Time: the currency of social change

“What links the Spanish 15-M protest movement with a Time Bank in West Yorkshire?”

An intriguing question answered in the post The edge between protest and prototyping solutions over on the REconomy Project blog. Faced with high unemployment in Spain, ridiculously high in young people, time banks have come into their own. To quote the post:

“[In Spain], people started to work in different social initiatives, initiating groups of research in different fields, charity organizations, urban gardens and communities of collaboration that later became time banking groups. One of the most relevant and successful initiatives, at least for me, was the time banking network, because it allows social and personal development even if there’s no money or employment.

“I believe that evolution must not just depend on money. It has to depend on social evolution to be a real development. It is great to share and exchange your knowledge and skills to develop a community. In an economic crisis it allows people to continue to feel useful to society and confident in themselves even without a job.”

Visit the post to read the rest. Hat tip to Nick,

Matthew