ABSTRACT
The research on Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) and Time Banks outside of the US does provide evidence that women are overrepresented in both of these forms of community currencies. Research on LETS indicates a very different age distribution of members. Another methodological challenge is the lack of generally agreed upon and well-developed measures of motivation. Understanding what motivates individuals to join social movements and voluntary associations has been a key theoretical concern in Sociology. The rationality argument surrounds the notion that individuals make choices among a set of known options based on their assessment of probable gains and losses. In the social movements literature, where understanding motivations to participate has been a central puzzle, social, ideological, and utilitarian rationales have been repeatedly documented. In reviewing the community currency scholarship, which comes from cases outside of the United States, the additional motives of altruism and community-building were identified.
