A qualitative economy (a term which I'm essentially creating here*) is one based on a variation of humanistic economics, and measured by qualitative values such as satisfaction, ecological sensitivity, product longevity and reliability, and the relationships formed between people.  The transactions may be exactly the same as what we are used to; it's just the measurement of value that's different.

When we think "economy", we are typically thinking of quantitative economies, where value is measured numerically (i.e. in money or resource quantity).

One exciting aspect of my qualitative economy concept is that the two kinds are not mutually exclusive.  Sure, gift ecomonies and sharing economies are all qualitative and don't use money, but you can still measure a normal money-based transaction in qualitative terms and think of it as part of a qualitative economy.  The critical difference, then, is not necessarily what or how we transact; it is what values we use to measure the success of a transaction or the economy.

source: Andrew Welch

* This is not to be confused with qualitative economics - a term in classical (quantitative) economic theory when the direction of change is studied, but actual measurements are unavailable.