A journey to Ithaca : motivations and practices of alternative currency in the TEM metwork in Volos, Greece

“A Journey to Ithaca"

MOTIVATIONS AND PRACTICES OF ALTERNATIVE CURRENCY IN THE

TEM

V

,

G



Master Thesis, MSc Social and Cultural Anthropology

Graduate School of Social Sciences

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Name: Kirsten Flierman

Student ID: #10002299/6287956

Supervisor: Rob van Ginkel

Evaluators: Rob van Ginkel, Laurens Bakker, Alex Strating

Program: MSc Cultural and Social Anthropology

Department: Graduate School of Social Sciences Date of submission: June 20, 2014

Abstract

Since 2010, when the financial crisis in Greece and the austerity measures taken by the ‘troika’ started to affect people’s everyday-lives in the form of an extreme rise in unemployment, an increase of taxes and a decrease of household incomes, there has been another element that has risen throughout the country: alternative currency movements. Alternative currency movements promote a revaluation of money, economy and politics. In this thesis, I explore the motivations and practices of the alternative currency network TEM in Volos, Greece. These motivations and practices are embedded in conceptualizations of exchange and solidarity. Further, I focus on the potentiality and problems of decion-making processes in the TEM network and thereby showing its link to anarchist principles and problems. Finally, applying Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, I dicuss the ambiguous spatial character of the TEM network.

Ithaca

When you set out for distant Ithaca,

Fervently wish your journey may be long – Full of adventures and with much to learn. Of the Laestrygones and the Cyclopes, Of the angry god Poseidon, have no fear: These you shall not encounter if your thought Remains at all times lofty, - if select

Emotion touches you in body and spirit. Not the Laestrygones, not the Cyclopes, Nor yet the fierce Poseidon, shall you meet Unless you carry them within your soul, - Unless your soul should raise them to confront you.

Fervently wish your journey may be long. May they be numerous – the summer mornings When, pleased and joyous, you will be

anchoring

In harbors you have never seen before. Stay at the pompous Phoenician marts, And make provision of good merchandise; Coral and mother of pearl; ebony

And amber; and voluptuous perfumes Of every kind, in lavish quantity. Sojourn in many a city of the Nile,

And from the learned learn and learn amain.

At every stage bear Ithaca in mind. The arrival there is your appointed lot. But hurry not the voyage in the least: ‘twere better if you travelled many years and reached you island home in your old age, being rich and riches gathered on the way, and not expecting more from Ithaca.

Ithaca gave you the delightful voyage: Without her you would never have set out: And she has nothing else to give you now. And though you should find her wanting, Ithaca will not surprise you; for you will arrive Wise and experienced, having long since perceived

The unapparent sense in Ithaca.

Ιθακη α βγεις στον πηγαιµό για την Ιθάκη, να εύχεσαι νάναι µακρύς ο δρόµος, γεµάτος περιπέτειες, γεµάτος γνώσεις. Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας, τον θυµωµένο Ποσειδώνα µη φοβάσαι, τέτοια στον δρόµο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις, αν µέν’ η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή συγκίνησις το πνεύµα και το σώµα σου αγγίζει. Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας, τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις, αν δεν τους κουβανείς µες στην ψυχή σου, αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εµπρός σου. Να εύχεσαι νάναι µακρύς ο δρόµος. Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωιά να είναι που µε τι ευχαρίστησι, µε τι χαρά θα µπαίνεις σε λιµένας πρωτοειδωµένους· να σταµατήσεις σ’ εµπορεία Φοινικικά, και τες καλές πραγµάτειες ν’ αποκτήσεις, σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριµπάρια κ’ έβενους,και ηδονικά µυρωδικά κάθε λογής, όσο µπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά µυρωδικά· σε πόλεις Aιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας, να µάθεις και να µάθεις απ’ τους σπουδασµένους. Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη. Το φθάσιµον εκεί είν’ ο προορισµός σου. Aλλά µη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου. Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει· και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί, πλούσιος µε όσα κέρδισες στον δρόµο, µη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη. Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι. Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόµο. Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια. Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε. Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, µε τόση πείρα, ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σηµαίνουν

Contents

INTRODUCTION………...5

CHAPTER ONE:MOTIVATIONS AND PRACTICES IN THE TEM NETWORK………..16

CHAPTER TWO:EXCHANGE AND SOLIDARITY;CONCEPTUALIZATIONS………28

CHAPTER THREE:DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES;POTENTIALITY AND PROBLEMS………..39

CHAPTER FOUR:HETEROTOPIAN DREAMS;ASPACE APPROACH………49

CONCLUSION………..56

Introduction

In 2012, I came across two newspaper articles in The Guardian1 and The New York Times2 about a network in Greece where, as the articles stated, citizens were using an alternative currency as a creative way of dealing with the government-debt crisis in their country and its harsh effects on their daily lives. Even the local government, or at least the mayor of Volos was supporting this movement and local businesses were also involved, creating the possibility of an alternative, localized economy parallel to the mainstream market. It was a hopeful message: a crisis such as the financial crisis in Greece can lead to creative alternatives and a move from “me” to “us”, in other words to an economy based on solidarity rather than personal gain.

Entering the master program, I found myself going back to this hopeful image of citizens of Volos. As the crisis in Greece continued, the unemployment rates increased to over 27 percent and over 50 percent of the young people between 18 and 30 years. The austerity measures taken by the so-called troika (IMF, EU, European Central Bank) led to practical implications such as tax increases, pension cuts and privatization. At the same time, austerity also led to increased government control. The psychological effects of this situation of government control and the harsh consequences of the austerity measures were not to be taken lightly. At the same time, apparently, social movements such as the alternative currency movement in Volos were mushrooming throughout the country.

I asked myself: what is really going on in Greece? What are the hopes, dreams and aspirations of these people who, so bravely, are challenging the situation in which they now find themselves? Which ideas about social change, political and social ideologies drive the individuals involved in a complementary currency movement in Greece?

