Time-rich and Time-poor: The allocation of time and income

• This article focuses on the division of work and private life in a Swedish community. An interview study sheds some light on the diversity of time frames experienced by people living inside and outside labour market. It examines how this duality is paving the way for new patterns of inequality. The purpose is to explore the living conditions of two groups in society: the time-poor who are established in the labour force that experience great demands on their efficiency and educational level, and the time-rich who do not have a natural place in the labour market. People experience an unbalanced division of time and resources not only in work situations but also in everyday life in the home and in leisure time. The time-rich can find that they have small margins, partly due to a lack of social networks and social recognition, while the time-poor experience it due to multiple and unwieldy social roles inside and outside labour market. Society has tried to cope with these two different problems in completely different ways, although both problems are related to income, one through salaried work and the other through income support. The results not only exhibit the polarizing tendencies in terms of time and income. There are also similar differences concerning social participation. Time-rich people have a hard time finding alternative social networks outside the labour market. At the same time, many life-course changes that require both a lot of time and a lot of money occur in time-poor living conditions. A restriction analysis, inspired by the time-geographical approach, shows a diversity of time patterns and space/time restrictions between different life-modes in everyday life. When the individuals’ whole life situation is taken into consideration, the diversity of time patterns creates restrictions that oppose strategies for work/life balance in everyday life.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Keyword

time

income

social networks

flexibility

work/life balance

time geography

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)