View source for Trapeza Chronou Time Bank


= collaborative initiative between Municipality of Thessaloniki, PRAKSIS NGO and ARSIS NGO, established at October 2013. 

Source: [[Reflections on Sharing-Based Economic Alternatives in Thessaloniki as a City in Crisis]]


=Description=

Eleni Margariti:

"Time bank is an exchange network of both
services and products. Based on the principles of solidarity and collaborative economy it
addresses poverty through creating alternative to money means of exchange. The service
tries to promote an economic model based not on exchange values that generate profiting,
but on use values of services and products; for this reason, dominant currency is
abandoned- considering that sustains unequal distribution of wealth within economic
system- and a time currency is used instead. Time is literally a good that anyone can afford;
in that way everyone can contribute independently his/her income. Both goods and services
are equalized based on time modules; basic currency is thus a time-module called TEM.

Everyone can handle his/her account online, which gives flexibility in how the network
operates in terms of spatial limitations: people can connect from home, work from home or
accomplish exchanges through distance if it is necessary; provided that there have internet
access. If access to internet is not easy or doable, time-bank’s central offices as meeting
point, while the management group serves as mediator that enables connections between
members or strengthen trust bonds between them. 

The system is designed to allow distributed action by peers coordinated by a central
committee which proceeds to necessary controls and manages general function enquiries
within the network. All services/products go through a general control by time-banks
managing committee, apart from that, it is made clear to members are responsible for
themselves and for anything they offer or accept39. In that way the system tries to establish
responsible exchange behaviors, trust bonds and self-management between members.

Voting systems are supposed to serve as mechanisms to strengthen trust bonds between
time-bank members while eliminating antisocial behaviors, such as insulting, abusing or
hurting peers. Other principles relate with protection of members privacy and personal
rights: no one is forced to provide any service or take any service if she/he doesn’t want to,
everyone can leave the bank at any time without any ratification while gifting modules to
another members is welcome. Penalties relate with the use of money –which is concerned
illegal- within the bank and any types of antisocial, racist, anti-environmental, harmful
behavior towards other members or the members of committee.

Time- bank initiatives try to create a socially inclusive alternative economy/service exchange
system, which doesn’t seek to substitute real economy but provide alternatives within local
levels, bring people closer, enhance trust and social cohesion, and enable lower incomes to
participate in exchange activities. Time-bank works as a community space/social space, trying
to enhance or even re-establish social bonds between citizens through exchanges. These
exchanges couldn’t be described as purely economic ones, but they embrace a great deal of
social values. These types of social-based exchanges happen anyway in informal means
within the city in crisis; the emergent needs of growing numbers of people cause the
expression of that. What time bank and other relevant initiatives seek to do is to broaden
these types of exchange within the city, legitimize sharing habits through creating a system
that can support and sustain them, moreover establish broader ‘sharing’ cultures and open
them to the digital and spatial dimension of the city. Time-bank tries to function as a
common space based on common currencies. The obvious motivation for involvement is real
needs, but apart from that, the questions lie whether the system is designed in a way to
create further motives for involvement, generate distributed action and if it generally
promotes equality and inclusion and trust as well as virtue for a further action in the means
exchanges are implemented both in spatial as well as digital dimensions of the model. 

An interview by Neli Stathakidou (Exostis press cultural magazine) in December 2013 -three
months after the time bank took place- illustrates some points for further discussion. The
initiation begun as an emergent action to deal with rising levels of poverty in the area of
Thessaloniki: due to debt crisis, many previously healthy social groups suddenly saw
themselves facing poverty lines, starting having serious difficulties accessing certain range of
services due to their limited incomes. Management group members claim that the network
has great potential to grow, doing their best to advertise it through social media. Back in
2013, the network started with 60 members and 30 posts, covering mostly house-keeping,
education and light medical services, while gradually doctors, accountants and other
professions were added. People were not used to doing exchanges with alternative means,
so parallel information accompanied the venture.

A closer look to Time-bank initiatives in 2015 raises question related with particular
functional characteristics, its design as a digital communal space and alternative economic
network and its relations to local social infrastructure (local community structures, local
social and economic context). For instance, is time-module effectively working as a valid
alternative to services, or creates misconceptions during exchanges? Is time-bank an
inclusive alternative- that means allowing people from totally different social base to equally
both get advantage of and contribute to the network- and if yes, how do different ‘speeds’
of peers coexist? Are there are certain ‘leader peers’ upon them the whole network is
established? Does the initiative actively engage peers in various activities within time-bank;
does it enhance virtue and trust? Through what digital and spatial practices is that
implemented? Do these activities relate with direct democratic processes? Finally, how the
digital dimension of the network relates with spatial dimensions of exchange, and with
particular local economic context. The platform may work successfully in bringing many
different people together, but can the network be sustained within the city or create valid
economic alternatives independent from a local community’s or cooperatives action? Is
there the need for establishing the network within a certain community’s action, and if yes,
doesn’t this need for rooting within locality contradict with the hybrid dimension of the
network which creates tensions towards distributed action and disconnection from the
local? Further research through open interviews from management group members and
participants of the network throws light to some of these questions, simultaneously
producing new ones."

[[Category:Cases]]

[[Category:Greece]]

[[Category:Money]]