Examining how people alter or customize various dimensions of their temporal experience, this volume discovers how we resist external sources of temporal constraint or structure. These ethnographic studies are international in scope and look at many different countries and continents. They come to the overall conclusion that people construct their own circumstances with the intention to modify their experience of time.
This book shares with a number of recent studies an interest in the historical development of English in the United States, in how it became a central discipline in the humanities, and in what the ideological affiliations of literature and literary study might be. It is strikingly original, however, in that instead of focusing on the subject matter of English (e.g., the canon or critical positions), as most recent studies, it examines precisely how work time is spent within English departments, as well as what circulates through them, and to where. For in terms of immediate social authority, such activities as writing letters of recommendation are more directly relevant than critical methodology. The author concludes by locating cultural work in English between such massively capitalized sites of cultural production as television and advertising, and "popular cultures," meaning what people do every day with whatever is cheaply available to them. English is like the former in that it requires highly developed, socially certified skills and knowledges. Like popular cultures, however, work in English is carried out with readily available material means. By recognizing this actual situation, he argues, one can view English as not just passively reproducing the existing system of social values, but as working within popular culture to provide the possibility of meaningful political opposition.
Robert LaJeunesse looks beyond the 20th century arguments for shortening the work week. He writes a careful, convincing critique of traditional full employment policies in advocacy of an alternative macroeconomic paradigm. With an emphasis on greater socioeconomic participation, the author proposes a policy of work time regulation that is not only appropriate for a 21st century post-industrial economy, but speaks to concerns about balancing work and family, environmental sustainability, stabilizing incomes and prices, and social and economic well being. Through its unique conceptualization of employment relations as a social effort bargain, this book proposes that governments can achieve egalitarian and sustainable macroeconomic objectives by regulating work hours. Equally important to achieving sustainable full employment and price stability, work time regulation offers the capability for citizens living in an age of abundance to define themselves as something other than paid employees. Work time reform represents a first step in a process of enlightenment in which workers will create an identity through the whole of their relationships at work, home, community, and at play. There is certainly a role for government in fostering the pursuit of "loftier ideals" subsequent to a redistribution of work time, but the first precondition for enhanced human development is greater socioeconomic participation, which means more paid work for some and less for others. In addition to students and researchers in economics, sociology, and political science, this book will be of interest to policy makers, policy analysts, labour unionists, environmentalists, and other social reformers.
“Ambitious, fast-paced, fact-filled, and accessible.” —Science “A compelling case for why achieving the right balance of time with our families...is vital to the economic success and prosperity of our nation... A must read.” —Maria Shriver From backyard barbecues to the blogosphere, working men and women across the country are raising the same worried question: How can I get ahead at my job while making sure my family doesn’t suffer? A visionary economist who has looked at the numbers behind the personal stories, Heather Boushey argues that resolving the work–life conflict is as vital for us personally as it is essential economically. Finding Time offers ingenious ways to help us carve out the time we need, while showing businesses that more flexible policies can actually make them more productive. “Supply and demand curves are suddenly ‘sexy’ when Boushey uses them to prove that paid sick days, paid family leave, flexible work schedules, and affordable child care aren’t just cutesy women’s issues for families to figure out ‘on their own time and dime,’ but economic issues affecting the country at large.” —Vogue “Boushey argues that better family-leave policies should not only improve the lives of struggling families but also boost workers’ productivity and reduce firms’ costs.” —The Economist
Information Technology time management expert Dominica DeGrandis, the reveals the real crime of the century--time theft, one of the most costly factors impacting enterprises in their day-to-day operations. The solution to preventing these value stream delays? Make the work visible. In this timely book (title not final), solutions and preventative measures are illustrated and methodologies outlined for immediate application into daily work.
First published in 1985, this book examines the major components of working time from an international perspective, considering the individual aspects of working time, with particular emphasis on the argument that work should be shared to alleviate unemployment and the case for further increasing the flexibility and choice in working arrangements. Paul Blyton reviews working time since the Industrial Revolution, when a strict time-frame was first imposed on workers, and the growth in work-sharing, flexitime, part-time working and changes to the retirement age.
Working time is a crucial issue for both research and public policy. This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of both paid and unpaid work time, integrating a unique discussion of overwork, underwork, shortening of the working week, and flexible work practices. Time at work is affected by a complex web of evolving culture and social relations, as well as market, technological, and macroeconomic forces, and institutions such as collective bargaining and government policy. Using a variety of new data sources, the authors review the latest trends on working time in numerous countries.
