisis community currencies and the challenge of making alternative economies possible

Stephanides, Phedeas (2017) Crisis community currencies and the challenge of making alternative economies possible. In: 4th International Conference on Social and Complementary Currencies. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The ongoing economic crisis has turned Greece into the epitome of unsustainable degrowth. Yet, busting the myth that there-are-no-alternatives to austerity for escaping enforced unsustainable degrowth, rousing manifestos, popular unrest and the rise of radical community currency movements suggest that the time is now ripe to challenge the mainstream economy. Nonetheless, such assertions currently remain under-researched – with emerging accounts of crisis community currency movements not paying much critical attention to everyday activist experiences on the ground. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to provide a timely quality check of the potential of these movements – posing the timely question of whether crisis community currency movements enable the realisation of alternative practices and livelihoods outside the mainstream market. To this end, it applies the insights of social practice theory to new empirical findings from the first in-depth ethnographic study of a select sample of Athenian community currency movements. For in contrast to conventional, descriptive accounts and evaluations of community currencies, social practice theory provides a more holistic and grounded perspective – over and above individuals’ motivations and values – that focuses on the real experiences and concrete praxis of the in-situ introduction and use of community currencies. In so doing, this approach informs a unique exploration of community currency movements that accounts for the intrinsic role of context in shaping the course and outcomes of interventions motivated by the desire to enact alterative economies. At the same time, however, it reveals the immense difficulties encountered in attempts to enact more sustainable practices through the use of community currencies. For alongside being undermined by a hostile capitalist mainstream and an under-developed alternative economic field, community currency practitioners persistently clash with their capitalist selves and habits when attempting to materialise on their otherwise radical sustainability visions emerging in the wake of the crisis. Hence, these findings open-up timely debates on both the moment of crisis as an opportunity for social change, and on whether we can maintain faith in community currencies.

Item Type:	Book Section
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2025 16:30
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2025 16:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100227
DOI:

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