The networks and relationships of trust within a community form the basis of social life and nurture the ground from which the formal economy of money and markets grows.
However, as forms of unpaid work, the value of caring for relatives, raising children, assisting neighbours or carrying out household tasks like cooking, cleaning and managing finances, is generally not recognised in the formal economy.
These ongoing tasks of maintaining and fuelling society and the lives that make it up, often but not exclusively carried out by women, constitute the ‘core economy’ – without which life as we know it would grind to a halt.
Much can be done to tap into, and strengthen, the core economy, as well as to better value and support it. Valuing here signifies the recognition of worth, of what this economy contributes and achieves, rather than putting a specific price on it. This is where community currencies can play a role.
Currencies based on time-exchanges explicitly recognise the skills of those making up the core economy. For instance, in a time-credit system, a neighbour providing respite care for a local carer can be rewarded for their time with a credit. This credit could then be redeemed for a school trip for their child or a trip to the local cinema.
The idea is not to give volunteers a form of payment, as the activities themselves tend to be considered intrinsically valuable – in other words carrying them out is a reward in itself. Instead, time-credits are a recognition of the time spent in and for the wider community. They allow those carrying out this work to take up opportunities that might otherwise be inaccessible, or even donate their earned credits to local charities or vulnerable individuals.