I started to work with these questions in the master program from February 2013. In the beginning of March I realized that I was not yet ready for the fieldwork. I had never been to Greece before, I didn’t speak the language and I was not informed well enough to know exactly where to go in Greece. I took a step back by taking a four-month break in which I learned the basics of the Greek language and this break allowed me to find the right place for                                                                                                                

1

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/16/greece-on-breadline-cashless-currency  (19/05/12)

2_{http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/world/europe/in-greece-barter-networks-surge.html#  (22/04/12)}

my fieldwork. In June 2013 I was connected to Maria Scordialos, a Greek woman who had presented a both confronting and inspiring view on the current Greek situation during the TEDx Leiden event ‘Banking the Future’ in December 2012 in Leiden, the Netherlands. At the end of her speech, Maria said: ‘and by the way, the word chrisis, krisis in Greek, crisis in English, does not mean a problem. It means: taking a stance’. This comment triggered my interest in the case of Greek complementary currencies. If you look at this crisis not as a problem, but as a potential for social change: how should this change – or transition look like according to those Greek citizens working with alternative currencies?

This question took me to Volos, first in the summer of 2013 to explore the field and the possibilities for fieldwork research within the TEM network, the alternative currency network of which the newspapers had so happily reported. In a small village not far from Volos I also met Maria, the woman who had inspired me with her speech. We discussed the current issues in Greece and she pointed out to me the tension in Greece between a historical inheritance of resistance and protest and the call for resilience to creatively mold a better future. Carrying these first valuable contacts in Volos, a basic bit of the language and a first impression of ‘what is going on in Greece’, I set out to Volos again in January 2014 for three months of fieldwork. This thesis is a reflection of this period of fieldwork. Although humble and with a decent amount of modesty, I hope to show the importance of understanding and apprehending the urgent call for change in this beautiful land.

S

:

A

A

In 2001, Greece was warmly welcomed to the Eurozone. The former Dutch Minister of Finance, Gerrit Zalm, praised Greece by stating that the country’s economical accomplishments of the last decade were “extraordinarily impressive”.3 However, less than ten years later, the government-debt crisis revealed not only the downside of the market liberalisation but above all the hidden problems of corruption, clientelism and rigid policy making (Monastiriotis 2013). The austerity measures that have been implemented on Greece by the so-called ‘troika’ (IMF, EU, European Central Bank) to ‘save’ Greece have thus far led to extremely severe consequences for its people. Between January 2010 and January 2013 pensions and wages in the public sector have declined by more than 25 percent, while tax rates have increased by more than 20 percent (2013: 7). Unemployment rates have increased from 6 to over 27 percent in the summer of 2013. The austerity measures have led to a                                                                                                                

collective distrust and dissatisfaction among Greeks towards the EU, government and market and have led to political instability and public disobedience such as collective tax evasion.

The crisis is, however, not only a financial crisis. It is argued that the crisis is not only an economic crisis, but an ‘organic systemic crisis’ which calls for a change in politics, economics and society as a whole (Vradis & Darakoglou 2011: 114). In opposition to the work of the troika, grassroots initiatives such as the local currency movement seem to provide an alternative way of holding power to reform economics in Greece: by collective action.

Since 2008, when the financial crisis became apparent and fuelled by the revolts of December 2008 in Athens, numerous citizen-led initiatives have mushroomed throughout Greece. These initiatives are all responding to the crisis, in one way or another: not only dozens of local currency systems have emerged, but also networks promoting inclusive democracy, communal kitchens, barter systems, trade without intermediaries and self-sustaining communities based on permaculture. In May 2013, the Omikron Project has listed over 300 of these organizations and networks throughout Greece4_{, the TEM network in Volos} being one of them.

E

:

TEM

M

The TEM network is located in Volos, a port city in the east of the mainland of Greece, halfway between Greece’s biggest cities Athens and Thessaloniki. Volos is part of the Thessaly region, the biggest agricultural region of Greece, and counts around 140.000 inhabitants.

The TEM network started its existence in 2010 and has currently around 700 members, all of whom are living in the municipality of Volos or the department Magnisia, of which Volos is the capital city. The TEM (Topiki Enallaktiki Monada), translated as Local Alternative Unit, functions as a so-called ‘alternative currency’. The notion ‘alternative currency’ implies that it is a currency that exists alternatively to, or rather complementary to mainstream money, in this case the euro. Irene Sotiropoulou, a Greek PhD student at the University of Crete, who has been involved in an extensive PhD project on alternative economies in Greece (2010) defines alternative currencies as ‘any currency used by people in transactions, without this being official in any country’, which often only have a virtual or digital appearance, for example through a computer system that coordinates the transactions made with this currency (2010: 2).

The TEM network is a currency system that works in this way. Members of the network exchange goods and services, and these transactions are valued and paid with TEM. For example: person A needs a haircut and goes to person B who is a hairdresser. After the job is done, person A transacts 10 TEM to the account of person B. On Saturday morning, person B goes to the TEM market and buys potatoes and olives from person C. Person C then goes to person A, who is also at the market, and buys cheese made by person A. All these transactions are registered in a computer database. Advertisements of supply and demand are expressed on the website of the network and are visible at the market on Saturday and Wednesday. There are also a number of local businesses in Volos which participate in the system. Members of the TEM network can pay (a part of) their bill with TEM, usually paying forty or fifty percent of the price in TEM and the remaining part in euros.

The aim of the TEM network is expressed on the website as ‘a network of mutual aid and a positive action to address the economic crisis in a creative way, by citizens who take their lives in their hands, create employment opportunities, add value to local products and meet identified needs’.5 For my fieldwork research I chose this city and this network for several reasons. First of all because it is a familiar place, I had been there in the summer, I already had a little idea of what was going on there and I made some first contacts which could be helpful in entering the field. Second, it was extremely helpful that access to the TEM network was quite easy. The system promotes transparency and is open for participation by anyone who is accepting their main principles and who is located in Volos or the surrounding region Magnisia. Third, and most vital, the TEM network is extremely local in its operation. The system only runs in Volos and this was quite useful for a short period of fieldwork. The TEM network also has a few local businesses operating in the system: a coffee bar, a few shops, a service center and even a garage. The cooperation of local businesses and the support by local authorities makes this network quite unique and I was interested to see to which extent these businesses were involved in the network. And fourth and even more helpful, the TEM network in Volos is a visible network: there is an open market twice a week where people meet to buy or sell their products, there is an office and helpdesk in the centre of the town, and the local businesses involved are also visibly present in the everyday life of the inhabitants of Volos. This visibility made the sampling of informants and participant-observation during the fieldwork quite uncomplicated and being a member of the network gave me the opportunity to engage in the process of exchange and the possibility of attending                                                                                                                

the weekly open meetings. Before dealing with my research methods in more depth, I will first introduce my research question and some important theoretical concepts.

