When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.
The Analects of Confucius
Principles
This Bibliography strives to reflect the variety of research about community currencies. The editors pursue a pluralist approach and assemble literature of any language and irrespective of its theoretical background. Contributions with racist, sexist or other discriminative backgrounds will not be included. Every title will be reviewed by one of the editors and / or their collaborators. This, however, does not imply an assessment in respect of the quality of a contribution. The editors strive to overcome language obstacles and delegate the review process whenever necessary and whenever possible. Although the bibliography specifically addresses the needs of scholarly work, it is committed to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The collection also comprises non-academic sources. Newspaper reports and articles in non-academic magazines only become part of the collection if they provide novel and / or unique information.
The concept of this project implies that the different community currencies have something in common. Whether a contribution is about a historic system, about a small entity focused on social relations or the aspiration to create a regional economy, whether it takes up the experiences in the Global South or in the Northern hemisphere — reflections about these and many other community currencies are assembled in this bibliography. It is the objective of this project to overcome the boundaries which exist between scholars who write and read in different languages, who belong to different faculties, or who are interested in different types of community currencies. In order to achieve this objective only sources that deal directly with community currencies are included. Background literature is, with the ecxeption of a small selection out of the databank, not included.
The universal approach implies that the (English) term "community currencies" used in the title of the bibliography should be considered only as one among many "entrance gates" to this area of research. The focus of this bibliography is not on "money". The term "Trueque" or "Tausch" (best to be translated with "Barter" as in the original meaning of the word with an emphasis on "reciprocity" as a salient feature of these organisations) is equally important. The mere existence of parallel currencies is not sufficient to understand these circuits of production and consumption. Usually, these systems are defined as non-profit organizations. So far, literature about the commercial barter industry plays a marginal role. However, the example illustrates the policy of the editors to define this domain in a flexible manner. In principle, the development of this area of research will be defined by the authors.
(1/2009)