Dale Southerton - Analysing the Temporal Organization of Daily Life - Social Constraints, Practices and Their Allocation

435

SociologyCopyright 2006

BSA Publications LtdVolume 40(3): 435454

DOI: 10.1177/0038038506063668SAGE Publications

London,Thousand Oaks,New Delhi

Analysing the Temporal Organization of Daily Life: Social Constraints, Practices andtheir Allocation

Dale SouthertonUniversity of Manchester

ABSTRACT

There is a tension in time studies between measuring and accounting for thechanging distribution of units of time across social activities, and explaining temporal experiences. By analysing in-depth interviews with 27 people, this articleemploys a theory of practice to explore the relationship between respondentsnon-work practices and five dimensions of time. It hypothesizes that practiceswhich demand a fixed location within daily schedules anchor temporal organiza-tion, around which are sequenced sets of interrelated practices. A third categoryof practices fills the gaps that emerge within temporal sequences.The most signif-icant socio-demographic constraints (gender, age, life-course and education) thatshaped how respondents engaged and experienced practices in relation to thefive dimensions of time are then considered. It is argued that the relationshipbetween different types of social practices, five dimensions of time and socio-demographic constraints presents a conceptual framework for the systematic anal-ysis of differential temporal experiences.

KEY WORDS

constraints / co-participation / duration / periodicity / practice / sequence / syn-chronization / tempo / temporal rhythms

Introduction

here is a tension in studies of time between measuring and accounting forits changing socio-economic organization and understanding how differentsocial groups experience it. The tension is most evident in contrastingT

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empirical approaches. Time diary studies offer a level of micro measurementdetail, almost equivalent to money in economics, whereby activities can be cali-brated in small units, typically minutes, and socio-economic change measured.By contrast, ethnographic approaches insist on the analysis of multiple tempo-ralities; that time is not reducible to minutes and the temporal rhythm of days,weeks, seasons, years, bodies and institutions all contribute to differential expe-riences. While a resolution of this tension is beyond the scope of this article, itis argued that by developing a conceptual framework for the systematic analysisof temporal rhythms a more rigorous understanding of the changing organiza-tion and experience of time in daily life is possible.

Informed by a theory of practice, which takes practices rather than indi-viduals as the primary unit of investigation, the analytical approach plots thenon-work practices of interview respondents against five dimensions of time.Analysis reveals that the temporal rhythm of the day is characterized by prac-tices which hold a fixed position in the sequence of practices. These practicestend to require the co-participation of other people, obligation and personalcommitment. The section on constraints considers socio-demographic factors(gender, age and life-course, and education/class) that constrained how respon-dents allocated and experienced non-work practices. It is demonstrated that therelationship between the specificities of social practices, five dimensions of time and the constraints that people face when engaging in practices organizetemporal rhythms and construct how they are experienced.

Time Use Studies and Social Change

Much has been written about time, about the changing distribution of practiceswithin a 24-hour day (particularly between broad categories of leisure, personalcare, paid and unpaid work), and how economic policy and technological inno-vations affect such distributions. Most studies start with a substantive issue astheir primary focus and concentrate on the dimensions of time explicitly rele-vant to that issue (for exceptions see Adam, 1990; Zerubavel, 1979). Ratherthan review studies of time according to the substantive issues that they address,this section re-casts them in light of Fines (1996: 55) five dimensions of time:

Periodicity refers to the rhythm of the activity; tempo, to its rate or speed; timing tothe synchronization or mutual adaptation of activities; duration, to the length of anactivity; and sequence to the ordering of events.

Like Adams (2000: 135) timescape framework, Fines five dimensions makeexplicit and recognize times multiplex function and expression. Bothapproaches shift analytic attention away from time as a unit of measurementand focus on how its multiple dimensions relate to, and in doing so construct,the temporal rhythms of daily life. While Fines five dimensions are sub-sumed within Adams more encompassing timescape framework (the temporalequivalent of landscape), Fines approach is most applicable to an analysis of

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practice because each dimension allows for systematic comparison between thetemporal components of different practices.

