Our money: Our place Exploring ‘Puma LETS as a micro-political tool in thecontext of economic crisis’

This research paper looks at a Local Exchange Trading Scheme (LETS) called ‘Puma’ that is being deployed within the Pumarejo neighbourhood in the Spanish city of Seville. The research that is presented focuses on analysing the scheme in terms of a micro-political tool deployed by a local community to achieve the creation of an autonomous space in order to re-embed economic and cultural practices into a more human and sustainable scale. In particular, the research aims to explain why and how Puma LETS emerged; analysing what is the institutional process of developing an economic institution from below, and what is the current type of governance system in this scheme. As an entry point, a review of literature on community local currency systems is provided to aid understanding of the main features of a LETS system, and how a particular community might envisage these types of community currencies (CCs) as a micro-political tool to achieve its political claims. Secondly, the research addresses Pumarejo’s neighbourhood tradition of autonomous politics of place, describing the specific needs that existed in community when Puma LETS was deployed. Thirdly, the political opportunity is described which triggered collective action and enabled Puma LETS promoters to mobilise local resources within the community. The final part of the paper focuses on analyzing the type of internal governance system within the currency.