Earlier this summer we were discussing what in urban logistics is known as the ‘last mile’, the final stretch of the transport of goods. We saw how your online shopping (and those of thousands or millions of your neighbours) had disastrous environmental and social effects: from skyrocketed traffic carbon emissions to further precarious working conditions in the ‘gig economy’ delivery culture.

Long before AirBnB, Uber and other flagships enterprises of the so-called ‘sharing economy’ (what’s actually being shared with, and by whom, is another discussion), pre-Columbian Inca civilizations were putting in practice the minka philosophy of communal work and living together.

‘Croissant’, other than the delicious pastry, is a good adjective to describe our current economic system. The warnings about the disastrous effects of exponential economic growth are not new: they have been out there for fifty years already, following the well-known 1972 report 'The limits to growth' (Meadows et al.).

Community currencies are alternative forms of money that coexist with national or official currencies to cover the needs of a specific group or local area that the conventional monetary system is not addressing.

On a hill covered with forests and Mediterranean bush, not far from Tunis (Tunisia), the Agricultural Development Group (GDA for its French acronym) Sidi Amor leads since 2006 a community development project around the valorization of the natural resources of the land: plants, stone, earth, water, and energy. Through multiple training activities, the actions for the conservation of nature by the association would act as a lever for the self growth and development of the members of the GDA - young people, men and women from surrounding urban areas, as well as local residents of the rural site.