Duration

Time diary studies, which employ time diary data to record and measure thenumber of minutes devoted to activities, represent the most comprehensiveaccounts of duration. Gershuny (2000) employs diary data to account for pat-terns of convergence and divergence of time use across different countries,social classes and gender, and to highlight how various politico-economicregimes produce different forms of temporal organization. Other accountsfocus more explicitly on time famine. Robinson and Godbey (1997) demon-strate that despite having more free time in 1995 than 1965, Americans para-doxically reported feeling more rushed. Schor (1992), on the other hand,explains the economic benefits for firms of training a limited number of em-ployees who work long hours as opposed to a larger number of employees whowork limited hours. The workforce is willing to work for longer durationsbecause, Schor argues, people value their consumption relative to others andglobal consumer culture places the lifestyles of the most affluent as the key con-sumer referent group. The logic of global capitalism is that people work moreto consume more. Diaries have also been used to explore the changing condi-tions of leisure, domestic divisions of labour, the emergence of new activitiesand decline of others. However, the duration of activities remains the primaryfocus of analysis.

Some ethnographic accounts focus on duration. Kunda (2001) andRutherford (2001) suggest the professional middle classes, especially femalemembers, face anxieties of increased workplace competition in the context oftheir commitment to pursuing a professional career. In both accounts, theimportance of being seen as dedicated to the job, believed to be the principaldiscriminating characteristic for upward mobility in the industries studied, ledworkers to adopt strategies of working for long durations.

Tempo

Kundas and Rutherfords accounts also highlight the importance of tempo: tosymbolize commitment employees increased the tempo of their work. It is,however, in theoretical accounts of time-space compression that tempo receivesmost attention. Scheuerman (2001) discusses three forms of acceleration asso-ciated with time-space compression: technologies, particularly in relation totransportation, communications and production; social transformations; andeveryday life. Together these processes produce an intensification of activitiesand experiences, because spatial constraints on the timing of activities havebeen compressed and individuals exposed to an ever-expanding plurality oflifestyles instantaneously amenable through global information and communi-cation technologies and the rapid distribution of global commodities (Giddens,

437Analysing temporal organization Southerton



1991; Harvey, 1990). It is in this context that Darier (1998) suggests contem-porary lifestyles are experienced as demanding of a need to experience ever-more cultural activities, and, subsequently, being busy and conducting practicesat a fast tempo becomes symbolic of a full and valued life.

Sequence

Sequence refers to the order in which activities are conducted. It is a dimensionof time found in debates surrounding the changing distribution of time spentin paid and unpaid work. It is suggested that women in dual income house-holds experience a dual burden as a consequence of juggling both paidemployment and continued responsibility for domestic matters (Thompson,1996). A symptom is that women multi-task and by inter-weaving the con-duct of many tasks the sequence of activities is altered (Sullivan, 1997).Hochschilds (1997) ethnographic study of a major American corporation fur-ther develops this point. She relates increased durations of paid work, whichresult from the intensification of global capitalism, to qualitative changes oftemporal experiences in the home. She argues that as hours of paid workincrease (what she calls the first shift), time for domestic matters (the secondshift) is squeezed, creating the need for a third shift whereby people attemptto create quality time for their loved ones. This is a process of rationalizationbecause the principles of Taylorization, whereby tasks are broken down intotheir component parts (fragmented) and re-sequenced to maximize temporalefficiency, have become applied to domestic activities. Overall, increasinglymore spheres of daily life are regulated by principles of the efficient sequenc-ing of tasks within designated slots of time.

Synchronization

Bittman and Wajcman (2000) demonstrate important gender distinctions in thequality of leisure time based on the synchronization of different activities. Theydistinguish between pure and interrupted leisure. Men enjoy more pureleisure time. Womens leisure, by contrast, tends to be synchronized with child-care and is thus punctuated by activities of unpaid work. In addition to imply-ing that womens leisure time may be less restorative than mens, Bittman andWajcman show how the synchronization of activities in any given time slot pro-duces qualitatively different experiences of time.