R

Q

As I was working towards a tentative research question to guide my fieldwork in the TEM network, I was inspired by Cavafy’s poem about the quest of Oddyseus, returning home to Ithaca after the Trojan war. Although the destination of his journey was set, on his way he had to face a number of unexpected challenges which caused his travels to take a different route than he had anticipated when setting out to home. While challenging Cyclopes, Laistrikones and the temptations of the Sirens, at all time Ithaca and his beloved Penelope was on his mind. I imagined the members of the TEM network embarking on a similar journey. Clearly, they have an Ithaca in mind and beyond doubt in a context of crisis they face a situation that is not anticipated nor do they know how their future will unfold. What is their Ithaca? How does the ‘home’ they are travelling to look like? And, more important, how does their journey look like in practice? What obstacles do they face, what kind of Cyclopes do they have to fight? These questions resulted in the following research question:

"What ideological, practical and/or pragmatic motivations do members of the TEM network in Volos hold to participate in an alternative currency system and how do they operate in practice?”

By distuingishing a variety of motivations, I embedded the assumption that members would hold different reasons to participate in the network. These motivations also included ideas and opinions about the current context of crisis in Greece and ideas about transition or social change within their society. Entering the field in January, I soon discovered another element in the network that I had not foreseen, but proved to be extremely important: motivations for participation that were related to the notion of solidarity. In the question about the “practices” by members in the network, I referred not only to practices of exchange but also to the more organizational practice of holding meetings and processes of decision-making. As I observed during my time in the field, the last element of practice was even more vital than I had imagined before setting out to Greece. In this way, the research question as stated above embodies a variety of issues and elements in the TEM network, which I will unfold in the next chapters of my thesis.

T

C

Notions of reciprocity and solidarity are in anthropological literature mostly connected to the work of Marcel Mauss. His famous essay The Gift (1990 [1923]) deals with a social theory of various forms of gift exchange in archaic, non-Western societies. Gift exchange embodies three obligations: the obligation to give, the obligation to receive and the obligation to reciprocate the gift. According to Mauss, this threefold obligation is the basis for social solidarity. The act of gift exchange and reciprocity in practices is a means to create, strenghthen and sustain social ties and it are these tied relationships and a sense of

interconnectedness which are so often connected to the principle of solidarity. Based on the

early theories of Durkheim, solidarity is cohesion-centered, it functions as the glue that holds a society together (in Hylland-Eriksen/Nielsen 2001).

In his theory of the gift exchange, Mauss introduces the notion of ‘a total social phenomenon’ (Mauss 1990). Rituals of gift exchange in the archaic societies that Mauss studied are conceptualized as a total social phenomenon because these forms of exchange embody a variety of functions which are not only economic but also have a political and social symbolic function. Apprehending the multiple purposes the TEM network embodies, acts of alternative currency exchange might also be considered a total social phenomenon.

Dealing with Anarchism

In my quest to get an image of the motivations, ideologies and practical or pragmatic objectives of the TEM network, an analytical understanding of the concept of ‘anarchism’ can contribute to this search. Anarchism or, if you will, anarchist mindsets and practices are since long integrally linked to social and political life in Greece. Understanding social movements in Greece without taking into account the traces of anarchism seems therefore limited.

But first, some common misconceptions about anarchism have to be removed. There is a general view of anarchists as aggressive revolutionaries, not afraid to use violence and vandalism to reach their goals. Violent outbreaks of anarchist groups usually reach media attention, whereas non-violent gradual change is not noticed. “Anarchists are more than a band of disenchanted thugs bound by their respective hate for the system and the establishment who seek to destroy it through violent means and revolution” (Glimenakis 2011: 4). Anarchism, in its core, seeks to to create ‘the institutions of a new society “within the shell of of the old”, to expose, subvert and undermine strucutres of domination’ (Graeber 2004: 7). Its basic principles are: self-organization, voluntary association and mutual aid

Anarchists ‘tend to argue with each other about what is the truly democratic way to go about a meeting, at what point organization stops being empowering and starts squelching freedom’ (Graeber 2004: 6).

So, using a conceptualization of anarchism as a non-violent movement, based on self-organization and direct democracy, this image fits current alternative currency movements in Greece as well. On of the aims of this research was to investigate to what extent these anarchistic principles are found in the TEM network in Volos. By doing so, I will show how an anarchist approach to anthropology helps to understand the challenges of self-organization and decision-making within alternative currency movements.

Local Currency as Space: Heterotopia

Foucault’s concept of heterotopia (Foucault 1986, Johnson 2006) and North’s work on alternative currency in relation to this concept form an important theoretical backbone in my thesis (see Chapter 4). In his essay Of Other Spaces (1986) Foucault makes a clear distinction between utopias, which are essential unreal and heterotopian utopias, or heterotopias, which are real places but have a distinct ambiguous relation with the world around them. The word heterotopia comes from the Greek heteros, ‘another’, and topos, ‘place’. It is is ‘originally a medical term referring to a particular tissue that develops at a place other than is usual. The tissue is not diseased or particularly dangerous but merely placed elsewhere, a dislocation’ (Johnson 2006: 77).

In a radio broadcast in 1966 (in Johnson 2006: 76) Foucault illustrates the idea of heterotopia by referring to children’s fantasy play. In their inventive play, children create spaces in which they slip in and out between the ‘real world’ and the ‘fantasy world’. Children’s play often reflects experiences in the real world around them. In this way, as Johnson describes ‘the children’s inventive play produces a different space that at the same

time mirrors what is around them. The place reflects and contests simultaneously’ (Johnson 2006: 76). Foucault describes a variety of thes counter-spaces that, as he argues, can be found in any culture or society – the ‘primitive’ as well as the ‘modern’ (Foucault 1986: 25-26). Examples of heterotopian places are ‘heterotopias of deviation’, those places where ‘individuals whose behavior is deviant in relation to the required mean or norm are placed’ (ibid: 25), such as prison or psychiatric institutions. Other heterotopias are linked to time, such as the cemetery where one is confronted with a break of time and on the other hand there are places in which time is ‘fleeting’ such as fairs and festivals (ibid: 26). Foucault closes his article On Other Spaces with the ultimate example of a heterotopia: the ship. ‘…A floating

piece of space, a place without a place, that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself and at the same time is given over to the infinity of the sea and that, from port to port, from tack to tack, from brothel to brothel, it goes as far as the colonies in search of the most precious treasures they conceal in their gardens….’ (1986: 27).

