Giving Compass' Take:

• In this post on B the Change, an agricultural activist shares her experiences trading labor for knowledge, and how bartering can help shift our perceptions about community obligations.

• Is this so-called "radical reciprocity" (a barter and gift economy) realistic to implement across a wild variety of settings? How can we make sure that we are staying true to equity?

• In Nigeria, this practice can save lives: Displaced people trade goods instead of using cash.

For the past 10 years, I have cultivated a community that supports my most essential human needs (food, shelter, education) with limited exchange of money. Sometimes called the barter and gift economy, sometimes called family, I call it “radical reciprocity.”

I came to this lifestyle not long after college, when I moved back to my hometown of Petaluma, California, to take up a residential farm internship. In exchange for agricultural training, I labored. The trade felt equitable and mutualistic, and I became hooked on bartering for the basics. I saw viscerally how, when practiced with care and consideration, non-monetary exchange could yield more than the sum of its parts ...

Researchers are learning that our fundamental human need for belonging actually gives us an evolutionary edge, keeping us in communities working toward shared aims. It is a freedom to walk in the world knowing that you will be cared for, no matter how big or small your bank account. I encourage you to pursue this freedom. Barter, trade and gift have offered a daily opportunity to affirm my sense of belonging, whereas cash and credit have felt divisive and isolating by comparison ...

 

If everyone practiced these ways of transacting business, they might feel more indebted  —  not financially, but to each others’ humanity. How much more thoughtfulness, care and concern would we express to one another on a daily basis?

Read the full article about the benefits of bartering by Erin Axelrod at B the Change.