An Alternative Currency for Education : A Comparative Case Study of Learning Practices within Time Banks

Sammanfattning: This study aims to investigate learning practices within Time Banks in Spain. Time Banking is a community currency concerned with the exchange of services between members using time as the currency. Parallels can be drawn with Ivan Illich’s ‘Skills Exchange’ model in Deschooling Society (1971b) and this provides the initial motivation for the study of Time Banks from an educational perspective, which is identified as a gap in the literature. Moving on from Illich, the investigation of Time Banks is considered in relation to the wider context of Lifelong Learning and the Learning Society. The heterogeneity of Time Bank models in Spain motivates a comparative research design based on differing organisational logics, whilst the exploratory nature of investigating Time Banks as spaces of learning motivates a case study methodology in order to gain a contextualised understanding of the problem. The study finds that the Time Banks are built on principles of Mutual Aid (Kropotkin, 1902) and, whilst practices and values resonate somewhat with Illich’s critiques of modernism, a skills exchange model does not best represent the learning that takes place in Time Banks. Furthermore, this research finds that in all three Time Banks, the exchange of services forms only a small part of overall activities. Additional activities provide opportunities for the exchange of skills and knowledge between participants. However, the learning highlighted as more important by TB users is learning to participate. That is, learning solidarity and personal and social skills through active participation in the Time Bank. These findings are then positioned within the context of radical adult education and future lines of inquiry are identified.