Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2015 15:30 - 17:00
PAPER SESSION 6 / PECHA KUCHA SESSIONS
‘I Know It's Not Exactly Life Changing but It's, You Know...’: Questioning the Effects of New Economic
Organisation though a Case Study of a Time Bank
Wilson, J.
(University of Salford)
In the current economic climate there is evidence of a shift in economic organisation represented by the third sector
and so-called 'sharing economy.' Whilst commentators are heralding these developments as a radical shift and
progression from the former economic organisation, this paper uses empirical data collected within a new economic
organisation, a time bank, to argue that existing social divisions may be in fact maintained and reinforced by the new
forms of economic organisation. Time banks are community groups which seek to address social problems and
economic deficits by engaging communities in service exchange through the currency of time. Time banks currently
receive political support in terms realising the aims of Big Society and/or Localism policies. Further, much of the
current research in time banks seeks to evidence the extent to which they alleviate social exclusion. However, deeper
sociological questions of how and why time banks might address social exclusion are neglected. This paper, based
upon an in-depth long-term qualitative study of a time bank, uses a Bourdieusian analysis to demonstrate the ways in
which time banks purport to address social exclusion, yet in practice seem to merely maintain current levels of
inequality by providing a field in which habitus and capital can be played out and maintained
BSA Annual Conference 2015 224
Glasgow Caledonian University