New Wealth of Time
Report: The New Wealth of Time. By Josh Ryan-Collins, Lucie Stephens and Anna Coote. nef and TimeBanks UK, 2008
URLs:
- https://neweconomics.org/2008/03/new-wealth-time
- https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/3303e9051e1e0a62ef_rrm6bu0a4.pdf
Description
"The report describes how timebanking, as a tool to stimulate co-production , is already helping to create better services across a range of areas, including mental and physical health, services for young people and older people, regeneration, housing and criminal justice.
Co-production is a theory based on the premise that people and societies flourish more readily where relationships are built on reciprocity and equity: enabling people to give freely, yet also facilitating the give-and-take of time, knowledge, skills, compassion and other assets. These are not commodified through allocating them a ‘price’. They are abundant, not scarce, in our communities. This is not to say such activities don’t have value, however: back in 1998, the total household work done in the USA was valued at $1.9 trillion, whilst in 2002, the informal care that keeps the elderly out of homes was given a replacement price of $253 billion.
Timebanking is a practical tool that enables co-production. Unlike the money economy, timebanking values all hours equally: 1 hour of time = 1 time credit, whether you are a surgeon or an unemployed single mother. Timebanking recognises that everyone, even those defined as disadvantaged or vulnerable, has something worthwhile to contribute. Timebanking values relationships that are forged through giving and receiving. As such it adds a new dimension to what Richard Titmuss called the ‘gift relationship’.
This report shows how timebanking can help give people more control over their lives, prevent needs arising and grow what we call the ‘core economy’ – our ability to care for and support each other and to engage in mutual and non-materialistic exchanges and civic activity."
(https://neweconomics.org/uploads/files/3303e9051e1e0a62ef_rrm6bu0a4.pdf)