North (1999) applies the concept of heterotopia to alternative currencies in his research on Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) in Manchester, United Kingdom. Based on Foucault’s conceptualization of heterotopia, he states that ‘LETS as heterotopia here stresses the extent of creativity of LETS: the extent to which this is a new technology that creates new fecund forms of liberatory technology rather than a passive reaction to dominant and constraining power’ (North 1999: 72). North distinguishes four types of heterotopia that can be applied to practices of alternative currency exchange. ‘First, heterotopia as contested multiple space; second, as realisable alternative space; third, as fleeting effervescence; or fourth, as unrealisable resistance that provides an image of a presently impossible future’ (1999: 75). Adopting this four-fold typology of heterotopias will help me in framing the heterotopian character of the TEM network.

Resilience and “Metis”

Practicing resiliency can be understood as a journey. The journey of Oddyseus, who sets sail for Ithaca after the Trojan War has ended, yet instead of sailing straight home he comes across multiple unexpected and unpredictable situations on which he has to anticipate and which prevents him for years from coming home. Resiliency is in the same way a journey of anticipating on unpredictable and unexpected circumstances, while remaining flexible in mind, soul and action to anticipate on each situation with what is needed at that particular moment. James Scott’s concept of Metis rests on this idea of resiliency. Scott defines Metis as representing ‘a wide array of practical skills and acquired intelligence in responding to a constantly changing natural and human environment’ (Scott 1998: 331). Metis is difficult to measure or to detect in interviews or narratives. Metis is often not consciously ‘used’ by its user, but rather an intuitevely reaction that, later on, can be reflected on as ‘doing the right thing at the right time’. The ‘litmus test’ for Metis is practical success. How did Oddyseus pass the Sirens, resisting the temptation of their songs? How do people practically deal with a context of financial uncertainty and insecurity?

The concept of Metis is helpful in the process of grasping the anticipations and creativity of people who practice resiliency in a context of a complex societal crisis, in which a potential for the future is experienced but not yet achieved. Metis is, in Scott’s words, ‘the

mode of reasoning most appropriate to complex material and social tasks where the

uncertainties are so daunting that we must trust our (experienced) intuition and feel our way’ (1998: 327).

R

M

In the first month of my fieldwork when I started visiting the open market twice a week, I adopted the role of a mere observer in observing the building, the products at the market, making extensive notes on which members were there and their activities during the opening hours of the market. The role of mere observer was helpful for just noting down products, actions of exchange and observing events, such as incidental arguments between members and the distribution of the food from the kitchen.

Apart from the market, I visited the TEM office in the centre of Volos, which functions both as helpdesk and as ‘solidarity kitchen’ where twice a week food is distributed to citizens in need. At the same time, I started selecting informants and, in a more informal way, I started getting to know active members whom I repeatedly met at the market and who repeatedly saw me. At the end of January I started participating in the network by offering knitted woolen socks and hats for sale. The move from observer to participant-observer was quite natural and it provided me more access to my informants: I felt more comfortable asking people questions after an exchange and likewise my informants were more frank and comfortable with me.

The use of semi-structured interviews was most useful with key-informants: core group members, two of them co-founders of the network, with strong visions and ideas about the structure and functioning of complementary currencies and the ‘solidarity’ aspect of the network. Semi-structured interviews were also necessary for informants outside the market, with whom I made an appointment for an interview and who would expected a set of questions to answer.

The value of informal interviews presented itself in the course of my fieldwork at the market. As I became closer connected to the active members at the market and started participating by selling my socks, serving coffee in the kitchen and taking Greek lessons, I learned that these forms of exchange often led to a conversation with a member, which most often turned into an informal interview about their experiences in the network. In the role of both a registered member but clearly present as a researcher, most of my informants were keen on sharing their thoughts and feelings, their hopes and dreams and their frustrations and disappointments with me. Due to the mutual relationship we built over the weeks and months,

I believe that the data I got from my informants were true beliefs, true feelings and true experiences, however divergent these experiences were between informants.

An analysis of the advertisements on the website was useful for getting practical data on products and services outside the market: what was offered and when and by whom. It also provided me some demographic information about the members: age, gender, where they live and what they offer. However, it did not tell me how actively the website was used and how often transactions were actually made through the advertisements on the website. In a conversation, one of my key-informant who is the administrator of the website showed me some statistical information on the amount of transactions but when I put a request in the open meeting for using this material for my research, a few members had such strong objections to this data entering the public domain, that it was finally decided that I could not use any of the statistical data. This provided me unexpectedly with an important issue in the network: the fear of government control and the felt need to ‘protect the network’ from the dangers of the public domain. It has to be said that not all members present at the meeting agreed on this: some other’s believed instead that the network should present itself more openly and transparent. However, in analysing my material, the extreme dissatisfaction with politics and state control became visible in various interviews and conversations and it proved to become an important theme in my research.

T

O

The first chapter focuses on the introduction of a history of the TEM network, its practices and the informants in the field. Drawing on individual accounts of members about the network through interviews and conversations, I will show a variety of (initial) motivations for participation in the network: economical motivations, practical motivations, psychological motivations, social motivations and socio-political ideologies. I will show that the TEM network houses an extremely wide range of socio-political beliefs and ideas which often collide, but which meet in a search for a general conceptualization of solidarity: giving and receiving help through reciprocal relationships with fellow citizens.

In the second chapter I will analyse the concepts of exchange and solidarity within the TEM network. Based on the early theories of Durkheim and Mauss and contemporary contributions of Gregory and Komter, I will show how the TEM network represents not only an economic alternative, but is in fact a ‘total social phenomenon’, in which multiple functions are intertwined. Based on the analysis of conceptualizations and opinions about solidarity within

TEM, I will argue that solidarity and reciprocity are not naturally linked. Rather, a tension exists between the means of exchange and the creation of solidarity.

