La moneda social.Tesis doctoral.Wilko von Prittwitz.2017

Abstract

Abstract

Money should not be able to escape the study and review of its social function. The use and social phenomena related to money and complementary currencies in general are of great interest to sociology, especially with regard to the past experiences that show the possibility to implement alternative monetary systems to modern society in times of crisis. This work presents the results of a comparative study about alternative systems of exchange for economic transactions, namely the use of social currencies used in times of crisis as instruments of local development and in relation to modern social currencies. This comparison of historic social coins with the current Spanish complementary currencies, furthermore, explores the socio-economic context of each historical moment and its interaction with modern social facts.

However, our research has encountered many difficulties since the studies of the history of these forms of alternative economy in Spain are very scarce; there are only few catalogs of local currencies available and none of them focuses on social currencies (both modern or historical). This endows our work with great value and interest as an unprecedented contribution to the social sciences.

An in depth research and localization of the existence and characteristics of social banknotes was carried out for each historical moment in an extensive documental investigation apart from using the Delphi technique, interviewing experts with the help of successive questionnaires in order to highlight discrepancies and deduct any consensus. The aim is to contribute to the scientific knowledge and obtain a better understanding of these tendencies of social and new economy. The paper presents, therefore, an analysis of the social impact of that additional form of money and complementary currency from a sociological, psychological and socio-economical perspective, as well as a new tool of social intervention.