The dimension of synchronization can also be found in studies of post-Fordist workplaces. Garhammer (1995) and Breedveld (1998) describe the pro-cess of flexibilization whereby working times and locations are increasinglyderegulated and scattered. The consequence is a temporal shift from 9 to 5,Monday to Friday to the 24-hour society. For Breedveld, those in professionaloccupations have greater control over the sequence of work activities and cantherefore develop strategies whereby the type of work they conduct outside the9 to 5 model can be synchronized with leisure activities (such as completing




forms or listening to music). By contrast, those of lower socio-economic statushave less control over the sequence of work activities and any synchronizationof work and non-work practices is not possible.

Periodicity

Periodicity refers to the frequency and repetition of events and activities. Forexample, eating is a practice conducted with a high degree of frequency,although as Wouters (1986) account of informalization suggests, the extent towhich the practice is repeated within the same temporal frames of each day maybe weakening with the emergence of grazing eating patterns. Periodicity is alsoimplicit in accounts of the effects that labour-saving domestic appliances haveon domestic organization. Vanek (1978) demonstrated that the amount of timedevoted to domestic work by women in the USA remained constant between the1920s and 1970s despite the diffusion of domestic labour-saving technologies.She explains this consistency by suggesting that such technologies increase theperiodicity (frequency) at which domestic tasks are conducted.

Summary

The above accounts provide valuable insights into the relationship between substantive spheres of social life (consumption, leisure, work, technology ordomestic labour) and the changing organization and distribution of time. Indoing so, each account focuses on selected dimensions of time, but few explorethe relationships between different dimensions of time or attempt to account forthe temporal rhythms of daily life beyond the remit of their substantive focus.

Analysing the Temporal Organization of Practices

The Study

This article draws from research concerned with how various forms of conve-nience technologies and services respond to, and produce, changing forms oftemporal organization. The primary source of data was interviews conductedwith 20 households (a total of 27 respondents) located in a suburb of Bristol,England. The sample comprised single households, couples with and withoutchildren, and the ages of respondents varied between 25 and 65. Some weredual income households, some professionals and some retired, thus providing arange of demographic and socio-economic status groups. Respondents werecontacted via letter sent to every other house in the most and least expensivestreets of the town. Interviews lasted, on average, two hours. Adopting a con-versational approach (Douglas, 1985) toward semi-structured interviews,respondents were asked whether they felt society, in general, was more timepressured than in the past, whether they felt pressed for time, to recount and




reflect on the previous week and weekend day, and to describe how they organized the passage of time in their daily lives.

The Analytical Approach

The day is the context of a composite of practices, and practices come with theirown requirements and demands. Taking this premise, it was necessary todevelop an analytic technique that allowed for an understanding of how prac-tices were allocated within different time slots and organized in relation to oneanother. It is important to recognize that practices come with sets of require-ments necessary for competent and meaningful engagement (Reckwitz, 2002;Schatzki, 1996). For example, some practices require, or at least imply a pre-ference for, the co-presence of others (such as eating out and playing sport).Practices come with normative expectations regarding how they should be con-ducted (competitively, seriously, jovially) and norms vary across social groups.Finally, practices do not occur in isolation from one another but are inter-related. Engaging in one practice can rule out engagement in another or requirethe performance of a connected practice. For example, eating requires thatsomebody cooks. A key question for this analysis was how the requirements ofdifferent practices impact on the temporal organization of the day, and how thenorms and expectations that govern practices varied across social groups andaffected experiences of time.

