The flourishing of time banks and alternative exchanges in post-crisis southern Europe

There are now more than 325 time banks and alternative currency systems in Spain involving tens of thousands of citizens. The projects represent one of the largest experiments in “social money” in modern times.

Mostly excerpted from the Washington Post (via):

“At a time when the future of the euro is in doubt and millions are unemployed, alternative forms of exchange and survival are springing up in the cracks of capitalism, allowing people to exchange, barter, and live outside of failing currencies.

One example given by the Post is the proliferation of “time banks” throughout the country. Time banks allow people to trade their services amongst one another in a currency of hours. One provides a service for a certain amount of time and can ‘buy’ another service for that same amount of time. Time banks allow people to exchange labor and services without the need for abstract currencies.

In another instance, residents in the city of Malaga have established a website which allows individuals to earn money and buy products using a virtual currency.

In the Catalonian fishing town of Vilanova i la Geltru, residents are experimenting with a localized currency, which is worth slightly more than the euro when it is used at local stores.

“This is a way for people who are on the fringes of the economy to participate again,” said Josefina Altes, coordinator of the Spanish Time Bank Network.

Similar projects have been taking place in Greece, Portugal and other hurting euro-zone countries.

“While each social-money project has its own accounting rules, the basic concept is the same. You earn credits by providing services or selling goods, and you can redeem the credits with people or businesses in the network,” the Post reports.

“These experiments aim to take communities back to a time when goods and services were bartered, before things such as interest rates, market speculation and derivatives complicated the financial world.”

Time Bank organizers say as the crisis deepens more and more people are signing up for such projects.

There are now more than 325 time banks and alternative currency systems in Spain involving tens of thousands of citizens. The projects represent one of the largest experiments in “social money” in modern times.

Peter North, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who has written two books on alternative currencies, told the Post that the recent efforts in Spain may last longer than similar projects in the past because they are connected to the 15M, or “Indignados,” movement — a protest movement which began in Spain and helped inspire the global Occupy movement.

“Instead of just being a desperate way for people to survive a horrible economic crisis, this is part of the cooperatives, credit unions, community banks, organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate economy — that the Occupy movement is groping towards,” North said.”

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