Proposal paper for the 21 century : Social Money: Lever of the Economic Paradigm

In the past two decades, a variety of experiences related to complementary currencies have been developed in different social and cultural contexts, in which the shortage or absence of money is met with creativity through distinct trading instruments. These initiatives run from neoliberal projects to projects with an ideological mark of resistance to neoliberal globalization. The SOCIAL MONEY workshop specifically addresses the study of those initiatives based on para-monetary instruments, which can be submitted to social oversight and demonstrate the possibilities of « another economy, » initially complementary to formal economy but later capable of reinforcing solidarity economy. This could contribute to the institution of a new model of social organization capable of reverting the capitalist model of accumulation. A change in the monetary system - upwardly mobile, since the international financial institutions do not seem much interested in working in this direction - could bring us to new possibilities for building a world in which responsibility, plurality, and solidarity are the main values.