This article applies principles of the social exchange framework of social psychology to the social phenomenon of time banking. A “time bank” is an organization that facilitates the giving and receiving of services among its members by allowing them to provide a service, such as an hour of tutoring, in exchange for a “time credit,” which can then be redeemed for receipt of a service, such as an hour of yard work. Empirical research on time banking has focused on its ability to build community and its place within the sharing economy as a form of “connected consumption.” We build on these lines of thought by examining the practice of time banking as a formalized version of generalized exchange. Generalized exchange is a prosocial type of social exchange in which benefits are repaid indirectly, sometimes referred to as “paying it forward.” We discuss how two of time banking's most commonly cited benefits, building social capital and empowering members, can be better understood through this lens of generalized exchange. We then identify two specific motivational issues that time banks face and use a social exchange perspective to propose a possible solution under a framework we refer to as getting is giving.
Culture plays an important role in communities’ abilities to adapt to environmental change and crises. The emerging field of resilience thinking has made several efforts to better integrate social and cultural factors into the systems-level approach to understanding socialecological resilience. However, attempts to integrate culture into structural models often fail to account for the agentic processes that influence recovery at the individual and community levels, overshadowing the potential for agency and variation in community response. Using empirical data on the 2010 BP oil spill’s impact on a small, natural resource-dependent community, we propose an alternative approach emphasizing culture’s ability to operate as a resource that contributes to social, or community, resilience. We refer to this more explicit articulation of culture’s role in resilience as cultural resilience. Our findings reveal that not all cultural resources that define resilience in reference to certain disasters provided successful mitigation, adaptation, or recovery from the BP spill.
Housing is among the most durable and costly of consumer possessions. A consumer commodity in itself, housing is also the staging ground for many types of consumption – of things such as furniture and appliances, and of activities such as meal preparation and entertaining. These consumption practices transform a dwelling into the cultural embodiment of a home, which embodies an extension of the self, signals social status, and provides a sense of ontological security. Home ownership intensifies the significance of housing for consumers, but also increases indebtedness and risk. Historically, home mortgages have been justified as a productive investment rather than a consumer expenditure, as mortgages were thought to enforce savings for a financially secure future. However, real estate has not consistently retained its value, and flexible mortgages allow housing wealth to be spent instead of saved. Recent changes in housing finance contribute to the financialization of daily life and further blur the boundaries between investment and consumption of the home.
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