Money for the Common Wealth of the Multitude

* PhD Thesis: MONEY FOR THE COMMON WEALTH OF THE MULTITUDE. TOWARD A USER-MANAGED CURRENCY AND PAYMENT SYSTEM DESIGN. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester (School of Business). by Marco Sachy

URL = https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/40788/1/2017SACHYMPhD.pdf

Abstract

"This thesis will begin with a critique to the orthodox paradigm in monetary economics.

Secondly, I will offer a theoretical, economic, structural and biopolitical analyses of the origin, nature and effects of money on society. After a critique to conventional paradigm of money, I will then propose a semiotic genealogy of money followed by an analysis of the Common, the Multitude together with a tentative fourfold proposal for monetary reform, i.e. a monetary dispositif for the socio-economic emancipation of the Multitude from the rule of capital to build a new paradigm of money.

In particular, I will discuss the literatures on basic income and the emerging notion for bottom-up welfare named Commonfare; the Neo-Chartalist approach to money; complementary, viz. subaltern currencies; and crypto-currencies and distributed ledgers technology. In turn, I will present the two qualitative methodologies that I endorsed to design and research four sites of inquiry in Iceland, Spain, Finland and Italy: Participatory Action Research and Critical Muti-Sited Ethnography. A discussion of fieldwork findings will follow. Moreover, I will offer a comparative analysis on fieldwork findings by identifying not only commonalities and differences among the four sites, but also by eliciting the limits of methodological choices. I will conclude this thesis by arguing to refine the theoretical framework introduced in the literature review; and notwithstanding personal and objective limitations to the application of the monetary dispositif in the real world, I will advocate for further inquiry on Money for the Common Wealth of the Multitude to increase the quality and effectiveness of the debate on suggestions for monetary reform."

Contents

1 A Critique to the Orthodox Monetary Paradigm

• 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.1.1 Making the Orthodox Monetary Paradigm explicit
  • 1.1.2 The Monetary Blindspot

• 1.2 Three Theories on the Ontology of Conventional Money
  • 1.2.1 Menger’s Commodity Exchange Theory - Objectual Genealogy of Money
  • 1.2.2 Simmel’s Philosophy of Money - Sociological Genealogy of Money
  • 1.2.3 Keynes’ Treatise on Money - Instrumental Genealogy of Money

• 1.3 An Economic Critique of the Orthodox Monetary Paradigm: five economic and structural shortcomings

• 1.4 A Bio-political Critique of the Orthodox Monetary Paradigm: the debt structure of control and the loss of trust in it

• 1.5 Conclusions

3 The four components of the dispositif to frame Money for the Common Wealth of the Multitude

• 3.1 Top-down 1: Basic Income within Commonfare, a bottom up emerging form of welfare provision for the Multitude

• 3.2 Top-down 2: the Neo-Chartalist approach

• 3.3 Bottom up 1: Complementary Currencies
  • 3.3.1 A brief History of Complementary Currencies
  • 3.3.2 Complementary Currencies Benefits and Best Practices
  • 3.3.3 A Critique of Complementary Currencies
  • 3.4 Bottom-up 2: Crypto-currencies and Distributed Ledgers Technology
  • 3.5 Conclusions

4 Methodology: Participatory Action Research and Critical Multi-Sited Ethnography

• 4.1 Introduction
• 4.2 Participatory Action Research and Critical Multi-Sited Ethnography
• 4.3 Conclusions

5 Fieldwork Findings

• 5.1 Introduction

• 5.2 DCENT, PIE News and the Freecoin Social Wallet

• 5.3 Vignette No 1: Social Krónas
  • 5.3.1 Context
  • 5.3.2 Social Krónas - a complementary crypto-currency and meritocratic basic income provision system in Reykjavik
  • 5.3.3 Relevance of Social Krónas for the Freecoin Social Wallet test in the fourth site

• 5.4 Vignette No 2: Eurocat
  • 5.4.1 Context
  • 5.4.2 Eurocat - a Micro-Endorsement and Mutual Credit System for a regional currency in Catalunya
  • 5.4.3 Relevance of Eurocat for the test of the Freecoin Social Wallet in the fourth site

• 5.5 Vignette No 3: Multapaakku
  • 5.5.1 Context
  • 5.5.2 Multapaakku - a Decentralised Self-remuneration system for Community-Supported Agriculture in Helsinki
  • 5.5.3 Relevance of Multapaakku for the test of the Freecoin Social Wallet in the fourth site

• 5.6 Vignette No 4: Commoncoin
  • 5.6.1 Context
  • 5.6.2 Commoncoin: a multi-signature self-remuneration complementary crypto-currency and basic income provision system in Milan
  • 5.6.3 Commoncoin: Test Description and Results

• 5.7 Conclusions

6 A Comparative Analysis among the Four Sites

• 6.1 Common Aspects among the Three Sites
  • 6.1.1 Shared Sense of the Role of Money as a Catalyst for Socio-economic Emancipation
  • 6.1.2 Money for the Common Wealth of the Multitude as a Bottom-up Practice of Monetary Constituent Governance
  • 6.1.3 Common Willingness to Experiment in Software for Monetary Innovation

• 6.2 Differences among the Four Sites
  • 6.2.1 Objective Differences
  • 6.2.2 Different Money Creation and Allocation Processes
  • 6.2.3 Different Complexity in Technological Design

• 6.3 Conclusions