Cross-national changes in time-use: some sociological (hi) stories re-examined

The paper addresses some macro-sociological questions about changes in broa d categories of time-use. The focus is on large-scale cross-national time t rends from developed countries in paid and unpaid work, and leisure. Refere nce is made to some well-known sociological and historical accounts of such change, and to the fact that time-use diary data has only relatively recen tly become available for analysing trends over time. The data used are draw n from a comparative cross-time data archive held by the Institute for Soci al and Economic Research at Essex University, comprising successive time-us e diary surveys from a range of industrialized countries collected from the 1960s to the 1990s. The time use evidence suggests relative stability in t he balance between work and leisure time over the period covered by the ana lyses. Some alternative explanations are advanced for why there seems to be a gap between this evidence and, on the one hand, the burgeoning literatur e in both academic and popular media addressing the 'time famine' and, on t he other, people's professed experience of what is happening to their time.