Work Time is a sociological overview of a complex web of relations that shapes much of our experience of work and life yet often goes without critical examination.
Cynthia Negrey examines work time past and present, exploring structural economic change and the gender division of labor to ask: what are the historical, cultural, public policy, and business sources of current work-time practices? Topics addressed include work-time reduction in the US culminating in the 40-hour statute of 1938, recent trends in annual and weekly hours, overtime, part-time work, temporary employment, work-family integration, and international comparisons. She focuses on the US in a global context and explores how a new political economy of work time is taking shape.
This book brings together existing knowledge from sociology, anthropology, history, labor economics, and family studies to answer its central question and will change the way upper-level students think about the time we devote to work.
Cynthia L. Negrey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Louisville.
List of Figures, Tables, and Boxes vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 From Field to Factory and Beyond 9
Original Affluence? 10
Medieval Church Time, Modern Clock Time 14
Commodified Time 18
Industrial Time-discipline 19
Time-work Discipline in the Twenty-first Century 25
Gendered Time 27
2 Work-time Reduction in the US 31
Citizenship, Leisure, Education, and Health 34
From Haymarket to Henry Ford 40
Work Sharing and Fair Labor 51
Two 30-hour Experiments 57
Conclusion 63
3 Current Trends 65
Annual Hours 66
Weekly Hours 69
Overtime 71
Non-standard Work 74
Non-standard Schedules 90
Hours Mismatches 92
4 Work-family, Work-life 96
From Family-based to Family Consumer Economy 97
Women's Labor-force Participation 99
Family Structure and Employment Hours 102
Housework, Child Care, and Free Time 102
Work-family 108
Private Adaptations 109
Workplace and Public Policy Initiatives 114
Work-life 124
5 Work Time Outside the US 128
Work Hours in Industrialized Nations 128
Work Hours Regulations in Europe 136
Women's Part-time Employment in Europe 148
Family Policies 151
European Couples' Work-hour Strategies 158
Work Hours in Transition and Developing Countries 163
Work Hours Preferences 171
Conclusion 172
6 A New Political Economy of Work Time 174
The Electronic Cottage 178
Customized Time: Two Forms 180
Recommendations for Change 181
Work Time and Environmental Sustainability 187
Conclusion 191
Notes 195
References 201
Index 229