Research from the University of Bristol and Brunel University, London, provides evidence that community currencies primarily designed to support the SME economy may also have significant social effects.
According to the research, transactions using
such currencies – in this case the Bristol Pound – contribute to people making connections to others, to their communities, to the environments they move through and to what they consume, while developing feelings of trust and opening up new kinds of interaction.
In other words, the conscious choice of businesses and consumers to conduct economic exchanges via a medium that explicitly values and supports the local area and SMEs can lead to significant gains in community cohesion and reconfigure social relations.
Research from the University of Bristol and Brunel University, London, provides evidence that community currencies primarily designed to support the SME economy may also have significant social effects.
According to the research, transactions using such currencies – in this case the Bristol Pound – contribute to people making connections to others, to their communities, to the environments they move through and to what they consume, while developing feelings of trust and opening up new kinds of interaction.
In other words, the conscious choice of businesses and consumers to conduct economic exchanges via a medium that explicitly values and supports the local area and SMEs can lead to significant gains in community cohesion and reconfigure social relations.