Sharing is Caring: Mediterranean Time Banking in a Multidimensional Crisis Scenario

Resumen

Time banks (TB) have spread all over Europe as part of a wider expansion of alternative economic spaces. Much of the existing literature has focused on UK and US time banking models, while TBs in other regions have been overlooked. This article contributes to a feminist understanding of time banking in a crisis context and, specifically, analyses possible particularities of Mediterranean TBs on the basis of case studies from Emilia Romagna (Italy) and Andalucia (Spain). The article describes the methodology and introduces the perspectives of Feminist economics before outlining the origins and development of time banking initiatives in both countries. The second section explores the history and characteristics of the selected TBs, presenting details of their objectives, member motivations and exchanges. The discussion analyses the contributions of Feminist economics to the understanding of time banking, and the conclusion provides a summary of the most important ideas.