Given the multiple meanings and range of implications associated withany practice it was not feasible to analyse everything that respondents did inthe days recounted. Consequently, only non-work practices were analysed.This was partly because paid and unpaid work come with sets of obligationsand constraints that make allocation in time less subject to personal sched-uling than non-work practices. Distinguishing between work and non-workpractices was an interpretive task. Paid work and unpaid domestic tasksdescribed as unavoidable and obligatory were categorized as work. Practicesdescribed as pleasurable but necessary either for household maintenance(such as mowing the lawn) or to facilitate a social event (such as cooking inpreparation for a dinner party) were also categorized as work. To categorizea practice as non-work required that respondents had a degree of discretionover participation.

The non-work practices of each respondent were plotted along Fines fivedimensions of time in order to gain a sense of the temporal rhythm of respon-dents days. Periodicity was interpreted in terms of whether the practice wasconducted with any regularity on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Temporeferred to whether the practice was described as rushed or leisurely.Synchronization was adapted to refer to whether or not a practice was pre-arranged and coordinated with other people. Duration reflected the amountof time devoted to the practice. Sequence was interpreted according towhether the practice was fixed within a specific time slot, allocated according




to its fixed location within a sequence of interrelated practices, or whetherallocation was contingent on the emergence of opportune moments in thesequence of practices.

Figure 1 illustrates the interpretive technique of plotting practices alongeach dimension of time. The accompanying description of Bradley and Cindysprevious weekday and weekend day helps clarify the interpretive processinvolved. After taking her daughter to school, Cindy, a home-worker, had goneto the gym (which she did twice a week) where she had arranged to meetfriends. This activity was fixed, in that other practices were allocated around it,and Cindy spent between 10 a.m. and 12 noon (duration) at the gym beforereturning home for lunch and an afternoon of domestic labour. It was not until


Figure 1 An example of plotting practices by temporal dimensions

Bradley and Cindy (Age 34 and 32)

PeriodicityIrregular Regular

Gym; read;watch television

Eat outWalk to the park;shopping; bike ride

TempoRushed Leisurely

Gym; shopping Watch television;eat out; walk tothe park; read

Bike ride

SynchronizationBy arrangement

Gym; eat out Walk to thepark; bike ride;

read

Watch television;shopping

DurationDay

Eat out;shopping

Watch television;bike ride;

read

Gym; walkto the park

SequenceFixed Contingent

Eat out;gym

Walk to thepark; bike ride

Shopping; watchtelevision; read

Inter-related allocation



the evening that another non-work activity took place. Bradley, an accountant,took his daughter for a short bike ride to get her out the house while Cindyfinished preparation of their evening meal. They then watched televisiontogether. When Cindy went to sleep, Bradley read for half an hour, somethinghe did in order to switch off before sleeping.

The weekend day presented many more opportunities for non-work acti-vities. As on every Saturday morning, Bradley entertained his daughter, in thiscase with a leisurely trip to the park. During this time, Cindy dashed to theshops (tempo), as she wanted to buy something for their evening out, clothesshopping being a frequent but not regular activity for Cindy (periodicity). Theafternoon consisted of domestic work while their daughter visited her grand-parents. They described the need to complete housework in the afternoon sothat they could properly relax (Cindy) when dining out with friends in theevening. This was a pre-arranged event (synchronization), the only weekendthat we could all meet up, and was an infrequent activity; they rarely ate outwith friends. To compound the difficulties, they could only book a table for7.30 when really 8.30 would have been better so we can get Lucy settled pro-perly (Cindy), although Bradley observed a relative upside to this arrangementbecause it does mean were not in such a rush to get back for the baby-sitter as we leave that bit earlier (Bradley). The meal lasted all evening. As can beseen, respondents description of their days contained enough detail to clearlyinterpret the location of each practice within the five dimensions of time.

The Temporal Organization of Practices

The temporal rhythms described by Bradley and Cindy were similar to thosedescribed by other respondents: punctuated by moments of rush and compara-tive calm; of coordination with the temporal regimes of other people and insti-tutions; and focused around a few activities that were fixed within their dailyschedules. A critical component that affected the plotting of practices was thedegree of social involvement of others. Practices conducted with people whoresided outside the household, with household members, and practices con-ducted alone presented different requirements of allocation. Taking each timedimension in turn it is possible to gain a generic sense of how practices wereorganized within the context of a day.

