World Wildlife Fund has realised that the global market system plays a fundamental role in driving environmental destruction. They have created an initiative called 'The Finance Lab' which aims to bring together diverse perspectives to identify and push healthier alternatives. This is a multi-year process.
Last week I attended their second day-long workshop in London. Many perspectives were represented from the financial and third sectors. The morning consisted of structured conversations around visions for the future with recorded outcomes, and the afternoon was about encouraging innovation.
I led an innovation group which asked the question 'How can local currency initiatives be better supported?' My conclusions from that group were:
- Since attendance was so low (and as a result of a couple of conversations afterwards) it was apparent that this crowd did not hold complementary currency systems in high esteem. Complementary currencies are not understood, and perceived not to be serious or not effective, or both. There is of course, some truth in that, but it's my contention that we have to make these things work better - national debt currencies are more broken and more inappropriate for the current human situation than almost any of these people realise.
- Secondly, my single approach to the problem - to give radically of my time and skills - may not be the most effective. I need to be readier to work with social entrepreneurs and not just community associations.
My experience indicates that the Lab hasn't really understood the tasks at hand. In my view there are two main tasks, at the legistative level, to abolish debt-based money, and at the grass roots level, to build community exchange systems. I left wondering whether stakeholders of the calibre which can provide meeting rooms in the City of London would support any proposal which will shrink the financial sector. They are merely looking for a prestigious ways to spend their Corporate Responsibility budgets.
The cross section of participants seemed genuinely concerned, but I didn't sense that what was happening would have any wide influence.
The Lab is not influencial like a think-tank, and I doubt it can summon one of those third-sector coalitions that have made so much noise in the last decade in UK. The stated aim is to provide a 'platform' for change is an attempt to be genuinely open to solutions, but I was frustrated to find myself in an echo chamber of cliches, and unsure whether this was the best methodology to produce a transformative outcome.
Comments