The * hypothesis

Is it possible to have a research hypothesis without a name? Well, it might not be possible, but it might be necessary...

The latest paper is available online under the title

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY WITHOUT OFFICIAL CURRENCY IN GREECE: THE * HYPOTHESIS

at this link

http://www.iippe.org/wiki/images/2/22/CONF_2011_Irene_Sotiropoulou.pdf

(copy the link to your browser or click on the link at the left column of the blog)

ABSTRACT
Historical study has not been within the scope of the research project titled “Exchange networks and parallel currencies: Theoretical approaches and the case of Greece”. Of course, research participants often mention that their economic activity is not a new invention. However, it did not arrive to be imminent to consider of locating this activity within a historical framework till mapping of the schemes took place. The geographical dispersion of the schemes was such, that neither new communication technologies, nor the current economic crisis in Greece could explain the phenomenon in a satisfactory way.

Moreover, several research findings repeatedly appear without enabling any theoretical explanation that could link them together. At the same time, modern literature from all over the world is being oriented towards the study of parallel currencies, while exchange networks and free bazaars are almost inexistent for both academic and non-academic writers. Of course, it would not be wise to think that exchange networks and free bazaars are just a Greek originality. What is happening then?

The present paper is an attempt to formulate a hypothesis using research findings which for reasons we cannot explain yet, “demand” their place in time, actually in time and space altogether. We try to see how scheme members with both their discourse and action challenge our perceptions about:

a) transactions without official currency being an old-times trait, which has long been or should be abandoned as “non-economic” and inefficient.

The report by Amélie Poinssot of the AFP

on non-monetary initiatives in Greece has been published twice:

a) Through a video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0BghKMcvQ

b) By her report at Radio France Internationale (RFI)

http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20110411-1-accents-europe-2011-04-11

(the report about Greece starts at 8:28, you click on the "Ecouter" button)

(You copy the links on your browser or you click on the links at the left column of this blog)

2nd part of Roumeliotis article on Eleftherotypia

dedicated to parallel currencies all over the world!

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.ellada&id=263171 (copy the link on your browser, or just click on the link at the left column of the blog)

New article on today's Eleftherotypia Newspaper

by Andreas Roumeliotis!

The article covers social and solidarity economy in general in Greece (much wider than our research), so it is very up-to-date and informative!

http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.ellada&id=262932 (copy the link on your browser or click on the link on the left column of the blog)

Regional Review: Alternative Exchange Systems in Contemporary Greece

ABSTRACT

This paper is a brief report of several schemes that exist today, September 2010, in Greece and permit their members to perform transactions without any official currency. The report covers parallel currency schemes, exchange networks and several related initiatives that could be characterised as alternative exchange or non-mainstream modes of economic activity.

Copy and paste the link on your browser
http://www.ijccr.net/IJCCR/2011_(15)_files/06%20Sotiropoulou.pdf or click on the link at the left column

EXCHANGE NETWORKS & PARALLEL CURRENCIES ON THE MAP OF GREECE

ABSTRACT

This is a working paper which belongs to a greater ongoing field research project concerning economic activity in Greece which is performed without the use of any official currency. The scope of the paper is to present the geographical dispersion of the schemes studied within Greece and to discuss the issues raised by the connection of the schemes to the locality of their users.
Several patterns already emerge, concerning which schemes work or develop in which areas and which areas seem void of any working initiatives. Big urban centres seem to attract most of the schemes or at least, cities provide the base for a scheme to develop. The nature and structure of each scheme seems to affect its geographical expansion or its localisation.
Therefore, several questions are raised: What makes the scheme members’ decide about the localisation or the expansion of a scheme? How do geographical conditions affect those decisions and how does economic activity within the schemes affect their function in space? How the scope and structure of a scheme might influence its geographical picture?

Keywords: exchange networks, parallel currencies, free bazaars, geography, localisation.

You may access the entire paper on the following link

http://sdocument.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/cc-conf/conferences.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/index.php/cc-conf/2011/paper/viewFile/98/34.pdf

(copy the link on your browser, or click on the link on the left column of the blog)

Malcolm Brabant of BBC reports on bartering in Greece

http://www.youtube.com/user/Brabantfeatures#p/a/u/0/dz1KQkUJPkA

(copy the link on your browser, or click on the same link at the left column of the blog)