Equal Time, Equal Value ─ Community Currencies and Time Banking in the US

This book investigates time-banking as it practiced in the US. Time-banking is one of several kinds of community or local currencies, and the authors of this study consider it worth focusing on because of its popularity and the ease of collecting data. They consider three well-established time-banks in Maine, Pennsylvania, and New York. They look at differences in structure, impact on members, and challenges. They rely on participant observation, archival review, interviews, surveys, and analysis of secondary data. They've also interviewed founders and key activists in the time-banking movement. They also review the history of community currencies and situate time-banking in that movement. In the end, they include sociological findings that they think will be of interest to prospective time-bank founders. They take care, as well, to "consider the larger localism movement in the neoliberal era." The authors are sociologists and a social-scientist working in the health-field. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ed Collom is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern Maine, USA. Judith N. Lasker is Chair and Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University, USA. Corinne Kyriacou is Assistant Professor of Community Health, Hofstra University, USA.