The Polymerized Monetary Community of a Complementary Local Currency in France

Abstract

In France, complementary local currencies have been growing rapidly over the past decade, raising questions about the socio-cultural profiles of their individual users. This study, conducted in the specific case of the Florain, a complementary local currency (CLC) in the Nancy metropolitan area, highlights four main user profiles: political activists, gentrifiers, casual users, and cultural users. This result leads us to describe the Florain user community as a polymerized monetary community, a finding that has many implications from both a socio-cultural and marketing perspective. And in order to consolidate the knowledge of the profiles of individual CLC users, the results were submitted to other complementary local currencies in the Grand Est region (Le Stück in the Bas-Rhin and La Cigogne in the Haut-Rhin), which supported their relevance.