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Local Exchange and Trading Schemes: A Useful Strand of Community Economic Development Policy?

Author

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  • R K O'Doherty
  • J Dürrschmidt
  • P Jowers
  • D A Purdue

    (Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, England)

Abstract

We identify local exchange and trading schemes (LETS) as a social movement rooted in the alternative milieux of greens, feminists, new agers, and so on, comprising those committed to experimenting with new ideas and identities. LETS have the potential to strengthen these milieux and thereby reinforce civil society within a locality, enhancing the benefits from a web of personal networks and extending them through weak links. LETS might also act as seed beds for new skills and practices which spill over into wider social and economic networks. Thus, by promoting networks which facilitate flows of information and innovation, and thereby building the capacity for responding to social change, LETS could contribute to community economic development. LETS form part of a cultural rather than technological innovation milieu. Our fieldwork in Stroud, Bristol, and environs suggests that, given the typical member's preference to remain distanced from the state, it is likely that a hands-off approach would be most successful in realising the potential of LETS. To tie such schemes to specific policy goals would ignore the symbolic meanings attached to membership of them.

Suggested Citation

  • R K O'Doherty & J Dürrschmidt & P Jowers & D A Purdue, 1999. "Local Exchange and Trading Schemes: A Useful Strand of Community Economic Development Policy?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(9), pages 1639-1653, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:31:y:1999:i:9:p:1639-1653
    DOI: 10.1068/a311639
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. L Thorne, 1996. "Local Exchange Trading Systems in the United Kingdom: A Case of Re-Embedding?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(8), pages 1361-1376, August.
    2. R Lee, 1996. "Moral Money? LETS and the Social Construction of Local Economic Geographies in Southeast England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 28(8), pages 1377-1394, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carl J Griffin, 2010. "Becoming Private Property: Custom, Law, and the Geographies of ‘Ownership’ in 18th- and 19th-Century England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(3), pages 747-762, March.
    2. Theresa Aldridge & Jane Tooke & Roger Lee & Andrew Leyshon & Nigel Thrift & Colin Williams, 2001. "Recasting Work: The Example of Local Exchange Trading Schemes," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(3), pages 565-579, September.
    3. Georgina M Gómez, 2010. "What was the Deal for the Participants of the Argentine Local Currency Systems, the Redes de Trueque?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(7), pages 1669-1685, July.
    4. Noel Longhurst, 2013. "The Emergence of an Alternative Milieu: Conceptualising the Nature of Alternative Places," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(9), pages 2100-2119, September.

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