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The challenge of achieving low-carbon communities cannot be underestimated. While government policies set ambitious targets for carbon-reduction over the next 40 years, there remains an urgent need for tools and initiatives to deliver these reductions through behaviour-change among individuals, households and communities. This chapter sets out a 'New Economics' agenda for sustainable consumption which addresses the need for low-carbon communities. It then applies these criteria in a critical examination of complementary currencies in the UK (time banking and local money). These are alternative mechanisms for exchanging goods and services within a community, which do not use money, and which aim instead to build local economic resilience and social capital. The potential of these initiatives as carbon-reduction tools has not previously been considered. Time banking appears to offer the greatest potential for carbon-reduction through offering a supportive social network which meets some of the participants' social and psychological needs for recognition, esteem and belongingness - needs which might otherwise be met through material consumption. In contrast, local money systems aim to strengthen and build resilience in local economies, and their principal impact on consumption is through localisation and import-substitution - which brings carbon-reductions from avoiding transport costs. What the two initiatives share is a commitment to building new systems of exchange which meet sustainability criteria, and express a wider set of values than mainstream money. The research and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Sustainable consumption demands radical changes to the socio-economic and socio-technical systems of provision in society, in order to realign development goals towards quality of life rather than material consumption. Complementary currencies (CCs - parallel media of exchange which run alongside mainstream money) have been proposed as new tools to achieve these goals. This paper reviews experience with CCs, along with an untested CC policy proposal known as Personal Carbon Trading (PCT), which proposes to issue carbon currency to all UK citizens, with the aim of limiting and reducing carbon emissions. However, the lack of empirical experience with PCT hinders its development. This paper makes the novel conceptual link between CCs and PCT, in order to inform its development. The following factors are significant in influencing their character, impacts and outcomes: policy coherence; social contexts and cultures; technologies; skills and capabilities; and finally, the extent to which the CCs enlist and engage with active citizenship. Hitherto neglected social and political factors are significant influences on the development and success or otherwise of CCs, and by definition, PCT. While much PCT literature approaches it as a utilitarian market system, this analysis suggests that PCT should instead be approached as a socially-embedded collective endeavour, as 'ecological citizenship' rather than 'ecological modernisation'.

PurposeThe paper aims to improve understanding of the UK policy context for the social economy and thereby increase policy effectiveness in promoting the sector.Design/methodology/approachFirst the term "social economy" is discussed and defined. Then the range of policy responses to the social economy is reviewed. The interface between the social economy and policy is examined in detail using a case study initiative: time banks, a type of community currency which uses time as money.FindingsUK government policy responds very positively to the social economy, viewing it as a potential provider of social cohesion, public service delivery, and sustainable development. However, the time bank case study reveals that existing social policy on work and employment is a barrier to realising the potential of the sector.Practical implicationsProposals to overcome these policy barriers are suggested: they share the approach of redefining "work" and valuing and rewarding unpaid community efforts in the social economy.Originality/valueThe social economy is attracting increasing policy attention, but there is little empirical research in this area. This paper presents a review of existing policy and examines the impacts of policy in the social economy.

The 'social economy' has become a buzz-word in UK politics over the last decade as the 'third sector' is now seen as a source of social inclusion, enterprise, training and employment by all political parties, and a site of alternative economic and social relations, by activists and academics. But how coherent are government efforts to promote the social economy? And is there more to the social economy than this? This paper begins with a discussion of the term 'social economy' and identifies the key elements it covers, namely social enterprise, voluntary action, and community organisations. Using this broad conception, it then examines how the social economy is framed in policy terms, and finds a range of positive responses, from official support for social enterprises, to efforts to promote volunteering and involvement in community activities (under the heading 'active citizenship'). Examining the policy context of one specific social economy initiative, Time Banking in the UK (which promotes community engagement and social capital by using uses time as a form of money), a different, less enabling, range of policies are encountered. Participants in this alternative social economy are pressured to enter full time employment and cease their unpaid activities. The policy implications of this paradox are drawn out, raising questions about how different forms of 'work' are valued, who will carry out the vital social-reproduction work in our communities, and the downside of 'full employment'.

The challenge to create sustainable communities is identified as a core priority in 'Securing The Future', the UK government's strategy for sustainable development. Tackling social exclusion and building neighbourhood engagement are seen as principal elements of that objective, and there is an urgent need for tools and initiatives to achieve these aims. Community currencies are a grassroots innovation which claim to meet those goals. They are initiatives which develop and utilise an alternative medium of exchange, to enable people to trade goods and services without using cash. This paper evaluates a particular type of community currency - a time bank where participants use time as a unit of money - as a tool to overcome social exclusion. An innovative evaluation tool is developed to identify observable impacts of participation in the time bank, according to three criteria of social inclusion: achieving economic, social and political citizenship. A multi-method case study of a single time bank implements this appraisal tool, using postal surveys and interviews and focus groups with participants, document analysis, site visits and interviews with key stakeholders. It finds that the time bank is largely successful in meeting its social inclusion goals, and that the activity taking place is small in scale but very significant to the - mainly socially excluded - participants. A combination of government support to remove inhibitive social security regulations, and secure funding could enable time banking to grow into a powerful tool for building sustainable communities.

In recent years organically-grown produce for local markets has become more popular with consumers, and re-localising food chains has been put forward as a strategy for sustainable consumption due to the apparent benefits to local economies, communities, and environments. Notions of 'sustainable consumption' are contested, however, and can represent competing ideologies and perspectives about the environment and society. In order to examine the social implications of sustainable consumption, this paper sets out an analytical framework based upon Cultural Theory to typologise and categorise the range of perspectives on sustainable consumption into 'hierarchical', 'individualistic' and 'egalitarian' worldviews. It goes on to consider how these various worldviews might promote locally-grown organic food as a sustainable consumption initiative, and illustrates the social implications of each model and the tensions between them. These tensions are evident when attention is turned to a case study of Eostre Organics, a local organic food producers cooperative in Norfolk, East Anglia. Research with both Eostre's producers and consumers reveals that the values embedded in its practice are both partisan and pluralistic. Identifying Eostre as an 'egalitarian' endeavour, its interactions with policy regimes and social and economic institutions are examined, in order to understand the barriers it faces in operation and the institutional factors inhibiting the growth of sustainable food initiatives of this kind. These include public acceptability, externalisation of environmental costs associated with conventional produce, and a public sector which does not do enough to actively promote the use of locally sourced food. In addition to addressing these barriers, the implications of these findings for sustainable consumption policy and practice are that governments should recognise the contribution made by 'egalitarian' initiatives, and create policy space to let these grassroots projects thrive and develop 'bottom-up' responses to sustainable consumption.