Time Banks - Editorial Code and Data, Inc.Editorial Code and Data, Inc.

In the 1980s while at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr. Edgar S. Cahn, a civil rights lawyer and activist, conceived the time banking system, a modern-day bartering system. For each hour members provide services to other members, they are credited with one hour of time that they can then use to request services from other members. Cahn came back to the United States to implement his idea and time banks popped up all across the USA in inner city neighborhoods over the next decade.

Soon Japan took interest and by the mid-1990s interest was building in the United Kingdom. The first time bank in the United Kingdom was started in 1998. According to TimeBanking UK, there are currently hundreds of time banks—although in a modified version from what Cahn conceived—operating in Japan. In the United Kingdom there are 105 active time banks and 131 in development. Since then, time banking has become popular in many more countries.

The market size presented below represents the number of time banks in the United States that are members of TimeBanks USA (founded by Edgar S. Cahn) and the MI Alliance of Timebanks.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: 92
Source: “TimeBanks USA Member Directory,” TimeBanks USA, available online here; “TimeBanks throughout Michigan,” MI Alliance of Timebanks, available online here; “About > History,” TimeBanking UK, available online here; “About Time Banking UK,” TimeBanking UK, available online here; “‘TimeBanks’ Sprouting Up in Metro Detroit,” CBS Detroit, June 22, 2011, available online here.

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