Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Time is a scarce, some would say increasingly scarce, resource. However, unlike other resources, time is equally distributed because everyone faces the same 24-hour constraint as they make decisions about how to allocate their limited time to various and often competing commitments. Despite its apparent equality, time allocation is a major indicator of social differentiation and stratification. For example, people with high levels of human capital may be better able to afford to trade paid work time for leisure time as well as purchase time-saving goods and services (such as prepared meals and house cleaning) than people with lower levels of human capital. Further, the choices people make about their time use has important implications for their health, financial security, and general life satisfaction. In addition to people's personal preferences, myriad norms (and even laws) govern how people should use their time – how much time is appropriate to spend at work, how much time is needed to care for family, and even how much time one should spend brushing one's teeth each night. Thus, at the social level, people's time use patterns reflect how societies value categories such as work, family, and leisure. There are three primary ways to measure people's time use: (1) asking respondents to indicate on questionnaires how much time they spend in various activities; (2) observing people ... log in or subscribe to read full text