Innovating Complementary Currencies workshop

Innovating Complementary Currencies workshop
– September 20th 2010 – London.

Grassroots Innovations: Complementary Currencies is a new research project focusing on complementary currencies and the conditions which support their diffusion and scaling up. The project is led by Dr Gill Seyfang, is funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and is based at the University of East Anglia. (see www.grassrootsinnovations.org)

We are hosting a 1-day international workshop in London to learn about and help inform our study. The aims of the workshop are:

· To gain international expert input into our scoping study, to identify the range of innovative complementary currencies around the world;

· To offer a space for currency practitioners to think about their activities as innovative practices, and to explore the implications of this framing for currency development and growth;

· To provide an opportunity for practitioners to share best practice with fellow currency developers from around the world.

The workshop will be oriented around two distinct themes and activities:

The State of the Field: Trends and Innovation in Complementary Currencies
The morning session will focus on identifying emerging innovation and trends within the complementary currency field. There will be the opportunity for brief presentations from participants about their particular area of knowledge. Participants will discuss not only current trends in the field but new emerging models. We will give a brief overview of our project's scoping studies to date, and also draw on the special edition of the International Journal of Community Currency Research that is currently being prepared.

Complementary Currencies as Forms of Innovation
The afternoon session will explore and test the project's conceptual framework (of currencies as innovative niches) drawing on the participants' experience and expertise. It will be a participative exploration of how thinking about currencies as forms of innovation differs from other ways of thinking about them, and what this perspective might offer to help us understand their success, failure and diffusion.

The workshop will be held in the UEA London offices, just 5 minutes walk from Liverpool Street Station.

`Innovating Complementary Currencies'
Monday 20th September
10am – 5pm

UEA London
102 Middlesex Street
London E1 7EZ, UK

We hope that you will be able to join us for this event, and would appreciate your response at the earliest opportunity, as places are strictly limited. We would also welcome any suggestions for other people you think might be interested in attending and contributing. Ideally we are looking for currency developers, network intermediaries and academics with a broad knowledge of currency systems.

There is a small budget to cover travel expenses (economy class public transport), and we hope to be able to support a wide range of participants to come to the workshop. If you would like to attend, please give us an indication of whether you will need to draw on this fund, and an estimate of the likely costs.

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Noel Longhurst
Senior Research Associate
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK

01603 592596
Skype: noellonghurst

Grassroots Innovations: Complementary Currencies:
http://www.grassrootsinnovations.org