Alternative economies, digital innovation and commoning in grassroots organisations: Analysing degrowth currencies in the Spanish region of Catalonia

The wake of the 2008 financial crisis wrought economic havoc in Spain, resulting in the widespread protest of theindignadosmovement. Catalonia in particular saw a flourishing of various new forms of activism and socio-economic collaboration, such as cooperative networks, eco-villages and alternative currencies. This paper explores emerging forms of alternative currencies and commoning practices in Catalonia, Spain. It is based on ethnographic research to explore emergent grassroots innovations that theorise and practice degrowth proposals in diverse ways. In particular, it investigates developing forms of social currency and social debt, most of which are associated with the Catalan Integral Cooperative and FairCoop. This latter organisation is a network of cooperatives developing tools around Faircoin, a cryptocurrency based on social and ecological principles. In doing so, it contributes to alternative currencies scholarship. This paper shows how these self-organised grassroots innovations are making use of technological and digital elements in order to build an alternative financial infrastructure. Furthermore, it demonstrates how these alternative social currencies and blockchain initiatives clearly show that non-capitalist and degrowth oriented technological innovation can generate economies in more progressive and community-led ways.