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Currency Typology – exploring the “Representational Charge” dimension

Trying to understand complementary currency often comes down to trying to sort them into a typology. Many attempts have been made towards that (see for example Blanc, Martignoni, Lietaer/Kennedy/Rogers) but none has so far satisfied theory and practice.

This article won´t fill this gap, but explores the matter propaedeutically from the traditional perspective of the functions of money 1 and proposes a one-dimensional classification of the different forms of currencies accordingly. Continue reading “Currency Typology – exploring the “Representational Charge” dimension”

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Terminology: Currency vs Money

Trying to explain what complementary currencies “really” are, leads to different answers depending on who askes and who answers. Even getting the basics laid out, like “what is money?” and “what is a currency?” seems to produce conflicting answers by different prominent actors in this young discipline. Without drilling into other troublesome discourses of terminology that many natural allies often get into heated debates about, e.g. the delimitation of “complementary currency” vs “community currency” vs “alternative” and “parallel currency”, I just want to point to one particular and basic rift I see at the moment, stemming from two different views  of “currency” and “money”.
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“Talente” Currencies in Vorarlberg, Austria

Founded in 1996 as a timebank for the whole of the westernmost austrian province/state of Vorarlberg, the Talente System (www.talentiert.at) is now one of the most successful and innovative grass-root currency systems in operation.

allmenda_sitelogo(Update 2014: The efforts are now carried forward by the social enterprise Allmenda: http://allmenda.com)

Always rooted in practice rather then theory, all developments had been orientated on the needs of the predominantly rural population. It took its original inspiration from the LETS systems of the 1980s and 90s but extended their concepts with the aim of serving a whole state and not just one local community and strongly incorporating businesses and other stakeholders.

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