time bank headquarters, athens
During the summer of 2011, citizens had flooded the main squares of Greek cities in order to express their opposition to policies implemented by the government regarding the handling of the economic crisis. Mostly young demonstrators organized themselves through social media and it was through Facebook that the movement of ‘The Resentful’ was born. Hundreds of people had camped for three months at the squares in order to explore new ways of creative resistance. Through this mobilisation, the Greek ‘Time-Bank’ movement was generated and expanded. The aim of the Time-Bank organisation is to make people assume greater responsibility for their lives by being able to participate and interact more closely with their immediate community on equal terms and with direct and democratic procedures. The organisation is interested in finding alternative ways of organising the economy. After exchanging views and knowledge, the members of the organisation have managed to set up the time-exchange.gr website, a network of non-financial exchange of services. The transactional unit for them is time. At the online platform members can create a profile and connect with other members in order to exchange services. Only services can be exchanged, not products. At time-exchange, every kind of work is equally valued, whether practical or theoretical. Moreover, the exchange is not linked directly to each other. When a member offers a service of 2 hours, he can then receive another service of equal time from any member of the community, the organization keeping every member’s account. However, there is a limit of +200 and -30 hours for each member, but the forum enables gifting of hours between individuals. Time-Bank is not against the concept of money. What interests them is the misuse of the financial system. The forum is looking for a functional way of exchange in the future. It is portrayed as an ‘additional’ economy, not an alternative economy. The type of solidarity economy that promotes trust, honest transaction, and the cultivation of a more meaningful relationship between people. It tries to address the economic problem at its roots, in order to transform the economic relationships. Once a week assemblies take place, where a management team is formed for the week in order to coordinate the interface between participants. A secretary is responsible to keep notes on subjects discussed and post them on the forum. At the assemblies all members are equal and can express their opinion or propose new ideas for the better performance of the organisation. Through these gatherings new members have the opportunity to meet the rest of the team. Moreover, informal meetings and parties are occasionally organised, as physical communication and contact are regarded crucial. The means-the computer, the non-financial exchange-should not replace the matter, the interpersonal contact, solidarity and mutual support. At the moment the different categories of services include athletics, graphic design, internet design, journalist services, arts, teaching, management, pets, gardening, transportation, translating, music and entertainment, household, education, children and babysitting, psychology, craftsmen, health, pc services, feeding the young and the old and photography. Today the forum has 740 members and it seems to be a rapidly-evolving community. There is not yet a main building to host the forum, and the assemblies and parties are organised at several cultural centres in the centre of Athens. My building proposal is to design the headquarters of the time-exchange.gr. The headquarters will include facilities for the administration offices and the weekly assemblies. Moreover there is going to be a restaurant-bar for members, a theatre for talks and presentations and an area that can host parties and concerts. The site selected is in inner Athens next to the archaeological location of Plato’s Academy. This whole area is still called “Eleonas” (Olive Grove) but is currently a rather run-down neighbourhood partly residential but mostly small industry and commerce. There is a theoretical link between the history of the site and the new proposal. The Academy was apparently founded by Plato himself as a philosophical school during the Classical period in ancient Athens. Select members, among them Aristotle, were gathering there in order to exchange philosophical, scientific and also political ideas. A favourite subject was the organization of the democratic constitution in the city-state. It is through the legacy of these men that the concept of democracy has been transferred to the modern world. Today, the forum reconsiders these concepts and attempts to experiment once more with direct-democracy in a modern setting.