Special money : Ithaca hours and garage sales

Abstract

This article explores how special monies are used in two different sites of the alternative economy, the U.S. garage sale and a local barter currency called Ithaca HOURS, and how they are socially demarcated as special styles of exchange. Although characterized by different flows, money in both venues create value in the interstices of the mainstream economy; stretch the value of money, while allowing direct negotiation; foster justice in the marketplace; build community; encourage good ecological practice; and enable participants to at times "beat the system" of the prevailing economy. HOURS and garage sales, while not capable of superceding global capitalism, rely on and complement the mainstream economic order, and both sites afford glimpses of more humane and empowering ways to exchange goods and services. (Garage sales, Ithaca HOURS, local currency, United States) ********** Whether segregating pots of money for earmarked purposes such as rent, entertainment, or retirement, or creating different forms of money such as stamps, coupons, gift certificates, or frequent flyer miles, Americans generate various "special monies" with divergent meanings for particular uses, which have particular forms and distinctive social meanings (Zelizer 1994, 1996). Each form of money and payment generates specific social relations that do not readily shift from one use of money to another. Further, the meanings of special monies are articulated according to their "flows," i.e., where they originate, the social meanings of where the monies are used, and their future direction(s) (Carruthers and Espeland 1998). This article examines some social meanings of two examples of special monies: garage sales, and Ithaca's HOURS (a form of local barter currency). In addition, it elaborates seven major overlapping and mutually reinforcing themes found in both modes of alternative economic activity, which are (1) creating value at the interstices of mainstream economy, (2) stretching money, (3) negotiating value, (4) working toward ecological sustainability, (5) creating justice in the marketplace, (6) beating the system, and (7) building community. By providing ethnographic documentation of social relations embedded in the use of money and of what some term the social economy (Williams 2005) or cultural economics (Gudeman 1986; Wilk 1996), this essay contributes to exploring the social meaning of money (Carruthers and Espeland 1998; Zelizer 1994, 1996). It also furthers discussions of the utility and value of local currencies (Evans 2003; Helleiner 2000; Jacob et al. 2004; Lee 1996; Pacione 1997; Papavasiliou 2005), and further delineates consumption-based oppositional practice, or what Helleiner (2000) calls "consumption-based oppositional movements." Such treatments are especially important in the West, where the overarching market paradigm can obscure the social relations and cultural aspect of economic exchange (Carrier 1997; Dilley 1992). Defined as the temporary public sale of used items from in and around a private residence, a yard or garage sale usually contains an array of household items and clothing. (1) These sales occur in most American communities, and are held and attended by a cross section of the population, particularly middle- and stable working-class participants. Sales bring shoppers and sellers from diverse backgrounds into informal contact, promoting an ethos of friendliness and egalitarianism. Public commerce and proprietary hospitality are juxtaposed, as sales transpire in and around the home and proprietors are selling (more or less) their own goods. This is important in establishing the breadth of social relations found in this exchange (Herrmann 1995, 1996, 1997; Crawford 1999), ranging from the highly impersonal and commercial to the very personal and gift-like. Sellers have a wide range of styles and motivations, from periodic house-cleaning and socializing to generating cash and profit-making, as do shoppers, whose motivations include recreation, recycling, and bargain-hunting (Herrmann and Soiffer 1984). …