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How alternative consumer markets can build community resiliency

How alternative consumer markets can build community resiliency PurposeTime banking is a form of alternative consumer market where members trade services, non-reciprocally creating a local marketplace for services. Time Banks facilitate dyadic exchanges, meeting members’ practical needs and building diverse skills. The purpose of this research was to determine the broad capabilities developed in the Time Bank economy, and to demonstrate how these capabilities were mobilised following a series of earthquakes, contributing to the larger community’s resiliency.Design/methodology/approachTaking an ethnographic approach, data were collected using a variety of methods including interviews, focus groups, participant observation and secondary research.FindingsOver time, this alternative consumer market developed a significant communication and social network that members activated to solve diverse practical problems facing the community. Similar to other exchange communities, the Time Bank also fostered a strong sense of community based on reciprocity and egalitarian values. Although the Time Bank was created as a marketplace to exchange local services, during a series of devastating earthquakes, it galvanised adaptive capacities, increasing the resiliency of the local community during disaster relief and reconstruction.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were drawn from one alternative exchange system in New Zealand.Practical implicationsThe study shows how grassroots alternative consumer markets like Time Banks build community capacities alongside the formal economy. During normal times, this system meets consumer needs, but in extraordinary times, this system provides community shock absorbers, thereby enhancing community resiliency.Social implicationsThe Time Bank was particularly adept at leveraging local knowledge to provide social support to those residents who were most vulnerable.Originality/valueData were collected before, during, and after the earthquakes, providing a rare opportunity to explore the process of community resiliency in action. This research extends existing theories of community resiliency explaining the development and activation of capacities by a local alternative consumer market. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Marketing Emerald Publishing

How alternative consumer markets can build community resiliency

Ozanne, Lucie K.; Ozanne, Julie L.
European Journal of Marketing , Volume 50 (3/4): 28 – Apr 11, 2016
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0309-0566
DOI
10.1108/EJM-12-2014-0802
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

PurposeTime banking is a form of alternative consumer market where members trade services, non-reciprocally creating a local marketplace for services. Time Banks facilitate dyadic exchanges, meeting members’ practical needs and building diverse skills. The purpose of this research was to determine the broad capabilities developed in the Time Bank economy, and to demonstrate how these capabilities were mobilised following a series of earthquakes, contributing to the larger community’s resiliency.Design/methodology/approachTaking an ethnographic approach, data were collected using a variety of methods including interviews, focus groups, participant observation and secondary research.FindingsOver time, this alternative consumer market developed a significant communication and social network that members activated to solve diverse practical problems facing the community. Similar to other exchange communities, the Time Bank also fostered a strong sense of community based on reciprocity and egalitarian values. Although the Time Bank was created as a marketplace to exchange local services, during a series of devastating earthquakes, it galvanised adaptive capacities, increasing the resiliency of the local community during disaster relief and reconstruction.Research limitations/implicationsThe data were drawn from one alternative exchange system in New Zealand.Practical implicationsThe study shows how grassroots alternative consumer markets like Time Banks build community capacities alongside the formal economy. During normal times, this system meets consumer needs, but in extraordinary times, this system provides community shock absorbers, thereby enhancing community resiliency.Social implicationsThe Time Bank was particularly adept at leveraging local knowledge to provide social support to those residents who were most vulnerable.Originality/valueData were collected before, during, and after the earthquakes, providing a rare opportunity to explore the process of community resiliency in action. This research extends existing theories of community resiliency explaining the development and activation of capacities by a local alternative consumer market.

Journal

European Journal of Marketing – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 11, 2016

References

  • The poor have become rich, and the rich have become poor: collective trauma in the Guinean Languette
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  • Alternative marketplaces in the 21st century: building community through sharing events