Contesting through projects. The case of associative local currencies[Contester par projets. Le cas des monnaies locales associatives]

Associative currencies that circulate locally and for market activities have been developing in France mainly since 2010. They are built on a contestation oriented toward an alternative economy and they are shaped as projects aiming at acting on reality. Consequently, they operate a convergence between criticism and initiative. This text analyses this articulation. It studies the paradox by which initiative associated to criticism takes the general form of the project, and possibly the codes and grammar of project seen as a normative and standardised methodology, which are precisely a product of the society that is the target of the criticism. The text, thus, starts with an analysis of the criticism or contestation that drives associative currencies initiatives. Then, it shows why these initiatives take the form of the project and stresses the essential contradiction between project and contestation of neoliberal capitalism. An insight into a particular associative currency initiative, seen through the lenses of project management, helps identify how the latter leads to shifts in the project itself. More generally, resources proofs contribute to the submission of these initiatives to the grammar of project. This raises doubts over the capacity of such projects to realize their alternative dimension and, consequently, to contribute to the desired social transformation.