Diffusion of a social movement: the example of the German local exchange systems

Abstract

"In the late 1980ies and early 90ies a new social movement -the local exchange systems- reached Germany. This initially Canadian movement draws attention to societal failures and wants to resolve them on a local level. They promote a sustainable and local economy and improve the conditions of living of underprivileged people. Whereas founding activity was rather retained in their first years a boom occurred in the mid 1990ies. Considering the success of this movement, we are interested in the circumstances causing their rapid diffusion. Focusing on the formative years of those systems we aim to analyze how they diffused across Germany. For explaining their process of diffusion we draw back on theories concerned with social networks and the effects of spatial and social proximity. Additionally we consider the impact of news media and the societal culture and incorporate theories of organizational ecology analyzing the effects of population density on the systems' founding rates. Using data for the period 1998 to 2005 we were able to prove that social contagion and news media were of considerable importance for the growth of the exchange systems. Furthermore the environmental and ecological assumptions are at least supported for West German exchange schemes." (author's abstract)