Tend to agree with that. It probably springs from Dmitry’s strong focus on self-sufficient ‘lifeboat’ responses to the crises. This can be a problem with many of the doom and gloom analyses – they seem implicitly or explicitly to rubbish many of the grass roots initiatives that try to work (for the time being at least) with the world as it is. This ‘carelessness’ can offend people doing great work in those communities.
The real impact of local currency initiatives to date is, though, an issue worth discussion. While they have often done well in terms of local identity and local networking, the impact on local economic health and liquidity has been limited; and the scalability of these initiatives to regional or national level has been elusive. All issues being confrionted by the Liquidity Network projects.
Graham Barnes is a Director of Feasta and co-organiser of the Feasta Currency Group. He holds a PhD in Computer Science and worked at a senior level in IT and online marketing in a previous life. His past projects have included the design and delivery of currencies to be sponsored by a local authority; by a social entrepreneur to complement and enhance a well established sustainability methodology; and by a ‘local-aware’ restaurant chain. His focus is on the systemic dysfunction of mainstream money and finance, the inequity it accelerates and promising developments for its democratisation and detox #fairgreenmoney