In the third chapter, I explore the self-organizing nature of the TEM network and its challenges in the area of decision-making. I zoom in on the weekly open meetings and I will show how the members of the network struggle between a historical ‘inheritance’ of debate and aggressive resistance and the potential of consensus building and dialogue. The center of gravity in the TEM network is, as I will show in this chapter, not the economic activity of exchange but rather the extremely challenging exercise of self-organization, consensus building and interconnectedness. In a context of total governmental control, practising solidarity and self-organization is hopeful but nonetheless the fear for interverence and control tends to shake the fundaments of autonomy.

The fourth and last chapter is devoted to a “space approach” to the TEM network. In this chapter I will give an account of the spatial character of TEM. This includes issues of openness versus boundaries and the determined principle of the network to act beyond state control. The basis of my understanding of TEM as space is derived from Foucault’s notion of ‘heterotopia’ as explained in the theoretical framework of this chapter. It will form the backbone of my understanding the ambiguous character of the network and its tendency to be both real and ‘mythic’.

Chapter One

M

P

TEM

N

In this first chapter I will explore the following question: what motivates members to participate in the TEM network? By introducing you to a selection of my informants, I provide an analysis of the diversity of practical, economic, political and psychological motivations that are mutually found within the network.

But first, I will invite you to the field. Further, I explain and describe the general structures and practices of the TEM network: a biographical note and descriptive accounts of the open market, the website, the office and solidarity kitchen and the housing project for immigrants.

M

D

F

L

Wednesday January 8, 2014

It is almost dark when I reach the Open Market on Wednesday at 6.30 pm. A twenty-minute walk from the city centre, past the port and into the old neighbourhood Paleia, where the Open Market is located. In contrast to the city centre where the roads and alleys are build in ‘Manhattan style’ blocks, the neighbourhood Paleia is a mishmash of small streets with bars, a bakery, little artisan shops and abandoned old houses.

I follow the signs to the KTEL bus station. Just behind the station I find an iron gate with a big wooden signboard on it, which I recognise as the logo of the TEM. The sign says in brown letters Δικτυο Ανταλλαγων και Αλληλεγγηυς Μαγνισιας (Diktyo Andalachon ke Allilenghis Magnisias): Network for Exchange and Solidarity Magnisia. On the concrete pole next to the gate I see the word TEM painted with red graffiti letters. This is it, the place where I will conduct my fieldwork: the TEM grounds. Entering the TEM grounds, I notice a little patch of green on my right which clearly

functions as a vegetable garden with an olive tree and traces of vegetable plots. It is winter though, so apart from weeds there is nothing growing.

With its barrack-like concrete buildings, largely abandoned and partly torn down, the TEM grounds breathe the atmosphere of an old industrial or military terrain. Walking around the first yellow rectangular building with a red-tiled roof, I am welcomed by lights from the large windows of the bigger building behind it. A few cars are parked on a parking spot next to the garden. A distant sound of music welcomes me from inside the big building and I hear sounds of talk and laughter. The second building is a big rectangular building with five large light-filled windows and big green open doors which reveal a bit of the Open Market inside: tables filled with stuff, clothes and people walking in and out. In the semi-darkness, next to two big green doors I notice a number of people sitting around a small white table. They are talking, smoking and laughing loudly. A young shabby clothed man, around twenty years old and speaking with a French accent, is painting colourful motives on a Vespa scooter with acrylic paint. A few children are watching him curiously.

A feeling of both nervousness and excitement overtakes me for a moment: this is it! From now on I am not a mere visitor, I will have to keep my eyes and ears open, carefully registering everything my senses pick up. And, I will now get in contact with possible informants. Everything will be information, everything will be data. These are moments that when you feel the liberty of turning around and running away, but you know that this is not a a serious option. I enter the Open Market through the big green doors. The Open Market is divided in a few areas. The big hall which I first enter is clearly the market space. Eight long tables are set up in the middle of the hall and another dozen tables at every side of its four walls. Most tables are covered with white sheets, which little paper signs with names are attached on them. The uncovered tables reveal shoes, toys, clothes, kitchen machines, coffeemakers, tools, books, DVDs. The

hall looks and smells like an indoor flee market: a little chilly and the unmistakable moldy smell of second-hand clothes and books.

A double door at the other end of the hall leads to another space, which is called the kouzina (kitchen). A few wooden tables and chairs and about ten people and a few children are sitting there, giving the room the atmosphere of a little restaurant. People are drinking coffee, lively conversations fill the room. In a corner a big cooking pot is steaming on a stove and a few tables are made into a counter on which a variety of vegetables and food is displayed: lettuce, broccoli, zucchinis, apples, plastic boxes with spaghetti and chocolate cake and a big plate with sweet pastries.

…

At 7.15 pm, twenty to twenty-five people start gathering in the kitchen. One of the two women who have been serving coffee and taking boiled brocolli from the cooking pot, now puts a big empty olive oil can on the counter. A little boy excitingly puts his hand inside the can and draws a little card from it, then calling a name: Alexandra! A tender woman with red-dyed hair, reading glasses wearing a money belt around her waist, moves forward to the counter and picks up a box of spaghetti and some apples. Myrto, a woman I met earlier today at the TEM office, explains to me that this is the way the food is distributed from the kitchen, by a lottery system. Since there is not always enough food for everyone, the lottery system prevents members from rushing to the food.

The lottery continues for another twenty minutes or so, one by one people are taking their food and by 7.45 pm most people have left the kitchen and the market.

The TEM network started its existence in 2010, when a small group of citizens got together to discuss the possibilities of an alternative economy in Volos. One of these citizens was a sociologist working for social services at the city council of Volos. Together with a colleague at the city council he started to explore ideas about how the local society should be functioning. While developing ideas about setting up an alternative currency in Volos, they met other individuals on their way who joined the group. It was then April 2010.

In the process of designing the network they decided to base their idea on the LETS6 (Local Exchange Trading System), an alternative currency system which basically started in the 1980s in Canada and since then has been widely used in different corners of the globe. In short, LETS allows a group of people or a local community to exchange goods and services within their group without using the national currency. Other than direct barter, the system runs on the basis of an alternative currency with a locally determined value. In the case of the TEM network, it was decided that one TEM (Local Alternative Unit) was equal to one euro. As I will show further on, the choice for this way of giving value to TEM was made for the sake of simplicity and this has raised some interesting issues around the nature of value in the network. However, it seemed a clear and easy way for members to determine the value of their product or service.

