Jane Tooke

Making Geographies and Histories? Constructing Local Circuits of Value:

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.

Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS): A tool for community renewal?

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.

8 – Trading places: geography and the role of Local Exchange Trading Schemes in local sustainable development

This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publishers version if you wish to cite from it. Published version ALDRIDGE, T. J., PATTERSON, A. and TOOKE, J. (2003). Trading places: geography and the role of Local Exchange Trading Schemes in local sustainable development. In: BUCKINGHAM, S. and THEOBALD, T., (eds.) Local environmental sustainability. Cambridge, Woodhead Publishing, 169-194.

Reforming adult education: struggles over the British state strategy of Learndirect

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.