TIME REVEALS EVERYTHING
A glimpse into the hourglass of time use research
Theun Pieter van TienovenJoeri Minnen
Bram Spruyt
Synopsis
How people spend their time says a lot about the organisation of their daily lives. It reveals the temporal organisation of the societies they live in: what happens when, how often, how long it lasts, in what order, and within which context. It reveals inequalities and challenges of sudden changes such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It reveals to be fertile ground for scientific-philosophical discussions about what time actually is. It reveals to be a meaningful statistical proxy for inequality, wealth, and happiness. It reveals to be an almost infinite source of scientific research in many diverse disciplines, but also a challenge to continue to supplement this source with data in times of digitisation, smart statistics, and privacy and data security sensitivities. In short, time reveals everything.
Time Reveals Everything provides a state-of-the-art glimpse in the hourglass of time use research, in which leading scientists from the field of time use research demonstrate what it is, how it can be conducted, and how it can be used. By providing an overview of the key insights, current debates and challenges in performing time research, it is an invaluable source for time researchers. This publication is also relevant for anyone interested in (the implications of ) the temporal organisation of societies as well as the challenges, opportunities and inequalities of everyday life. For scholars from a wide range of scientific disciplines, statisticians, students, policy makers, social workers, journalists, … for everyone, time has something to reveal.
With contributions from Michael Bittman, Jean-Yves Boulin, Petrus te Braak, Lyn Craig, Jonathan Gershuny, Juha Haaramo, Imre Keseru, Laurent Lesnard, Cathy Macharis, Joeri Minnen, Francisca Mullens, Iiris Niemi, Hannu Pääkkönen, Ike Picone, Liana Sayer, Werner Schirmer, Bram Spruyt, Theun Pieter van Tienoven, Ruben Vandenplas, and Jiri Zuzanek.
Table of contents
Table of contentsDownload the entire book here, or download the separate chapters:
CONTENT
Contributors
PART I: CONDUCTING TIME USE RESEARCH
Time reveals everything
Theun Pieter van Tienoven • Joeri Minnen • Bram Spruyt
Time use and experience sampling method ressearch: how complementary?
Jiri Zuzanek
Changes, challenges and transitions over time in collecting time use data
Joeri Minnen • Theun Pieter van Tienoven
Time use during the pandemic and beyond: augmented diary methods to capture daily life in the twenty-first century
Jonathan Gershuny • Michael Bittman
A road full of challenges: how time use surveys became an essential part of statistical production
Juha Haaramo • Hannu Pääkkönen • Iiris Niemi
A view on time through the eyes of Luhmann’s theory of social systems
Werner Schirmer
PART II: USING TIME USE DATA
Trends in working time in France, 1985-2010: a decomposition approach
Laurent Lesnard • Jean-Yves Boulin
The role of time use studies in the recognition of unpaid work
Lyn Craig • Liana C. Sayer
Feelings of time pressure despite leisure time? Exploring the effect of different time use and leisure time characteristics on subjective time pressure
Francisca Mullens • Petrus te Braak
Time use research and media studies: From mutual inspiration to a joint research outlook
Ike Picone • Ruben Vandenplas
Is travel time wasted? Evidence from the MOTUS time use survey in Flanders, Belgium
Imre Keseru • Cathy Macharis • Joeri Minnen • Theun Pieter van Tienoven
Specifications
Theun Pieter van Tienoven
Theun Pieter van Tienoven is professor and post-doctoral research fellow at the Sociology Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Joeri Minnen
Joeri Minnen is post-doctoral research fellow at the Sociology Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Bram Spruyt
Bram Spruyt is professor at the Sociology Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.