Hornborg 2017, special-purpose money (Great Transition Initiative)

Disposition: stated (single source). Read 2026-10-16 in the browser, in full: https://greattransition.org/roundtable/money-alf-hornborg/

What: Hornborg's short reply to Mary Mellor. He argues that general-purpose money itself drives exploitation: "If there are no constraints on what we can buy with our money, we shall naturally be looking for the best deals, which usually means the lowest-paid labor and the lowest-priced resources". This holds whether banks or states create the money, and with or without interest. Precolonial Tiv (Nigeria) had separate spheres of value; money "could not readily buy everything". Proposal: pay a universal basic income in "a special-purpose, complementary currency that can only be used to buy products and services produced within a specified radius of the point of purchase". It would be one national, state-issued currency, valid only for local use, and not a patchwork of local monies. Where it went: a FORMAS-funded project and a 2025 special issue (weaver-special-purpose-money-2025). Why it matters here: this is the design half of Hornborg's critique of machines, and it is a lever James's map lacks. The farmer telephones, ENAMI and SNET cases were all about ownership and credit. Hornborg says the medium of payment itself selects for distant, cheap inputs. A radius-limited currency would make local repair and local hosting the default purchase rather than a virtue. That is untested for computing. Used on: philosophy-of-technology, trail-2026-10-16.