| dc.description.abstract | As a result of a mainstream economy believed to be ill equipped to counter pressing issues of climate change, ecological overshoot, wealth inequalities, corporate concentration, poverty and job insecurity, declining democracy, and trends in individual and collective wellbeing that lag behind Gross Domestic Product increases, everyday people are turning to grassroots alternative economy projects to enact a different economic future responsive to their needs and aspirations. This study inquires into alternative systems of provision in grassroots alternative economy projects. It contributes to a greater understanding of the values, concerns and needs that motivate and sustain members’ participation in a grassroots bartering economy, and features a case study on a grassroots barter system in Halifax, Nova Scotia [K’jibuktuk, Mi’kma’ki], known as Bunz Trading Zone Halifax. At present, Bunz Trading Zone Halifax and its spinoffs of Bunz Helping Zone, Housing Zone, and Baby Zone, have an impressive membership of over thirty thousand people, and accounts for 6.4 percent of the Halifax Regional Municipality population. Bunz Trading Zone Halifax forms part of a national and international network of over 250 Bunz communities in which Bunz Trading Zone Halifax is the fastest growing in the network. Through exploratory, qualitative and in-depth interviews with leaders and general members, this study probes the motivations in participating in Bunz Trading Zone Halifax, the extent to which motivations were shared among participants and the barriers and opportunities in meeting those motivations. | en_US |
