Time-Use Policy or Flexibility? : Working time policymaking in Sweden

• The aim of this article is to create an understanding of Swedish national working time regulations in a document study of Swedish working time policy from 1911 onwards. What arguments for or against a general reduction in working time are presented in official reports, bills and department publications? On the one hand, a time-use problem is identified, depending on the distribution of work. Increased working hours for women, and especially working mothers, pose a risk of less leisure time, less time spent with family and friends, less time for domestic work and less time spent on activities in civil society. This, it was argued, is especially tough for families with small children. On the other hand, the inquiries warned of another problem: the lack of flexibility in working time arrangements. The lack of flexibility was a threat to fluctuations in the global economy. The flexibility concept required local working time adaptation and raised questions about when and where to work. It also questioned traditional working contracts of permanent employment. Results shows that working time policy goals have changed, from being anchored in a social discourse to being rooted in an economic one. This changes the position of working time as an important instrument in the socio-political discourse and makes the reduced working time agenda fade in the light of economic goals such as expansion, growth and flexible working time arrangements. The theoretical approach is based on a policy theory where four different levels of political policymaking are discovered.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Time-use policy

flexibility

working time

Nordic welfare state

work-life balance

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)