Many researchers have studied people's everyday use of time. National and international agencies increasingly collect and analyze time-use data. Yet this perspective and its techniques remain a black box to most social science researchers and applied practitioners, and the potential of time-use data to expand explanation in the social sciences is not fully recognized by even most time-use researchers.Sociologist William Michelson's unique book places the study of time-use data in perspective, demystifies its collection and analytic options, and carefully examines the potential of time-use analysis for a wide range of benefits to the social sciences. These include the sampling of otherwise socially "hidden" groups, bridging the gap between qualitative and quantitative phenomena, gender studies, family dynamics, multitasking, social networks, built environments, and risk exposure.

Chapter 1 Time-Use: Strategic Value from a Ubiquitous Resource; Chapter 2 Demystifying Time-Use Collection; Chapter 3 Directions of Analysis and Their Implications; Chapter 4 Studying "Hidden" Groups through Behavioral Sampling; Chapter 5 Bridging the Gap between Qualitative and Quantitative: The Experience of Gender in Everyday Life; Chapter 6 Patterning in Everyday Life: Episode Occurrences and Sequences; Chapter 7 Patterns beneath the Surface: The Texture of Multitasking; Chapter 8 Social Contact and Family Dynamics in Temporal Perspective; Chapter 9 Behavioral Implications of Built Environments; Chapter 10 Exposure to Risk; Chapter 11 Coda;