Jeremy Ryan September

The Wörgl Experiment that took place in the Austrian town of Wörgl has long been celebrated as an economic miracle as the town experienced a remarkable economic revival amidst the Great Depression that drew attention from around the world. Community currency (CC) advocates often tout the experiment as a prime example of the socio-economic impact that CCs can have at the local level. However, despite its success, the Wörgl Experiment was short lived due to being shut down by the Austrian Central Bank. Consequently, questions regarding its unfulfilled potential remain. This paper conducts a detailed analysis of the experiment and uncovers what would have been two key considerations for the experiment’s continued success. The first key consideration would have been the labor certificates convertibility with, and therefore their potential substitutability and competition with the Austrian Schilling. This reframes the current understanding of the Wörgl Experiment as the amount of labor certificates redeemed for Austrian Schillings and its implications have not been discussed in the literature. The second key consideration would have been maintaining demand for the labor certificates in the face of dwindling tax arrears. Implications of these considerations for the broader field of CCs are discussed.

In spite of varied and sometimes underwhelming results, community currencies (CCs) continue to demonstrate potential for inducing beneficial regional development by means of technological innovation and creditable social outcomes. However, outside of the Western context, much still needs to be understood regarding their operation and management. Long-term durability in particular has been an issue that has been observed with CCs around the world. This paper aims to shed more light on this aspect of CC research from the Japanese perspective by formulating a descriptive framework of long-lived Japanese CCs. In order to accomplish this, 12 Japanese CC organizations that have each operated for at least a decade are investigated using a Grounded Theory approach (GT). The GT methodology was applied to a primary data set of transcribed interviews with CC leaders and organizers. This was supplemented by currency circulation reports, surveys among CC users, and observation of CC activities for the purposes of data triangulation. Leadership Continuity emerged as the core theme uniting these diverse organizations. An exploration of this theme reveals 3 broad operating forms of long-lived Japanese CCs, namely, LETS Passbook Communities, Subsidized Coupon Type CCs, and Non-Subsidized Coupon Type CCs. Additionally, 3 reliable funding strategies and 2 reinforcement factors were observed among the more robust organizations.