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Will the Brixton pound buy a brighter future? | Environment | The Guardian - The Diigo Meta page

www.guardian.co.uk/...will-brixton-pound-work - Cached - Annotated View

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chrishp
Chrishp bookmarked on 2009-10-30 community London future urban economics cohesion
  • By nurturing this highly visible sense of localism and civic pride, the organisers hope to show that self-reliant communities can not only thrive, but be better prepared for looming environmental threats and the resulting social stresses.
  • Is it about strengthening community bonds and boosting the local economy, though, or spreading the environmental message? Both, says Nichols. "We want to hit home the idea of localism
  • One of our early supporters told us that Jamaicans are naturally sceptical, so we've worked really hard trying to convince them about the merits of the Brixton pound, visiting some businesses up to four times. Now the likes of Blacker Dread Records, a well-known music shop on Coldharbour Lane, have signed up, and that's been important to us as the owner is very influential in the local community
  • The system works like this: whenever you purchase a product or service from a participating business, you are offered the opportunity of receiving your change in Brixton pounds. These may then be spent at any other participating business, either as an alternative to sterling or in combination with sterling. By "sticking" to Brixton, the notes will, in theory, help to boost local trade and reduce the reliance on "external" economies. Some participating businesses have also pledged to offer discounts to anyone paying with Brixton pounds.
  • An obvious question that arises, not just in Brixton but any community introducing its own local currency, is the issue of crime: what's to stop counterfeiters scuppering the whole scheme? Transition Towns Brixton has spent £2,000 designing and printing the bank notes, which will be available in £1, £5, £10 and £20 denominations.
  • "You are always searching for the ties that bind people together," says Harris Beider, a professor at the Institute of Community Cohesion in Coventry and former adviser to the prime minister's social exclusion unit. "It is important to build the economic base and social capital of any community. If the Brixton pound can aid integration, that would obviously be a good thing. And if it can achieve the local multiplier effect [the number of times money is circulated within a community] that would be good, too."

This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 30 Oct 2009, by Jimmy Breeze.

  • 30 Oct 09
    chrishp
    Jimmy Breeze

    community London future urban economics cohesion

    • By nurturing this highly visible sense of localism and civic pride, the organisers hope to show that self-reliant communities can not only thrive, but be better prepared for looming environmental threats and the resulting social stresses.
    • Is it about strengthening community bonds and boosting the local economy, though, or spreading the environmental message? Both, says Nichols. "We want to hit home the idea of localism
    • 4 more annotations...