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Identifier

000417218

Title

Exchange networks and parallel currencies : theoretical approaches and the case of Greece

Alternative Title

Δίκτυα αναταλλαγής και παράλληλα νομίσματα : θεωρητικές προσεγγίσεις και το παράδειγμα της Ελλάδας

Author

Σωτηροπούλου, Ειρήνη-Χρυσοβαλάντου

Thesis advisor

Καρδάσης Βασίλειος

Reviewer

Βαΐου Ντίνα
Καραμεσίνη Μαρία

Abstract

The research project comprises both theoretical study and field research and it focuses on economic activity in Greece which is performed without the use of any official currency. This has been the first time that parallel currencies and exchange networks, but also free bazaars, are being researched in Greece, not only because of lack of interest by academia, but also because such initiatives emerged the very last years in the country and still emerge and develop, particularly since 2009 onwards. The project investigated parallel currencies, exchange networks, both specialised and of general scope, free-exchange bazaars and free (online) networks, and several sui generis schemes which could not be placed into the other categories. The research used a combination of methodological tools, ranging from participatory observation and free discussions with scheme members, to questionnaire survey, interviews with key informants and mapping of scheme membership in the entire country. The questions explored through this research have been related to main notions of economic discipline, like market and economy, and to core issues like the perception of economic value and how this is expressed in transactions without official currency. The main features of the transactions have also been explored, like the lack of exact measuring and the non-linear perception of time in exchanges. The motives for performing this type of transactions have been a major question of this research. The role of current economic and financial crisis in Greece in the expansion of the schemes all over the country has been investigated and discussed, same as the variety of scheme structures, which does not have similar precedents in academic literature; then, this variety appears, till the moment, as the main peculiarity of the Greek case of non-mainstream transaction modes.

Language

English

Subject

Exchange networks

Free-exchange bazaars

Greece

Parallel currencies

Δίκτυα ανταλλαγής

Ελλάδα

Παράλληλα νομίσματα

Χαριστικά παζάρια

Issue date