Note: This text was translated using AI due to time constraints.
In a way, labour time calculation is related to time banks or exchange markets – there are major differences, of course, but also some similarities.
One common feature is that people can offer and receive services, with the “value” of the services corresponding to the hours worked. For each hour of work performed, one hour is credited to the person’s labour time account. A definition of time banks therefore reads: “A time bank is an instrument that allows a group of people to create a socio-economic alternative. In a time bank, skills are exchanged among members without the use of money; only the hours of work given and received are recorded.” (https://www.bdtonline.org/)
The differences compared to labour time calculation are:
Time banks usually do not offer products, but only services (e.g. tutoring, massages, music lessons, manual work, etc.). In other words, only living labour is accounted for; the costs of production means cannot be included as hours.
Hardly any businesses take part. Most participants are individuals. Often, time banks serve as a tool for neighbourhood assistance.
They are not a planned economy: in time banks, no plans are submitted.
Time banks are therefore simpler than labour time calculation – the concept can actually be explained in just two minutes. However, they are also more limited: it is unlikely that an entire economy could be built on time banks.
A hotspot for time banks is Barcelona, or rather Catalonia, where time banks have existed for over 20 years. Some of the 60 to 70 time banks in Catalonia are more active than others. Some have only a handful of members, while others, such as the time bank in Sant Cugat (http://www.bancdeltemps.santcugatentitats.net/), have around 1,000 members. The specific arrangements can also vary greatly depending on the location, as there is no hierarchical relationship between the individual banks. How does registration work? How far may a time account go into credit or debt? These and other questions are decided locally.
While the first time banks in Catalonia likely emerged around 1999, the idea itself dates back at least to the 1980s. An important source of inspiration was the recently deceased U.S. professor Edgar Cahn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_S._Cahn) through the popularization of the concept of “time dollars” and the founding of “TimeBanks USA” in 1995. Further inspiration came from Japan and Italy. Time banks experienced a temporary upswing during the Spanish crisis of 2008/2009 and the 2011 protests (“15M Movement”). The COVID-19 pandemic, however, represented a setback for many time banks.
Not far from the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, there is a community center run by volunteers. On a Monday evening, Montserrat works there alongside two other women: they distribute clothes to neighbors, sort toys, and accept a second-hand stroller. All of this is done without payment—that is, entirely on a voluntary basis or in exchange for time credits.
When Montserrat hears that we are interested in time banks, she asks us to take a seat despite all the busy activity. While serving neighbors in the meantime, she explains how the system of time slips worked just a few years ago: from a cabinet, she takes out old tear-off tokens that confirmed the receipt or transfer of hours.
Since 2018, most time banks have been using an open-source app called “TimeOverflow“ (https://www.timeoverflow.org/), whose development was partly supported by the city of Barcelona. Transfers of hours and many other functions now take place online. At her computer, Montserrat shows us how to view the existing members, as well as the offers and requests. All registered users can see the time accounts of all other members of the local time bank, along with their contact details and account activity. Accordingly, a privacy agreement must be signed upon registration. Local administrators can access various statistics about the local time economy.
Despite the website, it is striking how much time banks focus on personal contact and direct neighborhood assistance. Interested members must first attend a personal meeting and complete in-person registration at all time banks. According to Maria Nikolopoulou, chair of the Association for the Development of Time Banks (ADBdT), a time bank activist, and a member of the Sants and Badalona time banks, this is intentional: on the one hand, the system can be explained more clearly in this meeting, and participants can be motivated to actively contribute their skills; on the other hand, it helps build trust that new members will not misuse the network.
“Time banks are essentially a network for people in the neighborhood,” Nikolopoulou tells us. Often, the goal is to connect people whose skills are no longer in demand in the labor market within these solidarity-based economies. “The purpose of time banks cannot be to replace insured employment.” For this reason, businesses or organizations usually do not become members.
But how can services be offered that also incur costs in euros? Each provider handles this differently, says Maria. Some simply do not charge for the euro costs. Others ask that the euro costs be paid separately: if Maria books a taxi ride within the time economy, she pays the driver for the travel time in hours and for the fuel in euros. Yet others ask that the “means of production” be provided by the participants themselves: in a cooking class, for example, participants can bring their own ingredients and pay only for the time.
Thanks to Montserrat, Maria, and other people in Barcelona, we were able to gain an initial insight into the time bank system. The differences from labour time calculation are obvious, yet the decades of experience with a time-based economy and the concrete neighborhood assistance remain highly valuable.
Links:
Wikipedia on time-based currencies (including time banks): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-based_currency
Blog on time banks in Spain, Spanish: https://www.bdtonline.org/
Wiki on time banks, Spanish: https://www.bdtonline.org/wiki
TimeOverflow-App: https://www.timeoverflow.org/
Source Code of TimeOverflow: https://github.com/coopdevs/timeoverflow