Events Archive

Here is a list of past events. Current events are here.

Event archive: Remaking Money Symposium

on 23. April 2025

Social-Ecological Transformation through Local Money, Non-Profit Banking, and Commons Governance

📅 May 22–23, 2025
📍 Freie Gemeinschaftsbank, Basel

 

Over the past 25 years, local currency initiatives have been a pillar of grassroots monetary reform. While these projects have achieved important outcomes — most notably by expanding public understanding of what money is and how it could be designed differently to better serve people and the planet — they have largely fallen short of generating systemic impact for social-ecological transformation.

In today’s rapidly shifting political and economic landscape — marked by increasing interest in economic localization and the search for resilient, place-based solutions — the question is more urgent than ever:
Can local money play a more prominent and strategic role in driving meaningful transformation?
What institutional innovations, particularly the involvement of area municipalities and non-profit and public-interest banks, are needed to enhance their effectiveness?
And what governance frameworks are required to ensure that such monetary designs are both accountable and scalable?

The Remaking Money Symposium offers a forum for critical dialogue and collaboration among local currency activists, local stakeholders, financial innovators, and researchers. Together, we will examine the current status of local monetary experiments, assess their transformative potential, and explore what it means to truly remake money to enhance and serve a sustainable and just future – locally, socially and environmentally.

Programme Overview

📌 May 22 | Part 1: The Challenges of Local Money
Showcasing Local Currencies and Their Structural Challenges

Morning presentations will highlight local currency projects, focusing on their context, governance, and scaling challenges:

  • Contextual Frames

  • Management and Resilience of Local Currencies

  • Scaling Dynamics: Limits and Levers

Afternoon workshops will explore shared insights and dilemmas:

  • WS 1: Mapping Conditions of Emergence

  • WS 2: Mapping Managerial and Maintenance Challenges

  • WS 3: Mapping Growth Potentials and Growth Barriers

🕙 10:00–17:00 | Symposium Part 1
🕗 20:00–22:00 | Public Evening Panel

The evening session will feature a reflective dialogue with key contributors and open the floor to public discussion and questions.

📌 May 23 | Part 2: The Future of Local Money
From Innovation to Implementation: Designing Local Monetary Architectures

This day focuses on the design and implementation of future-ready monetary systems that align with institutional realities and systemic goals:

  • Multi-stakeholder design and governance frameworks

  • Monetary architecture for regional financial self-sufficiency

  • Implementation pathways and local embeddedness

Sessions include contributions from practitioners, public officials, and financial innovators.

🕘 09:00–17:00 | Symposium Part 2

How to Submit Your Contribution

Please send an email to: mail@ecoloc.org
Subject: Submission – Local Money Symposium 2025

Your submission should include:

  • Title of your contribution

  • Abstract (max. 300 words) outlining your topic, approach, and relevance

  • Your name, affiliation, and role

  • Short bio (2–4 sentences)

🗓 Deadline for submissions: Thursday, April 24, 2025
📬 Final programme will be shared: Monday, April 28, 2025

Language

The symposium will be conducted in English to support international participation.
Presenters from German- or Swiss-based initiatives are kindly asked to prepare their presentations in English. Selective translations will be available.

Confirmed Speakers (in presence):

  • Ester Barinaga, University of Lund

  • Paolo Dini, Informal Systems

  • Tomaz Fleischman, Informal Systems

  • Giuseppe Littera, Informal Systems (Sardex)

  • Goran Jeras, European Ethical Bank Initiative (EEB)

  • Jakub Lanc, South Moravia Development Agency (JINAG), University of Brno

  • Isidor Wallimann, Social Economy Basel

  • Stephan Dilschneider, Ecoloc

 

Event archive: Good Money Designs – 40 years from LETSystems to commons currencies

from 8. March 2025 to 8. March 2025

GOOD MONEY LAB 14

  • Speaker: Michal Linton (The original designer of LETS. He initiated LETSytem in Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, Canada in 1983.)
  • MC: Makoto Nishibe (Representative Director, Good Money Lab)
  • Moderator: Kenta otani (Researcher, Good Money Lab)
  • Date and time：11:00-13:00 on March 8th (Sat) 2025 (JST) / 18:00-20:00 on March 7th (Fri) 2025 (PST)

Mehr Informationen und der Link zur Anmeldung finden Sie hier.

Event archive: 7th Law & Macroeconomics Conference

from 6. January 2025 to 7. January 2025, Michigan
 The 7th Conference on Law & Macroeconomics will be held on January 6-7, 2025 at the University of Michigan.

The Call for Papers is open to scholars from all relevant disciplines, including but not limited to law, macroeconomics, history, political science, and sociology.  Interested applicants should submit their papers for consideration on or before October 13, 2024 through this form.  Abstracts and introductions are welcome, but full drafts of accepted papers will be expected for distribution by December 22, 2024.  Questions can be directed to lawandmacro@umich.edu.

From the organizers:

Geopolitical tensions, inflation, and recurrent banking crises have exposed the fragilities of the international monetary system. At the same time, interventions by central banks and fiscal authorities have stoked optimism about the potential for a “soft landing” and sustainable economic expansion.

