Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

Recent coronavirus pandemic has exposed the flaws in our current economic systems and highlighted the need for sustainable economic solutions (Muzio and Doh, 2020). This has led to increased reflection and interest in alternative economies from various socio-political and economic actors. This paper argues that local currencies such as La Doume a local currency in the Puy de Dôme department of France, are a form of social innovation that can support local producers while also promoting environmental sustainability, fair trade, and strong socio-economic values. These values align with the principles of degrowth (D'Alisa, Demaria and Kallis, 2014). During the pandemic, La Doume stepped up to support and accompany the financing of various local initiatives, such as through its Soli’Doume initiative: an innovative cooperative social security system available for its members, and its Bonus Social concept based on its internal cooperative reserve funds. It helped a dozen of local initiatives in the Puy de Dôme area resist the socio-economic risks of the pandemic. Through a participatory action research methodology coupled with ethnography, an exploratory fieldwork was realized from summer 2021 to summer 2022 and the findings help argue that local currencies are a good example of how alternative economic systems could be viable pathways towards degrowing our economy fostering ethical values based on social justice, equity, and ecological sustainability and thereby creating positive disruptions in various local economies that could then lead to an economic shift from the current economic practices.

Info

Day: 2023-08-30
Start time: 10:00
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-8-2
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Alternative economies

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