Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:49:31.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The New Barter Economy: An Appraisal of Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Colin C. Williams
Colin C. Williams
Affiliation:
Urban Studies, Leeds Metropolitan University, Centre for Urban Development and Environmental Management, Leeds Metropolitan University, Brunswick Building, Leeds, LS2 8BU. Tel: 0113 2832600 x4057 Fax: 0113 2833190 E-mail:[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new form of barter economy is emerging in many industrial nations. People are exchanging goods and services through Local Exchange and Trading Systems (LETS). These are local associations whose members list their offers of, and requests for, goods and services in a directory and then exchange them priced in a local unit of currency. Using a United Kingdom case study of Totnes LETS, this paper presents a preliminary appraisal of their economic, social equity and community-building objectives. It finds that although LETS are fulfilling these objectives, achievements could be substantially improved with some alterations in public policy towards LETS.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 85 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bauman, Z. (1990). Thinking sociologically, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bulmer, M. (1989) The underclass, empowerment and public policy. In Bulmer, M., Lewis, J. and Piachaud, D. (eds.) The goals of social policy, London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 245–57.Google Scholar
Boyle, D. (1993) Practical theoretical money, Town and Country Planning, 62, 4, 90–91.Google Scholar
Brandt, B. (1995) Whole life economics: revaluing daily life, Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Cook, D. (1989) Rich law, poor law: different responses to tax and social security fraud. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Crow, G. and Allen, G. (1994) Community life: an introduction to local social relations, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Dauncey, G. (1988) After the crash: the emergence of the rainbow economy, Green Print, London.Google Scholar
Dobson, R.V.G. (1993) Bringing the economy home from the market, London: Black Rose Books.Google Scholar
Ekins, P. (1986) Preface. In Ekins, P. (ed.) The living economy: a new economics in the making, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Galtung, J. (1986) Towards a new economics: on the theory and practice of self-reliance. In Ekins, P. (ed.) The living economy: a new economics in the making, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Gibbs, D., Longhurst, J. and Braithwaite, C. (1995) Towards sustainable cities: integrating local economic development and the environment, Paper presented to Regional Studies Association Conference, Gothenburg.Google Scholar
Greco, T.H. (1994) New money for healthy communities, Tucson: Thomas H. Greco.Google Scholar
Jackson, M. (1994) Known Australian LETSystems, either functioning or suspected as at September 20, 1994, OZLETS, 7, 9–12.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. (1987) Transnational Corporations and Uneven Development, London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Lang, P. (1994) LETS work: rebuilding the local economy, Bristol: Grover.Google Scholar
LetsLink UK (1994a) Letslink UK May Newsletter, Warminster: LetsLink UK.Google Scholar
LetsLink UK (1994b) LetsLink UK Draft Constitution, Warminster: LetsLink UK.Google Scholar
LetsLink UK (1994c) Tax briefing: LETS in Britain, Warminster: LetsLink UK.Google Scholar
Leyshon, A. and Thrift, N. (1994) Access to financial services and financial infrastructure withdrawal: problems and policies, Area, 26, 3, 268–75.Google Scholar
Linton, M. (1986) Local currency. In Ekins, P. (ed.) The living economy: a new economics in the making, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 196–203.Google Scholar
Mallinson, K. (1994) Green Dollar Exchanges Operating in New Zealand as at Winter 1994, Green Dollar Quarterly, 16, 13.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. (1995) Looking for enlightenment, The Sunday Times, 9 April, 8–9.Google Scholar
Morris, L. (1994) Informal aspects of social divisions, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 18, 1, 112–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Offe, C. and Heinze, R.G. (1992), Beyond Employment: time, work and the informal economy, Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. (1987) Future Work: jobs, self-employment and leisure, Gower, Aldershot.Google Scholar
Rosanvallon, P. (1980) Le developpement de l'economie souterraine et l'avenir des societes industrielles, Le debat, 110.2.Google Scholar
Sauvy, A., (1984) Le trevail noir et l'economie de demain, Paris: Caiman-Levy.Google Scholar
Seaton, K. (1994) Blue Mountains LETSystem: liberating local creativity, OZLETS, 7: 3–4.Google Scholar
Seyfang, G.J. (1994) The Local Exchange Trading System: political economy and social audit, Msc thesis, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia.Google Scholar
Shephard, L. (1992) The urgent need for ecological money and why we need local currencies, Warminster: LetsLink UK.Google Scholar
Weston, D. (1991) The rules of lucre, Geographical Magazine, April, pp. 38–40.Google Scholar
Wilding, N. (1991) Green money that makes the world go round, Green Line, Sept., 15–16.Google Scholar
Williams, C.C. (1994) Informal sector solutions to unemployment and social exclusion: the cause of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS). In Hardy, S., Lloyd, G. and Cundell, I. (eds.) Tackling Unemployment and Social Exclusion: problems for regions, solutions for people, London: Regional Studies Association, pp. 87–90.Google Scholar
Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1995) Black market work in the European Community: peripheral work for peripheral localities?, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 19, 1. 23–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1994) Spatial variations in the informal sector: a review of evidence from the European Union, Regional Studies, 28, 8, 819–825.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, C.C. and Windebank, J. (1993) Social and spatial inequalities in informal economic activity: some evidence from the European Community, Area, 25, 4, 358–364.Google Scholar