| Popis: |
This paper discusses the governance process of digital complementarycurrencies (DCCs). Our reflections are based on contributions fromfields such as the anthropology of economy and currencies, especiallyfrom the perspective of monetary plurality and governance of commons,and also on concepts developed in the field of Science and TechnologyStudies (STS). The research effort accompanies the material changes ofthe Mumbuca DCC (Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), connected to theBrazilian Network of Community Development Banks (CDBs), which hasaccumulated more than one hundred experiences since 1998. We use threedifferent approaches to investigate the Mumbuca digital platform: theprocesses related to the requirements of the digital platformsadopted, the tensions concerning its closed architecture model andfinally the currency circulation data - now digital, and relativelytraceable. The paper explores the impossibility to dissociate, on theone hand, the ‘social practices’ enunciated by the communities relatedto the local currency proposals (and connected to the idea of money asa commons) and, on the other, the materialities present indigitalization processes. Finally, calling for a sociotechnicalapproach, it outlines some of the challenges faced by the CDBsNetwork, towards treating the DCC as a commons. |