After the summer of 2010 the group had tested the use of TEM within their group and among friends and they had set up the computer software to create a network of exchange. As they informed the local media about what they were doing, there was an immediate interest. A great number of citizens saw their personal questions and ideas reflected in the network and reacted enthusiastically on the news. At the same time, the effects of the financial crisis started to become more tangible in Greece. People in Volos were looking for ways to cover their expenses. Within this context, the network started to grow. They organized occasional markets in public spaces such as parks and squares in the town, but the exchange and communication chiefly took place through the internet. In addition weekly meetings were held to discuss the functioning and possible improvements for the network.

In April 2012, this situation changed. The terrain with its buildings behind the KTEL bus station, which once had belonged to the Ministry of Agriculture and was now property of the University of Thessaly, was donated – or rather lend, to the network by the university to use as a market space. Ioannis, one of the co-founders of the and still an extremely active and leading figure in the network, explained how this change affected the network in multiple ways. First of all, it provided the network literally a ‘roof over their heads’. The biggest building on the terrain was transformed into a market hall, where an Open Market could be held twice a week. This created an increasing visibility for the network and on the day they officially opened the network hundreds of people registered as a member. Enthusiasm and excitement about the idea prevailed. As many local farmers joined the network, there was a                                                                                                                

wide supply of vegetables, fruits, honey and oil which attracted many new members. At the same time the network was becoming a subject of interest for international media. The Guardian published an article about the network and the BBC made a pleading documentary,7 spreading the message of ‘how Greek citizens were coping creatively with the crisis’.

However, the sudden growth of the network and the effervescence created by its growth and the media attention, soon also showed a downside. Ioannis showed me how the group had not anticipated this situation well enough.

“The first day that we had the opening here, we had seven computers registering members. It was done so fast because you know, we didn’t know as well so we thought: ok, the more the better, the faster the good. And the members also thought ok…because there was an initial credit of a hundred TEM and a lot of people thought: ok, I’ll get the hundred TEM, maybe I’ll just do it for that…”

Soon, the network realized that the registration of members had to be done in a somewhat more official way. People who wanted to become a member had to go through an information seminar first, then agree with the basic principles of the network and give an idea of what they had to offer to the network.

Another problem the network soon faced was that although many farmers at first enthusiastically joined the network and sold part of their crops for TEM at the market, many of these producers soon found themselves with a surplus of TEM and no idea how to spend it. Food was obviously a highly wanted product at the market, since many members were facing financial difficulties and food is an everyday need. So, eventually many of the farmers backed out, which also lead to a decrease in member activity. According to Ioannis, this problem touched upon a clear understanding of basic principles of alternative currency such as mutual trust, active support and the ability to take initiative.

“…the problem is, if you make an alternative currency, everybody has to support it. For example, the real money, the euro, to be able to function it has behind it the police, the law system, the banks. It has                                                                                                                

7  _{http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17680904  (21/04/14)}  

armed guards, safes, it has behind it two, three thousand years of evolution…We don’t have that here. It’s all based on mutual trust and agreement.

So, what I am trying to say is: you need to put this extra effort you know, it’s not automatic. You need to be able to think: ‘I need to go first, to offer first, maybe to do the first move’. Look into the directory and find what you want. You have to talk to people and come into communication with everyone, all this…Apparently we were not ready so although in the beginning there was a big search in membership, it flattened out”.

In the next years up to present, the network tried to deal with these issues. Some disappointed people left, the run for food was delicately solved by the invention of the food lottery system and they kept holding weekly open meetings, on which I will elaborate further in this thesis, discussing and deciding on necessary changes. Currently the network has six or seven hundred members, of which there is an estimate of a hundred-fifty people frequently visiting the open market, about two-hundred people exchanging through the internet database, and another two-hundred members supporting the system but not, or rarely, actively using it.

P

E

:

W

O

M

TEM members exchange their goods or services in two ways: through their profile on the website and at the open market on the TEM grounds. The open market is held twice a week, on Wednesday evening from six to eight p.m. and on Saturday’s from ten a.m. to two p.m. At the open market members can either put their ware on a table or, in the case of food, they bring their vegetables, fruits, olive oil or homemade dishes to the kitchen, from where it will be distributed to fellow members. Food is the most desired commodity at the open market. The distribution of the food by the food lottery is usually the “highlight” of the day, when an average of thirty people crowd around the counter in the kitchen, hoping to be called early to get the best choice.

The website runs on Cyclus software, open source software which is freely given to networks or organizations working with alternative currency. Upon registering, members of TEM create a digital profile which allows them to create advertisements or to find the goods or services they need. Communication between members is established through these profiles

and once you have made a transaction, you can personally transfer the amount of TEM you owe to a fellow member using the software. For example, when taking Greek lessons from Sofia, after the lesson I would log in on the system and transfer fifteen TEM to her account. No intermediaries are necessary for this process. Clearly, this requires a degree of trust between the members, but there is always the back-up of the Member Support Team (which I will explain later on) in case you didn’t get paid.

In Volos, a few local businesses are also accepting (part of) the bill in TEM: a laundry service, a copy shop, a little café. However, the interest of local businesses in the network is not high, since businesses already have a hard time keeping their heads up and most business – owners do not really know how to spend their TEM’s. Apart from that, the TEM they receive is not included in the tax registration, so the business – owners have to cover the VAT themselves. When businesses do participate in the network, it’s mostly a matter of philosophy or sympathy.

P

S

:

O

,

K

,

H

The TEM office is located in a little tailor shop in the centre of Volos. The shop is run by Froufrou, one of the most active members of the network. Froufrou does not only host the office, she is also coordinator of the market and facilitator of the open meetings. Every morning between 11:30 and 13:30 one of the members of the Member Support Team is available in the office for information, as helpdesk and for administrative work for the network. Members who don’t own a computer can process their transactions here. The member support team is a group of members, all of whom have been a member for six months or longer, who take care of registering new members, providing the network with information, help and advice.

