TIME BANK UK

Media Trust Productions
2008, 4 min

Timebanking has been around in the UK since 1998. Since that point it has witnessed extraordinary growth, being applied to many and varied settings across the public, private and community sectors. And it is not just a UK phenonmenon. The timebanking journey began in the USA, and has now spread to over forty countries in six different continents.

But the coming of age of this movement, timebanking still remains an approach that is far from fully formed. Not a day goes by without timebanking being applied in a new setting, or across a new boundary. No two timebanks of the 250 or so there are in the UK are the same. We are constantly learning about how and why timebanking as a means of exchange can make a difference to society. In many ways we are only just scratching the surface of our understanding and experience of this new way of doing business.

EDGAR CAHN

TEDxAshokaU; San Diego, USA
2010, 15 min 15 sec

Edgar Cahn is the founder of TimeBanks USA, Time Dollar Youth Court and CareBanks. Cahn is regarded as the father of poverty law and pioneer in creating clinical legal education. Cahn designed and launched TimeBanking pilots in 40 states and 32 nations, employing the worlds only tax-exempt local currency, Time Dollars. His system, Co-Production, calls for the transformation of clients from passive consumers to active co-producers of outcomes. He pioneered an adaptation of TimeBanking that would enable the elderly and families to pay for a long-term care insurance using Time Dollars.

LOCALSHARE

www.LocalShare.org
2010, 2 min 47 sec

LocalShare is designed to create a more fluid and living local economy by identifying and supporting locally owned businesses, artists and healers. You can also safely gift and share items and skills into your circles of friends, family and neighbours. Imagine creating a massive lending library with everyone in your neighbourhood. LocalShare is a website that allows to do this easily. This video features the founder John Nicoll, with all the tools, books, music gear, computers and more that he’s sharing himself. He defines it as “14.000 dollars of value” that he opens up to his friends and neighbours.

THE SHARING EXPERIMENT

Action Against Hunger, USA
2012, 1 min 42 sec

We wanted to know if sharing is natural. On October 7, 2011 Action Against Hunger conducted an experiment in Madrid, Spain to study human behavior when faced with the injustice of hunger. Of the 20 children under study, all 20 shared their food. In a world that produces more than enough food to feed everyone, 3.5 million children still die from hunger every year. We should learn from them and share, too.

A CONVERSATION WITH Dr. EDGAR CAHN:
FOUNDER OF TIME BANKING

Nesta UK; UK
2011, 7 min 11 sec

Dr Edgar Cahn, professor of law and founder of Time Banking, explains the concept of Time Banking. As another medium of exchange, another kind of money, TimeBanking allows us to help others and, in return, get the help we need, create a interdependent community and oppose the system of money and barter, which leeds to purely commercial transactions.

In the system we use now, one of money and barter, abundance equals worthless, so every capacity we have as a human being is devalued as worthless because it’s abundant.

Time Banking is about universal values of exchanges, relationships, collaborative efforts that are abundant in the nature of human beings. Time Banking varies the medium of exchange and changes the characteristics and alters the dynamics.

Time banking is a system that let’s people earn time credits for providing services to others in their communities. Examples of services include mowing lawns, babysitting, providing household help or driving someone to a medical appointment. People can then spend their time credits for others services provided by member of the community.

They can turn their time into a ‘currency’ that let’s them meet basic needs thatcannot be met through markets.

WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION?

NESTA UK, UK
2011, 3 min 25 sec

Collaborative Consumption describes old world behaviours, such as exchange, bartering that are now being enabled at scale, and across geographic boundaries by technology. This animation gives an introduction to Collaborative Consumption and includes some examples of where, and how, it is being put into action.