Reflecting on findings from research conducted in the United Kingdom, we consider some implications for an understanding of economic geographies of the emergence of local currency systems (LCSs) within developed economies. LCSs are founded on the creation of local currencies and driven by local—but contested—circuits of consumption, exchange, and production. In this paper we are concerned with three interrelated sets of issues: the intersections of social and material relations and practices in the construction of economic geographies; the possibilities—constrained by these intersections—of creating alternative economic geographies; and the consequent possibilities of contributing to economic proliferation. We distinguish between three main forms of LCS—LETSystems, LETS schemes, and Time Dollars—differentiated along a range of institutional, organisational, ethical, and moral dimensions. These LCSs reflect and illustrate the diversity of meanings, understandings, and intentions brought to bear upon economic geographies. The existence—even if only temporary—of LCSs is testament to the (limited) possibilities of local economic self-determination and organisation; but their material ineffectiveness, decline, and uneven geographical spread reflect their formative links with mainstream practices and social relations and their internal contradictions and barriers. These characteristics illustrate the vulnerabilities inherent in all economic geographies and not just in those that are locally constructed.

Proposals for greater community involvement in local governance run through much ‘New Labour’ policy. Studies suggest that often the performance criteria tied to participatory mechanisms act to discipline citizen voices. This paper considers the ways in which this political space might simultaneously enable citizens to appropriate governmental power to their own ends. It draws on empirical evidence, gathered during qualitative research in south-east London, to focus on contestations surrounding the way in which ‘voices’ are expressed. The paper highlights the role of practitioners as allies in struggles to counter policy-makers' expectations for citizens to speak the ‘language’ of government.

This paper evaluates Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS) as a tool for community renewal. Reporting the results of a comprehensive three-year evaluation of LETS that used both quantitative and qualitative methods, we reveal that although LETS are an effective vehicle for community renewal, many changes are required if these schemes are to benefit a wider range of people. We conclude by documenting these changes. Este artículo evalua unos Planes Locales de Intercambio y Comereio (Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS)) como instrumento de renovación de Ia comunidad. Aqui informamos sobre los resultados de una evaluación exhaustiva de tres anos de LETS que utilizómetodos cuantitativos y cualitativos, y revelamos que, aunque LETS sirven de vehículo eficaz para la renovación de la comunidad, muchos cambios se necesitan para que se beneficie una gama mas amplia de gente de estos planes.

Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) are networks for exchanging goods and services using a local currency. They are seen by some as providing an `alternative' way of negotiating changing and complex livelihoods. Current literature on LETS and work understands participation as a response to dissatisfaction around work and as a strategy for re-valuing work. In this paper we draw initially on new quantitative data to understand who engages in LETS work and find that trading is small-scale and limited to a particular group of people. The data also suggest that contrary to previous research exchanges on LETS sometimes transform and sometimes reinforce existing work relations. To illuminate these complexities we draw on in-depth interviews with Stroud and Brixton LETS members. First, we highlight the multiple ways in which their relations to work connect with their motivations for joining LETS. Second, we examine how these motivations are translated into practice by looking at how prices for LETS work are negotiated. This illustrates that the way power interweaves during these negotiations is multiple and dynamic. Finally, we suggest that for LETS trading to be more equal, the different capacities that people have to negotiate needs to be considered.

The state is increasingly understood as a collection of institutions that are continually reforming as a result of multiple influences. As a consequence, the form of the state is by no means coherent or stable. One type of influence shaping this ongoing reformation is state institutions themselves, for example, the continuing struggles over public service provision in the United Kingdom. It is this kind of internal state reformation with which this paper is concerned. The paper explores the shift within the British state towards ‘governance’ entailing the transfer of state activities to ‘nonstate’ organisations. It focuses on an initiative called Learndirect that is part of this transition and its local articulation in east London. It applies strategic relational state theory as a way to simultaneously consider the order and the contingency of processes surrounding this initiative. This reveals tensions between different spatial scales of the institutions involved and the struggles that ensue. The paper highlights the power relations shaping the form Learndirect is taking and how this privileges the provision of particular kinds of services. It is argued that analysing these networks of power can help to uncover the ways in which some institutions exert influence over others so as to enlist support for a particular agenda. At the same time, the author is careful to stress that politics is always an open-ended space; consequently, the state form that results is never completely knowable, but neither is it completely random.

Recently, the policy community has been paying particular attention to Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS) as potential bridges into work for the unemployed. Up until now, however, there has only been piecemeal evidence on whether LETS are effective in this regard. In this paper, therefore, the full results of the first comprehensive evaluation of LETS are reported. In order to feed into the 'evidence-based policy-making' process, we evaluate whether LETS are effective first, as bridges into employment, second, as bridges into self-employment and, third and finally, at building reciprocal exchange networks. Our finding is that although LETS provide an indirect bridge into employment by improving employability, they are most effective as seedbeds for the development of self-employed business ventures and as vehicles for facilitating exchange beyond employment. For LETS to become more effective bridges into work for a wider range of the unemployed, nevertheless, a number of barriers to participation need to be tackled. The paper concludes by outlining how this could be achieved.

Summary This paper engages with current debates concerning reflexive research processes. It applies a relational concept of difference—recently envisaged as ‘betweenness’—to highlight how gender and class difference can be used to reflect other differences. It concludes that ‘betweenness’ can help identify geographies of identity and culture.

Institutions are objects of study that raise questions about the relationship between continuity and change. Employment is changing and for this reason it presents an opportunity to explore how it is that paid work might be thought of as an institutional ‘space’ that is made up of enduring and shifting power relations. This paper views institutions through a lens of ‘power-geometries’, that is, as complex webs of relations of domination and subordination (Massey, D., 1992. New Left Review 196, 65–84). The paper illustrates these power-geometries by exploring employment in local authority cleansing depots in South East England. I concentrate on how the inequity of employment relations enables the institutionalisation of work practices. Employment relations were found to have shifted to different degrees according to the particular geographies and histories of labour markets, employer strategies, local politics and worker solidarities. Despite these variations the asymmetry of employment relations is seen to have endured. I conclude by arguing that whilst power-geometries are not fixed, when ‘institutionalised’ they are not easily changed during ‘everyday’ interaction.