"It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks too long alone, particularly in economics". John Maynard Keynes (1936, The General Theory).

Tuesday 5 October 2010

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS CAN BE PRACTICAL AND FUNNY

The second paper has been published some days ago online.

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS CAN BE PRACTICAL AND FUNNY WHILE PUZZLING ECONOMISTS: EXCHANGE NETWORKS, PARALLEL CURRENCIES & FREE BAZAARS IN GREECE

ABSTRACT
This is a working paper belongs to a greater ongoing field research project concerning economic activity in Greece performed without the use of any official currency. The schemes studied range from parallel currencies to free bazaars and from specialised exchange networks to businesses accepting used public transport tickets as partial payment by customers. Exchange and bazaars often take place via fairs and parties, some of which have already become famous and attract hundreds of people, although most of the schemes are quite recent and still develop.
The scope of this paper is, therefore:
a) To present the theoretical, connected to environment, issues, that the project aims to deal with, and
b) To present the findings of the first, qualitative, stage of field research that might enlighten us on how the environment as an idea and motive leads people to invent new ways of transacting.
Keywords: exchange networks, free bazaars, parallel currencies, environment, grassroots theory.
JEL: E49, P49

You may find the entire paper at the link

http://innovation.univ-littoral.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/sotiropoulou.pdf

or at the links column, at the left side of the blog!

Saturday 21 August 2010

Research in Wonderland

The first paper concerning the theoretical issues we face in this project has already been published. You may access the paper by copying and pasting at you browser the following link:

http://www.iippe.org/wiki/images/d/d2/CONF_APE_Sotiropoulou.pdf

You will also find the link on the left side of the blog.

Comments and critique are mostly welcome!

The abstract of the paper is the following:

EXCHANGE NETWORKS & PARALLEL CURRENCIES: THEORETICAL ISSUES or RESEARCH IN WONDERLAND


ABSTRACT

This working paper belongs to a greater ongoing field research project concerning economic activity in Greece that is performed without the use of any official currency. The scope of the paper is twofold: a) To present the theoretical issues that the project aims to deal with, while studying exchange networks, parallel currencies and free bazaars in Greece. Particularly, the variety of the schemes and initiatives studied touches essential points of economics, like the notions of value, money, exchange, market, etc. And b) To present the findings of the first stage of field research in connection with the theoretical arguments that might have an explanatory ability concerning the initiatives studied.
Keywords: exchange networks, parallel currencies, free bazaars, value, money, market, exchange, grassroots theory.

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