Toward a new harmony of money and reciprocity, community currencies in a gendered economy

grantor: University of TorontoIntentional movements to redesign the local economy can disrupt conventional patterns of gender relations as can non-intentional change and crises. New practices can give rise to various types of gender politics, including moves to re-valorize the feminine, to re-position marginal masculinities, and to create relationships less governed by oppositional gender categories, as well as moves to reproduce gender divisions and hierarchies. Taking community currencies as social experiments, the thesis examines the multi-faceted gender politics that arise as new forms of money relations interact with the gendered economy. The study draws on research literature on gendered economic institutions: economic thought, paid and unpaid work, consumption, and the "gift economy." Interpretive analysis of gender politics in community currency projects is based on participant observation in LETS over three years and 40 intensive interviews with participants in LETS, HOURS and WomanShare in six cities in Ontario and New York State. Community currency relations are direct, personal and motivated by ideals of community, cooperation and reciprocity. Many exchanges involve monetizing work that was previously unmarketed. Also, all members must actively balance their earning and paying over time within the network. These aspects of community currency relations are in tension with gender asymmetries in the wider economy, including the undervaluation of "women's" work, female care-giver/male breadwinner ideologies and gender divisions of consumption and production. The tensions may constrain what the movement can achieve, but they also serve as a resource for members seeking new ways to "do gender."Ph.D