Alternative economies, digital innovation and commoning in grassroots organisations: Analysing degrowth currencies in the Spanish region of Catalonia

Abstract

The wake of the 2008 financial crisis wrought economic havoc in Spain, resulting in the widespread protest of the indignados movement. Catalonia in particular saw a flourishing of various new forms of activism and socio‐economic collaboration, such as cooperative networks, eco‐villages and alternative currencies. This paper explores emerging forms of alternative currencies and commoning practices in Catalonia, Spain. It is based on ethnographic research to explore emergent grassroots innovations that theorise and practice degrowth proposals in diverse ways. In particular, it investigates developing forms of social currency and social debt, most of which are associated with the Catalan Integral Cooperative and FairCoop. This latter organisation is a network of cooperatives developing tools around Faircoin, a cryptocurrency based on social and ecological principles. In doing so, it contributes to alternative currencies scholarship. This paper shows how these self‐organised grassroots innovations are making use of technological and digital elements in order to build an alternative financial infrastructure. Furthermore, it demonstrates how these alternative social currencies and blockchain initiatives clearly show that non‐capitalist and degrowth oriented technological innovation can generate economies in more progressive and community‐led ways.

Distributed degrowth technology: Challenges for blockchain beyond the green economy

“…Decentralised/distributed P2P applications that are non-hierarchical in governance structure could be required (Pazaitis et al, 2017;Balaguer Rasillo, 2020).…”

Alternative Economies and Commoning Practices in Catalonia: Unpacking Ecoxarxes from a Social Studies of Economisation Perspective

“…Catalonia is widely considered to be a region with a rich history of social movements (Fernandez-Planells et al 2014;Morell 2012), self-organised practices (Juris 2010; Yates 2015), cooperativism (Dafermos 2017;Morales L opez 2016), degrowth proposals (Cattaneo and Gavald a 2010;Sekulova et al 2017) and alternative economies (Calv ario and Kallis 2017;Conill et al 2012;Lynch 2020). In this geographical and political context, new alternative economic practices, framed as non-market or non-capitalist, have emerged that showcase communitybased and local economies (Balaguer Rasillo 2021;CooDin SCCL 2019;Oliver Sanz 2016). Many of these alternative economic practices have been linked to the context of poverty, unemployment, and inequality generated in Catalonia by the 2008 financial crisis (S anchez-Hern andez and Gl€ uckler 2019).…”

Governing through community: Transformative geographies from the bottom up

“…Doerr and Taylor Aiken (2021) discuss how a place‐specific frame of reference can supersede politico‐economic differences and instigate pragmatic transformational coalitions. And Balaguer Rasillo (2020) explores how cooperative networks build alternative financial infrastructures which, in turn, facilitate further pro‐social and environmental action. Third, local governance structures emerge as an important entry point and leverage for community activism.…”

“…Burnett and Nunes (2021) highlight the professionalization and stabilization of pro‐social and environmental practices in local governance. The contributions of Balaguer Rasillo (2020) and Schmid (2021) put coordination and collaboration at centre stage, exploring alternative economic networks and their materialization in alternative and hybrid infrastructures. Doerr and Taylor‐Aiken (2021), taking yet another angle, outline how diverse orientations are bridged, producing an astonishingly stable trajectory of regional transformation.…”