These developments reinforce the imperative of research at the intersection of law and macroeconomics, even as they recast and sharpen our understanding of the field. They form the background for the Seventh Conference on Law and Macroeconomics. The conference will be held on January 6-7, 2025, at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We welcome submissions of papers that address the following topics, among
others:

  1. Monetary policy, including comparative approaches to achieving price stability;
  2. Fiscal policy, including legal and regulatory tools to mitigate economic downturns;
  3. Financial regulatory policy, including its interactions with fiscal and monetary policies;
  4. Emergency lending authorities given to central bankers to backstop the broader economy;
  5. Industrial policy as means of promoting economic development or combating climate change;
  6. Increased use of sanctions against small and large, interconnected economies;
  7. The U.S. dollar and its status as the global reserve currency; and
  8. Sovereign debt vulnerabilities, including the role of international institutions like the IMF

For more information, including the full Call for Papers, please visit the conference website.

PAPER SUBMISSIONS DUE OCTOBER 13, 2024.

Event archive: RAMICS 7th: The Future of Money – Democracy, Localism and Inclusion

from 6. November 2024 to 9. November 2024, Rome (Italy)

Against a backdrop of citizenry’s mistrust towards the governments of their own countries   successive economic crises over the years have further widened the gap between the local and central institutions. In view of these challenges, complementary currencies may be able to reconnect the knots of the citizens with formal institutions (and vice versa).

Many experiences with complementary means of payment in recent years have resulted in systems of mutual exchange traceable to business communities, with the creation of closed circuits in which members voluntarily exchange goods and services, offsetting debts with credits. Or with initiatives characterized by solidarity and participatory systems aimed at strengthening community relations for development that aims at being financially and economically sustainable. One of the unknowns often encountered is the relationship with national and subnational institutions and in particular on the presence or absence of specific state regulatory references. In the case, in fact, of weakness of state norms, the production of goods and services has moved “regardless” of such references, eschewing the formal economy. The need to meet the motivations from below, born to avoid processes of impoverishment of communities, through the use of complementary monetary circulation systems, and the ability of regional and local institutions to transpose the pushes from below are at the basis of the possibility of creating social innovation or, in negative cases, an economic reality at the edge of the invisible. It is therefore on these issues that we invite researchers, activists and anyone interested in such processes to the conference entitled: “The Future of Money: Democracy, Localism and Inclusion.”

Themes for paper presentations are:

  • Digitalization – Can CCS help bridge the distance between the technological and digital divides. Suggested key words: 4th industrial revolution, Digital currencies, Crypto currencies etc.
  • Regional/Local – Communication between local/ regional administrations and communities through CCS. Suggested key words: Decentralization, Decommodification, (Re-)Distribution, Social cohesion, social innovation, Community resilience, Community development and Local development.
  • Welfare state – how CCS can help the social system. Suggested key words: Debt crises, Poverty, Inequality, Liquidity, Inflation, Ethical finance, Social harmony, Social justice, etc.
  • Enviroment – The role of the CCS in the field of sustainable and biodiversity. Suggested key words: Perpetual pandemics, Energy transition, Natural resources, Ecology, Green New Deal, Green investment.
  • Historical – the different economic, social and cultural phases of the history of complementary currencies. Suggested key words: history, transition phases, civil society, currency.
  • CCS – Review and renew. Case studies, concepts, experience reports.

Deadlines for submission of papers, registration and more information will be published in due time on
https://ramics.org/7th-congress-rome-2024/

Event archive: Summer university: „Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems (AEMS)”

from 15. July 2024 to 2. August 2024, Vienna

The interdisciplinary summer university (5 ECTS) focuses on alternatives to the economic status quo: International participants deal with limits of growth, as well as the instabilities of our financial system and learn why a drastic system change is necessary to stabilize the world climate. The program offers a holistic approach, with the participants learning about many possible alternatives and reform proposals: heterodox economics, ethical banking, degrowth, sovereign money and more!

 

AEMS is an academic summer university program with a global following and held in English.

Since 2014, the program counts more than 440 alumni of 79 nationalities.

 

The program will take place again in Vienna from 15 July to 02 August 2024!

Applications are open! – More information and application form can be found here.

 

Target group

The program is open to students and professionals from all fields who strive to create a more just and green future. Are you looking for a unique educational program with a holistic approach to the topic? Then look no further!

There is also a limited number of scholarship spots available – application deadline for scholarships: 01 April 2024

 

The flyer for the 2024 summer school can be downloaded here (PDF). The report from the last years can be found here.

 

Event archive: Collaborative Finance #2 – Serving Local Communities

from 28. June 2024 to 2. July 2000, Banja LuKa, Bosnia

We need to re-organise work, wages, cooperation, food, community, procurement, health, education, even government. Financial innovation is a critical part of the solution, re-imagining investment, ownership, pensions, money, cooperation, supply chains and resilience.

There are too many ideas to process, it can be hard to look beyond our specialist bubbles and impossible to coordinate, to agree, to plan.

