Institute for Leadership and Sustainability - Research Focus
Description
Jem Bendell:
Research on alternative currencies and exchange systems
Resourcing Transition
Some communities, small businesses and non-governmental organisations experience a scarcity of credit and money. In that context, new ways for people and organisations to share, swap, rent, or exchange, with or without official money, are important. In addition, peer-to-peer systems of lending, giving and investing are growing rapidly. Advances in the internet and mobile telephony present opportunities for these systems to grow, with the terms "sharing economy", "collaborative consumption" and "complementary currency" becoming popular. IFLAS describes these developments as aspects of "sustainable exchange" and examines the implications of all these new approaches for transition to fair and sustainable societies. The Institute’s work on this topic is already internationally renowned, with our Director keynoting in Copenhagen, delivering a popular TEDx talk in Rome, and discussing the research on Al Jazeera English. In 2013 a chapter by Professor Bendell and community credit guru Thomas Greco, called Currencies of Transition, appears in "The Necessary Transition" by Greenleaf Publishing.
Research development
The Institute is developing and conducting engaged scholarship on "sustainable exchange." The Director of IFLAS is Head of Research of the Green Money Working Group, which involves the British Chamber of Commerce and Coops UK. He is also working with the World Economic Forum’s task force of Young Global Leaders on the Sharing Economy, and will co-present the findings in the East Asia Summit in June 2013.
IFLAS is working with partners across Europe to develop applied research on this topic, including New Economics Foundation, United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UNNGLS), ESADE, Nyenrode Business University, the Academy of Business and Society (EABIS), the European Sustainability Academy, Community Forge, Transition City Lancaster, and the Lancaster Ethical Small Traders Association.
Education and dialogue
The Institute worked with the community group Transition City Lancaster and European Sustainability Academy to host seminars with the world expert on sustainable exchange systems, Thomas Greco, in the UK and Greece, in 2012. One output is the agreement of a common agenda amongst Greek alternative currency organisations, called the Drapanos Declaration." (http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/Courses/SubjectAreas/IFLAS/ResearchAlt.aspx)