A. Novoszáth: Meanings of value in the valuation practices of complementary currencies (Draft) Meanings of value in the valuation practices of complementary currencies Abstract Valuation practices permeate almost every aspect of economic life from prices, through the compensations for nature and labor, to the tricky evaluation of activities’ ‘social goodness’ (as in the case of fossil fuels based economic growth). Accordingly, it is also at the core of different attempts (like complementary currencies) aiming to ‘repair’ or improve economies. Nonetheless, until recently, the topic received little attention even in the social sciences, let alone most of economics and the engineering disciplines which define their problems based on very strong but unreflected concepts of value (like when evaluating and ranking countries based on their GDP). Furthermore, neither it is always clear which meaning of value people talk about when they debate valuation schemes or economic systems. Most of the discussions about value or valuation either focus only on one specific meaning (and ignoring the rest) or use them interchangeably. With this article, accordingly, my main aim is to clarify the different meanings of value in play within complementary currencies to specify their roles in their valuation practices. Besides, I also seek to answer what the examination of meanings tells us about valuation. In order to do this, I distinguish four meaning of value, namely, 1) the ‘functional’ value expressing the usability of a particular thing (including its exchangeability), 2) the ‘personal’ value people hold about things important for them, 3) the ‘differential’ value used within semiotic frameworks (like, for instance, in a monetary system), and 4) the ‘contribution’ value on which ethical and political discussions base their arguments. I also examine how these meanings are used within arguments for complementary currencies and the background literature supporting them. For this, I draw upon the findings of my ethnographic PhD research and, in my analysis, upon Material-Semiotics by focusing on the specific material valuation practices through and by which values emerge. 1.