Complementary Currencies/BoK EN - Time Banking

General Description

Time Banks are bookkeeping systems using a complementary currency (service credit) for rewarding ‘voluntary’ work that contributes to community building and the social economy. In the words of Gill Seyfang (2002:4): “Time Banks are a type of community currency which turn unpaid time into a valuable commodity, and aim to build social capital and promote community self-help through mutual volunteering (both giving and receiving help in exchange for time credits)”. As opposed to an ordinary volunteering agency, volunteers are rewarded for their contribution in a Time Bank with time credit upon which they can receive ‘voluntary’ work themselves. This voluntary work usually includes social services like education, babysitting, healthcare, computer tuition, gardening, Do It Yourself (DIY), do the shopping and so forth. Time Banks as a rule attract socially excluded groups of people (mostly the unemployed, the poor, the retired, the elderly, the disabled), volunteers, and those dependent upon receiving services (e.g. the elderly and the disabled) (Seyfang 2004a: 244).

Purpose

Although Time Banking is a mutual credit scheme just as LETS and Barter, there are some noticeable differences. Just like LETS, Time Banking is intended for ordinary people, and it exists on a not for profit basis, rather than commercial barters, which are intended for businesses to increase profits. However, unlike LETS, Time Banking concentrates on strengthening social rather than economic linkages (Seyfang 2002: 2). LETS have a more businesslike character as it involves commercial transaction and negotiation on the price for goods and services between consumers. LETS are more suitable for strengthening the formal economy. Time Banks are designed to provide for social services (rather than goods) that the conventional economy cannot deliver. The aim of time banks is to resolve a deficit in the provision of certain social services that are (often) not valued in the conventional money economy. The Time Bank’s goal is to increase activity in the informal sector of the economy, and to strengthen social cohesion in the community.