In a socioeconomic situation like our current one, it is difficult to understand the future of organizations without considering social responsibility. Looking at this future with a certain guarantee of success requires looking back to learn and gather drive. This article presents the evolution of social responsibility over the last twenty-five years, analyzing international and national initiatives, legislative instruments and self-regulatory framework, progress in commitment and level of involvement of organizations, as well as the consequences of Covid-19. Important progress is noted, with organizations that are increasingly conscious of the impact of their activities, making socially responsible decisions beyond their legal obligations. However, there is still much to do in the management of a social responsibility that guarantees sustainability and sustainable development in the medium and long term.

Oikonomics, the UOC’s journal of economics, business and society, publishes in its 16th edition a dossier under the title: “Sustainability vectors: visions from economy”. Previously, on 14 April 2021, a webinar dedicated to the analysis of sustainable development and the SDGs had been organised within the framework of the UOC’s Economics and Business Studies, with the participation as speaker of the coordinator of the Oikonomics dossier, Professor Albert Puig, and the author of the first of the articles in the monograph, Professor Joan Torrent. The session was moderated by August Corrons, also a UOC professor and member of the Oikonomics editorial board, and it complements the contents of the dossier of the 16th edition of the journal.

This article analyses the sustainability of the monetary system, with a systemic focus based in complex thinking. This thinking is far removed from the simple and the conventional, considering not only the distinct actors involved in the system but also the relationships and interactions between them. It is a way of thinking that views systems not as static or permanent, but as dynamic equilibriums linked to adaptation and change.

Being a socio-ecological system, the monetary system is subject to the dynamic behaviour of an adaptive cycle, which in turn is part of a panarchy of systems drawn to different scales across space and time. It is only when one considers this nested network of interconnected systems that it is possible to ensure the sustainability of each system individually and of the group as a whole.

The current monopoly of money in the form of bank debt has reached a point where it is so rigid and centralized it has become unsustainable. Proof of this can be seen in the systemic crisis we are currently living in. From a systemic focus based in complex thinking, this article analyses how the introduction of complementary currencies into the monetary system is one way in which its sustainability can be improved, also contributing to the sustainability of the planetary system as a whole, both economically and environmentally.