Money as institution, monetary constitution, growth imperative, Transitions Initiatives, decommodification

Abstract: This paper focuses, first, on successfully best-practice-cases of alternative monetary systems introduced by so called Transitions Initiatives; as well know as Transition Towns/Networks. Second, the paper is keen to highlight different possible features of alternative monetary constitutions to empower communities to emancipate individually and to organize collectively bottom-up a transition process towards a permacultural-circular-flow-economy. The third endeavor of this paper is to discuss the potential of a complementary monetary institutions established within social movements as mean to decommodificate resources, and to set up a self-organized new market mechanism coupled to the social needs of a free and pluralistic society and the reproductive bio-capacity of the nature. The paper considers the institution of money not only as mean of information to distribute and clear market produce efficiently, but also as mean of free political participations, mean of free social-bondings (e.g. in terms of ‚co-creation') and eventually a mean of information with regard to free individual behavior as fundamental cultural driver to form new normative orders for conviviality (‚buen vivir‘).