Resumo

In times of climate crisis and attacks to democracy, alternative forms of money that are issued and managed by citizens, NGOs and public administrations – often known as social, community or alternative currencies (ACs) – are probing to be an interesting tool to overcome poverty, social exclusion and economic constraints. Despite the increasing interest demonstrated by practitioners and researchers in implementing and investigating ACs worldwide, we identify a lack of studies on the understanding of their design principles, i.e., principles that help to guide the design and its implementation.

We argue that the design process of new ACs should take environmental issues into account in addition to the social, economic and political ones, or they will risk losing part of their relevance. Therefore, our goal is to contribute on the topic by validating and enriching the CGME model, a framework of design principles published by Diniz et al (2024). The model respects the lessons learned from the literature, but do not illustrates the richness and lively dynamics of concrete experiences being globally designed and implemented.

Despite the relevance of the topic, numerous authors have been claiming that there is a lack of studies on the understanding of the design features or principles for developing AC models. Diniz (et al., 2024) propose the CGME model that uses DSR, a qualitative research approach in which the object of study is the design process, i.e., it simultaneously generates knowledge about the method used to design an artifact and the design of the artifact itself. The CGME model has four main dimensions and nine elements of design principles.

From the data analysis and initial categorization that started from the nine elements of the CGME model, it was possible to find four new sub-elements and one new element. Both the new element and three of the new sub-elements are linked to a more human part of implementing a AC. Implementation, the new element, concerns the costs and operating routines of the project, and who will be responsible for these processes. The suggestion of adding the territorial part in scale aligns with the very characteristic of many currencies, which are associated with geographic territories.

We emphasize the importance of adding the implications related to human resources for the operation of a project, as well as on users and how their behavior can impact the sustainability of the AC. We recommend the addition of four sub-elements (users, motivation, resource units and territorial scale), and one element (operationalization), in addition to suggesting a change in the concept of scope presented by the original model. For practice, our work can help with people and organizations involved in AC projects by presenting a clear and well-structured guide for the implementation design of

Diniz, E. H., de Araujo, M. H., Alves, M. A., & Gonzalez, L. (2024). Design principles for sustainable community currency projects. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-023-01456-4