#CoFi is a space for meeting, knowing each other, building trust, cooperation and hopefully, building power. In our first gathering we showcased payment systems architectures, and how credit is created and circulates and extinguished within them.

But finance is just numbers if it doesn’t serve the real economy. This July, the Crypto Commons Association is proud to offer CoFi 2, where we will start to bridge alternative finance to other alternatives!  #CoFi isn’t intended to be super-geeky; grassroots building requires building broad alliances rather than competing for market niches.

If you are still reading, you’re invited to Banja Luka at the end of June. We want to see practitioners not only in payments tech, but in community building and community finance, food networks, barter networks, business networks and everything adjacent.

 

More information and registration here.

Event archive: Public viewing & panel discussion: Finding the Money (Movie)

on 26. March 2024 20:00, Berlin

Together with the Pufendorf Gesellschaft and director Maren Poitras, we are presenting the German premiere of her award-winning documentary “Finding the Money“!

“Finding the Money” follows economist Stephanie Kelton in her efforts to establish a new understanding of money in the USA.

With the help of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), she turns many an economic worldview on its head and offers an unorthodox view of topics ranging from climate change to social justice. The film follows two interwoven storylines. On the one hand, MMT is presented in its main features, and on the other, the controversy surrounding it is discussed with representatives of both camps. (For more on the content, see the trailer below, the film’s official website, or the booklet for download)

After the screening, director Maren Poitras and economist and MMT representative Dirk Ehnts will comment on the significance of MMT, including its ramifications for the debate around the Euro-area’s “debt ceiling”. Questions from the audience will also be answered.

All details about the event and ticket purchase (price: 5.67€) here on the website of the Pufendorf Gesellschaft.

 

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Event archive: Ethical Investments and Peace (online)

on 28. February 2024 16:30, Online

What is the role of banks and investment companies in financing wars and the arms industry? With a keynote from Susi Snyder, Programme Coordinator at ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. New research, ‘Finance for Peace. Finance for War’, will be launched at the event, followed by a panel discussion with representatives from values-based banks advocating for peace and against investments in weapons.

More information and registration here.

Event archive: Beyond ESG: A Bolder Approach to Sustainability

on 08. November 2023 16:00, Online

Has ESG replaced conversations about sustainability and impact? Join us on 8 November for an important conversation with experts in values-based banking about the opportunities and limits of ESG. Together, they will examine ESG as a helpful starting point for financial institutions but not as an end goal in itself.

The session aims to encourage banks to Think Bolder so that their actions and ambitions can change the rules of the game and move towards sustainable market transformation.

 

More information and registration here.

 

The positive push back of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors in big companies and banks may lead to a comprehension of sustainability limited to risk screening, data and compliance. But, what about impact creation? 

With the rise of ESG at traditional banks, it is even more important to be clear on what can be achieved with ESG screening and what additional impact can be created with a bolder approach to banking, centred on enabling social empowerment, economic prosperity and environmental regeneration. That is a Triple Bottom Line approach.

Values-based banks are redefining the role of finance in society by going beyond the focus on ESG data. They lead the transformation of banking and finance in their respective communities, countries and regions, and expand their impact by supporting others in the way to change. They do not settle for being clean fish in polluted waters.

Join us for an important conversation with experts in values-based banking about the opportunities and limits of ESG. The panel discussion will include the following speakers:

  • Tommaso Rondinella, Head of Impact Models and Socio-Environmental Assessment of Banca Etica (Italy)
  • Avelina Perez, Corporate Affairs Director at Banco Solidario (Ecuador)
  • Sharad Tegi Tuladhar, Chief Policy, Environmental and Social Officer at NMB Bank (Nepal)

The dialogue will be moderated by Dr. Adriana-Kocornik-Mina, Research and Metrics Senior Manager at the GABV. The session will be in English, with Spanish translation available.

Together, they will examine ESG as a helpful starting point for financial institutions but not as an end goal in itself. As the speakers come from different geographical regions and cultural environments, they will offer a diverse approach to how they are overcoming the barriers to sustainable outcomes.

The session aims to encourage banks to Think Bolder so that their actions and ambitions can change the rules of the game and move towards sustainable market transformation.

 

More information and registration here.

Event archive: Summer University “Alternative Economic and Monetary Systems”

from 17. July 2023 to 4. August 2023, Wien

 

An interdisciplinary summer university (5ECTS), focusing on alternatives to the economic status quo: International participants deal with limits of growth, as well as the instabilities of our financial system and learn why a drastic system change is necessary to stabilize the world climate at 1.5°C. The program offers a holistic approach, with the participants learning about many possible alternatives and reform proposals: heterodox economics, ethical banking, degrowth, sovereign money and more!

AEMS is an academic summer program with a global following and held in English. Since 2014, the program counts almost 400 alumni of 76 nationalities.

This summer, it will take place already for the 10th time from July 17 to August 4, 2023! Applications are open!

 

Target group

The program is open to students and professionals from all fields who strive to create a more just and green future. Are you looking for a unique educational program with a holistic approach to the topic? Then look no further! Scholarships available.

The report from the last years can be found here.

More information on the program and application process can be found here.