Apart from the office, Froufrou also hosts and runs a solidarity kitchen in her tailor shop. Two or three days a week, together with one or two volunteers, she prepares forty meals in the kitchen behind her shop for citizens in need. At one o’clock up to forty homeless, unemployed or other people in need gather outside on the street and receive a plastic bag with a warm dish, some bread and fruit. The food is donated by members of the network, a local bakery and other sympathizers.

At the TEM grounds opposite the market space, a smaller building serves another solidarity project by the network. The building provides housing for eight to ten people. I call them ‘residents’. The project is providing a (temporary) home for people who – for whatever reason have become homeless. Most of the residents are immigrants from Romania, Pakistan

and Kashmir, but at the time of my fieldwork there was also a Greek resident who recently lost his job and his house. The general idea of the project is to provide a temporary residency and to engage the residents in the network. All residents are members of the network and earn TEM for example by doing construction work or helping out at the market. As I will show in chapter three, there has been considerable debate about the housing project.

T

P

:

M

P

During my fieldwork in the network, I sampled informants based on ‘member activity’: core group members, who are involved in workgroups and go to the weekly meetings and assemblies; active traders, who are trading goods/services on a weekly basis either at the market or through the website; local business owners who participate in TEM and ‘peripheral’ traders, who don’t trade any goods/services, or newcomers in the network. I selected informants from these four different categories of membership. The majority of my informants were ‘core group members’ or ‘active traders’ and a smaller group of informants consisted of ‘local business’ or ‘peripheral’ members.

Among the ‘core group members’ and ‘active traders’ more than seventy-five percent of these informants are older than forty and most of them are unemployed or retired, men and women. Some of the women have a husband with a job. The selected group of ‘core group’ and ‘active trade’ informants is not an exceptional group within the broad research population: an estimate of 75 to 80 percent of the active members at the open market is somewhere between 40 and 70 years old. The high number of unemployed and retired members could explain their activity in the network: unemployed and retired members have more time to spend on work for the network than members with a paid job.

In contrast, the informants of the ‘local business’ and ‘peripheral member’ groups were significantly younger: five from eight informants was aged between 30 and 35 and six from the eight informants had a paid job. An analysis of the member activity on the website also showed that there are relatively many members under forty who have put advertisements for goods and services on the website, but these members are hardly found at the open market. Analyzing the data collected by taking interviews with active members and peripheral members of the network, I categorized a variety of (initial) motivations for participation in the network: economic motivations; psychological motivations; practical motivations and socio – political motivations.

Economic motivations to participate in the network are chiefly based on covering (some) of everyday practical needs like clothing, tools and especially food since mainstream money was not or hardly available to these members. Maria used to have a jewelry shop in the centre of Volos. When the crisis continued, she lost her business. With that she lost her income and still faces a lot of bills due to her bankruptcy, “taxes and things like that”. Now she makes marmalades, which she sells for TEM or at the self – organized organic market in the city on Monday’s and Thursday’s. She claims: “I want to see what is needed now [with the crisis]. Clearly, jewelry is not a basic need. There is plenty of olive oil. What is most needed are potatoes and vegetables”. She would like to set up a cooperation with other women to share their knowledge and skills.

Helene divorced from her husband about a year ago. After he got a heart attack he lost his job and started to drink. After the divorce, Helene felt relieved but had no money and no job. She rents her house, with which she earns two hundred euro a month. A friend told her about the TEM network, “so I telephoned and I came”. She sells anything she has: books, clothes, tea herbs she picks in the mountains. It provides her a small way to cover some needs: food, fruits, vegetables and she would like to get some furniture for her house.

A few members identify psychological motivations as a motive to join TEM. A way to overcome their loneliness or depression. Khloe a woman in her early forties, usually tired – looking and with a scent of melancholy around her, became a member of TEM at the opening of the open market in 2012, when the network subscribed hundreds of people in one day. At the time, she was interested in the system but had no time to come to the market. A year later, when she was facing some psychological problems she went back to become an active member, helping out in the office a few days a week in order to spend her time usefully and to distract herself from her problems. After a while she realized that helping other’s in the network also helped her to overcome her own problems:

“We have to understand that we can help ourselves by helping others first. Generally, we [human beings] are waiting for others to solve our problems, but what we don’t see is that we can help ourselves by starting to help others”.

Then, there are members who are interested in TEM for very practical reasons. Megan, an Irish-English mother of two children joined the network because she was looking for a

babysitter for her two daughters. One day she went to a park, where at that time TEM was organizing a market in a public space, and she put up a request for a babysitter. In return she offered English lessons. But somehow, she never found a babysitter and nobody asked her for English lessons. So, for a long time she was not able to start the exchange. Then, a journalist of the The Guardian was looking for stories from Greece about “people taking care of themselves”. She thought: this is an opportunity to get into the system. She invited the journalist to Volos and she asked a homeopathic doctor in the network to give her a treatment for TEM while the journalist was interviewing her. “This was my way into the system, the first transaction I made”. Another member of TEM told her: food sells. So she made cupcakes at home and brought them to the market. The cakes were sold within minutes to a woman who “had many children”. And somehow, “subconsciously” this same woman contacted her about getting English lessons for her children and then finally it “started to roll”. Now, Megan is an active member, giving English lessons and buying food, clothes and toys for her children. She sees no point in saving TEM and likes to have it circulating. Although she signed up for very practical reasons, Megan tells me that she only recently realized her appreciation for the network. As she was lining up for the food on Wednesday evening, while talking to another woman about the price of the macaroni, she realized: whatever the macaroni costs, I am buying macaroni from a woman who sends her children to me for English classes. And just then she suddenly felt “appreciation for the interconnectedness of all this”.

Mostly, the members expressed socio-political motivations, using TEM as a political expression against the total control of the government, anti-capitalist ideas, a search for new living standards, ideologies of self-organization and self-sustainability. These motivations are not only expressed reasons for alternative economic exchange, but also reflect broader conceptualizations of the crisis and attempts to create a better world.

Alexandra, sixty-four years old is one of the co-founders of the network. When we talk about her motivations for creating an alternative economy she says:

“In my mind I was looking for a group of people who live in this society but without the same standards of this society. Living with other standards”.

