Description:
Even before valuation disputes arise, alternative-economy communities often fail to *record* ‘invisible labour’ (care, emotional support, conflict mediation, household logistics, onboarding, listening, encouragement, maintaining harmony). When these contributions are not captured, they become structurally undervalued and are treated as ‘free’, which commonly leads to burnout (often disproportionately affecting women and high-empathy contributors) and resentment toward visible-role contributors.
Desired Outcome:
Contribution recording explicitly includes care/invisible labour categories so that the community can see the full work ecosystem, distribute load more fairly, and honour stewardship contributions consistently.
What Could Go Wrong:
Care/invisible labour remains hidden; contributors burn out and quietly leave; visible deliverables are celebrated while essential support work is ignored; a gendered or status hierarchy forms; community cohesion weakens; the system’s moral legitimacy is questioned.
Current Situation:
The discussion triggered by Leon’s historic example implies an early warning: labour categories and cultural assumptions drive what gets recognised. AYU’s infrastructure launch is the right time to bake visibility into the contribution taxonomy and workflows.
Action Strategy:
1) Create a contribution taxonomy that includes Care/Support/Mediation/Onboarding categories by default. 2) Provide timechunk templates/examples for invisible labour so people know it ‘counts’. 3) Encourage ‘paired logging’: visible deliverable owners log who supported them. 4) Add lightweight weekly prompts: “Who supported you this week?” 5) Use dashboards that show contribution mix (delivery vs support) to spot imbalance. 6) Rotate care-heavy roles and protect them with explicit capacity limits. 7) Make community norms explicit: ‘If it helped the mission, it’s loggable.’
Concern Category:
Location:
Analysis: Not available
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