Money infrastructure for solidarity and sustainability

The sum of an ideal view of society, with an abstract action model of social interaction, imbues money infrastructure that seeks to further a utopian view of society. This article analyses the cases of ordinary money as the euro and Sardex, a successful case of complementary currency born in Sardinia in 2009, with a specific focus on the different forms of solidarity and sustainability that these two types of money advance. The examples provide the basis for identifying two models of money infrastructure, namely the ‘indifferent’ and the ‘situational’. The former is based on the historical model of self-interested utilitarianism of the monetarist approach with a specific focus on the satisfaction of individual preferences, but scant consideration of their formation and externalities. The latter, by contrast, has the potential to enhance cooperation and solidarity among its users to promote collective aims on a situational basis. This type of money appears to be much closer to a local, tangible level that can shape new policies for sustainability.