Then she explains how she looked for this kind of groups in Volos. One day she was attending a lecture by a German professor on alternative, social economies:

“While he was talking he said the magic sentence, which was magic to me. He said: there is no poverty. Poverty is invented, like money. Because everyone of us has something to offer. If the system does not need our offer, it does not mean that we are poor. We can create a small society inside the big society where we can offer our wealth, meaning ‘what you do, what your abilities are and everything’ and we offer [them] to each other. So I got enthusiastic, I got up and said: ‘that’s what I was waiting to hear for so many years!’

For her, TEM was not necessarily meant to become a currency, but mainly a way of living with other standards of value, wealth and livelihood than the “system outside”. Other members reflected similar thoughts. Marlene, a Dutch woman in her fifties who moved to Greece over fifteen years ago, expressed anti-consumerist ideas. In her view, the social system is collapsing and this collapse shows the inevitable need to “return to collective sharing” and to become independent of the need to consume. Often when I talk with her, she is looking for ways to provide publicly available food, for example by planting specific African trees which leaves and fruits supposedly give a lot of protein and by growing the powerful mustard seed on empty green patches in the city. Participating in TEM is for her a way to become less dependent on state money, but instead (ideally) creating a self-sufficient community of people who all have something to offer to each other.

Malina, a mother of a four-year-old girl, is not a very active member since she does not always have the time to come to the market. However, when I see her at the market she is always in conversation with others, discussing the failures of the church, the right education, the benefits of breastfeeding…She became a member right at the opening of the market in 2012 because she was interested in this system. According to her, times have changed drastically the last years. Politically and socially.

“This pushes us to come together. Capitalism has passed out, especially in Greece. We have to find new ways [of economy] to survive”.

So, we can conclude that multiple categories of motivations are found within the TEM network. These motivations all address, in various ways, the need for exchange outside or beyond the national economy. Some socio-political motivations reflect a broader concern for social issues in the current context of a country ‘in crisis’. Analyzing the material I realized that these concerns were embodied by the network’s principles of exchange and solidarity. Alternative currency exchange would enhance solidarity by creating strong relationships between its traders. However, as I witnessed during my interviews and conversations with members, this coalition of exchange and solidarity was not as evident, or natural, as it seemed to be. Many members claimed that solidarity was not (yet) to be found within the network, partly due to the fact that the use of a currency still promoted the ‘neo-liberal, capitalist’ search for personal gain and benefit the network so vividly wishes to oppose. I will explore these problems and the conceptualizations of exchange and solidarity in the next chapter.

Chapter Two

E

&

S

–

C

In the previous chapter I gave an account of the ideas and beliefs that drive TEM members to participate in the network. Here I will show that these ideas and beliefs are centered in conceptualizations of exchange and solidarity. Within the TEM network, exchange does not only mean the practice of transactions between members, but also refers to building relationships and an exchange of knowledge, ideas and - not less important - friendship and fun. The creation and strenghthening of solidarity is the core of the network’s mission.

Departing from the assumption that alternative currency exchange, based on principles of interest-free credit and mutual trust forms a direct coalition with solidarity, I will argue that this assumption is, at the very least, complicated. One of the basic features of this problem is the issue of value. The network decided to value one TEM equal to one euro, partly to make prices easy to calculate for the members. However, this close connection to the national currency leads to a shared feeling that TEM is not sufficiently serving its principles of solidarity. A second critical point is the very conceptualization of solidarity itself. I will show that the concept of solidarity within the TEM network is extended beyond the practice of exchange and is, perhaps most vitally important, a solidarity of “the mind”.

R

S

The founding principles of the TEM network, as published on its website8, state that exchange means solidarity by enhancing close relationships and mutual aid and agreement. Alternative currency exchange, in this view, forms a direct coalition with the concept of solidarity. To investigate this assumption, it is necessary to clarify what mode of “exchange” the TEM network uses and which underlying purposes this mode of exchange serves.

First, the practice of exchange within the TEM network can be considered an economic action. TEM functions as a marketplace where its members are allowed to sell any goods or services they can offer and likewise it is possible to obtain those goods and services that one needs or appreciates. The system functions on a liberal economic principle of supply                                                                                                                

and demand. Prices are set against valuation of the national currency: in principle one TEM equals one euro and it is up to the individual members how to value their goods and services. In this way, TEM is a small-scale market economy, based on the same liberal principles we find in the mainstream economic domain. However, viewing TEM as a mere economic sphere is too limited. Although TEM members clearly get the opportunity to benefit economically from the exchange within the market, the network is not established for only this purpose.

As I mentioned earlier, the TEM network is the fruit of a group of concerned citizens in Volos, who shared a growing dissatisfaction with the way mainstream economy – and more specifically money – is organized. As Thomas H. Greco puts it: ‘The problems facing our communities, and civilization as a whole, stem from the very nature of money and the mechanisms by which it is created and allocated by the members of the most powerful cartel the world has even known. The entire global regime of money and banking has been designed to centralize power and concentrate wealth in the hands of a ruling elite, and it has been doing that ever more effectively for quite a long time’ (Greco 2011: 1). The idea that tracing back the problems the world faces today will lead to the very nature of money resonates with the TEM network and most of its members. In the current context of the financial crisis in Greece and its consequences, the discontent with the way money is organized is ever stronger. Greek citizens are now paying the high price for a failing system. By adopting an interest-free credit unit (Greco/Bendell 2012) the TEM network opposes the ‘capitalist’ centralization of power over money. TEM is, in this view, a resistance tool. It is a form of micro politics, illuminating local power circulations and the possibilities to create local control and influence on money as opposed to the decentralized, depoliticized national currency (North 1999: 70). In other words, TEM is motivated by a revaluation of money and trading relationships. Money has to be abundant - instead of functioning on the basis of scarcity, it has to be locally spent and above all it should actively circulate. In this way, transactions enhance friendships, friendships built out of economic activity and the social relationships between co-traders (North 1999: 81). To sum up, the network wishes to serve a multi-layered purpose of economic empowerment as well as enhancing social ties and a politically motivated practice of resistance.

The multi-layered purpose of alternative currency exchange within the TEM network represents in the words of Marcel Mauss a ‘total social phenomenon’. In his famous work on gift exchange The Gift (1990 [1923]), Mauss uses this concept to point out that practices of gift exchange are not one-sided but in fact encompass a variety of different functions and ‘institutions’. These functions are economic functions which relate to forms of production and