Desk Research

Irene (Shiyin Zheng)
May 13, 2019
3 min read

In this project, our group would work with Made by Many - "a new kind of consulting company" in the following two months. We would be thinking about the nature of money, how people understand and assign value to things, and "Design a product or service that establishes a system of value that doesn’t rely on financial transactions."

In the first week, we did some desk research, including literature review and practice review.

Desk research

We first researched broadly on our own to better understand the brief, before deciding on the research direction. We shared our findings together and based on those, we did a quick brainstorming of "Imagine a world without money" to further open our mind on this abstract brief.

Brainstorming about "Imagine a world without money"

Then we then concluded our questions into one sheet, also as our research direction. We did a second round research respectively to find the answers of our questions, before finally getting them into a presentation flow. Because the brief asks us to design a non-financial system, so we try to figure out two things: understanding what is money and finding out systems not dependent on money.

Structure of the research

Literature review: Currency and ownership

Functions of money
Characteristics of money
Changing forms

Public currencies changes
Changing notion of ownership
Rise of private currencies

Systems not dependent on money

Gift economy
Sharing economy
Local exchange trading system

Practice review: systems that do not rely on financial transactions

Time Bank
Couch Surfing
Systems exchanging goods and services

Research findings

We found that currency, which are forms of money in use as a medium of exchange, have been changing its forms from physical to digital, as a result cash is also failing today. Meanwhile, notion of ownership has changed, and private currencies is rising.

What interests us most through our research is systems do not rely on money. We looked into both literature and practice reviews. There are systems like: global Time Bank, exchanging all kinds of skills and services; Leeds Creative Time bank in UK, extending the social economy for the arts sector; Seedy Sundays, grown from simple seed exchanges meant to promote and protect biodiversity to become much larger social events; BookMooch, give away books and receive points to exchange others' book...

Make & test & learn

We then did a quick test inside our group, trying to find out how people value differently while exchanging skills. Johnny and I did the exchange test, while Ivy and Deepika acted as the facilitators. Johnny offered his photography skills with the unit of time, while I started with a unit of outcomes. We commented on each other and found that function of system should be clearly defined, and the unit of measurement should be universally accepted.

The other thing interesting is that we two have completely different motivations. I was driven by reward while Johnny was driven by giving. I offered my things according to what I would be given, however, Johnny gave whatever he could give, regardless of reward.

Next steps

Without money, what can be the mode of exchange?
How do people assign a value to non-financial assets?
How do people trust a system that does not rely on money?

With these questions, we would be carrying out filed research in the next week.

References

Axtell, R. (2005). The Complexity of Exchange. The Economic Journal, 115(504), pp.F193-F210.

Bank of England. Why does money depend on trust?. [online] Bankofengland.co.uk. Available at: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/why-does-money-depend-on-trust

Castronova, E., 2014. Wildcat currency: How the virtual money revolution is transforming the economy. Yale University Press.

Cheal, D. (2016). The gift economy. London: Routledge.

Cruel.org. (2019). Walrasian Pure Exchange. [online] Available at: https://cruel.org/econthought/essays/margrev/walrex.html#references [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

Khiaonarong, T. and Humphrey, D. (2019). Cash Use Across Countries and the Demand for Central Bank Digital Currency. IMF Working Papers, 19(46)

Khiaonarong, T. and Humphrey, D. (2019). Cash Use Across Countries and the Demand for Central Bank Digital Currency. IMF Working Papers, 19(46) | Mancini Griffoli, T., Martinez Peria, M., Agur, I., Ari, A., Kiff, J., Popescu, A. and Rochon, C. (2018). Casting Light on Central Bank Digital Currencies. Staff Discussion Notes, 18(08), p.1.

Lee, K., Alexander, A. and Kim, D. (2013). Motivational Factors Affecting Volunteer Intention in Local Events in the United States. Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 14(4), pp.271-292.

Mellor, M. (2010). The future of money. London: Pluto Press, pp.WHAT IS MONEY? (pp. 8-30). | UKEssays. November 2018. Functions and Characteristics of Money. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/functions-characteristics-money-6335.php?vref=1 [Accessed 26 April 2019].

Nationalbanken.dk. (2019). [online] Available at: http://www.nationalbanken.dk/en/bankingandpayments/danish_payments_council/Documents/Report_on_the_role_of_cash_in_society.pdf [Accessed 25 Apr. 2019].

Ozanne, L. K., (2010), Learning to exchangetime: Benefits and obstacles to timebanking, International Journal of Community Currency Research 14(2010), pp. A1-16.

Perzanowski, A. and Schultz, J. (n.d.). The end of ownership.

Schor, J. (2014). Debating the Sharing Economy. [online] Greattransition.org. Available at: https://www.greattransition.org/publication/debating-the-sharing-economy [Accessed 28 Apr. 2019].

Válek, L. and Jašíková, V. (2013). Time Bank and Sustainability: The Permaculture Approach.

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 92, pp.986-991.

Wang, P. Z. (2004). Assessing motivations for sports volunteerism. Advances in Consumer Research, 31(1), 420–435.