ESF II: Report of the workshop: Money Moves the World

The workshop’s speakers were Stephen DeMeulenaere (Canada), Asia coordinator of the Dutch association Strohalm, Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota (Japan), Heloisa Primavera (Argentina) and Alexander Woitas (Germany). Stephen gave a quick world tour of local complementary currency systems – in Canada, Latin America, Asia and Papua New Guinea – and shared his experiences with the use of video documents. The situation in Japan was related by Miguel Yasuyuki Hirota; he talked about the history of the social money movement in Japan and presented seven different Japanese social money systems currently in use. Heloisa Primavera’s presentation covered the history of the social money movement in Argentina, the problems encountered and the future. Alexander Woitas presented « the Chiemgauer », a complementary currency created in Bavaria. The presentations were followed by questions and observations from the audience. The participants also proposed a bibliography.