Periodicity

Figure 2 shows most practices were conducted with regularity and frequency.Practices conducted with non-household members were least likely to be regu-lar events, even if they were frequent. For example, Mike and Charlotte ate outwith friends frequently about once a month or so (Mike) but this was notregular in the sense of being conducted on the same day every month. Practicesconducted with household members tended to have a high degree of regularity,being activities that couples and families conducted as a matter of routine.




Eating a take-away meal on a Saturday night and taking children to the parkwere characterized by their habitual location within a specific weekly or dailytime slot. Yet, some activities were one offs (Sarah), such as a family visit to atourist attraction or playing a board game as a means of killing an hour(Mark). Practices conducted alone tended to be frequent and have a high degreeof regularity, especially if the respondent had particular commitment to thepractice or it regularly filled empty time slots.

Tempo

Tempo is a difficult dimension to analyse because one persons interpretation ofrush may be anothers experience of leisure. It is also a contingent condition,dependent on the degree to which interrelated practices infringe on the pursuitof that practice. Consider this description of a family outing:

We went swimming and took a picnic so we had that, and then went on an adven-ture trail at Bowood. And because we had to get there by twelve to make it worthwhile we had to leave swimming with enough time to spare. Then we had to findsomewhere for the picnic and it just went on like that. God I needed a day off afterthat day off!

In this case, swimming had taken longer than Sarah anticipated because thepool was much busier than usual, ruining her carefully prepared schedule andmaking the tempo of the main activity feel rushed. Examples such as this showthat tempo was often related to the disruption of temporal schedules.

Synchronization and Coordination

A striking feature of respondents narratives was how practices conducted withothers, particularly those that involved non-household members, required a comparatively high degree of coordination and arrangement. Figure 3 shows that only two respondents reported a practice involving a non-householdmember that did not require prior arrangement, and four of the eight casesdescribed as loosely arranged featured practices which emerged from anotherarranged event. For example, Deborah described how a family lunch presentedthe opportunity to go for a drink when her mother-in-law offered to look afterher child, an offer that Deborah had anticipated but could not take for granted.


Figure 2 Plotting practices according to the dimension of periodicity

Frequent butIrregular not regular Regular Total

With others 10 10 16 36With household member 4 6 21 31Alone 7 15 24 46Total practices 21 31 61 113



Other practices described as being loosely arranged were those conducted regu-larly, removing the need to make arrangements but requiring the institutional-ization of the practice in the schedules of others. Kathryn described theregularity of visiting extended family as reducing any need to make arrange-ments because: its just an unwritten rule, eleven oclock every Sunday.

High degrees of arrangement were also required for practices that tookplace with household members and which were not regular or frequent. By con-trast, practices conducted alone typically required no prior arrangements,except in Audreys case where she operated a rota with her daughter to shareaccess to the computer. The degree to which a practice involved others and theextent to which the practice represented a regular or routine engagement com-bined to determine the extent to which a practice required synchronization withthe personal schedules of others.

Duration

Duration was also closely related to whether a practice involved the co-participation of others. Practices subject to arrangement with non-householdmembers tended to have a relatively long duration, which was appropriategiven that such practices required a fixed position within personal schedules. Bycontrast, practices conducted alone tended to have a short duration, partlybecause they were often practices conducted in order to fill time between fixedpractices. Engagement in practices with household members tended to be of arelatively long duration if it was a planned event.

Sequence

The sequencing of practices was critical to their positioning in the other fourdimensions. Practices conducted with non-household members were over-whelmingly fixed, largely because they required arrangement and coordination(Figure 4). Other practices were sequenced in relation to those fixed within aparticular time slot. Mike and Charlotte described how:

Mike: Everythings geared towards eight oclock, thats the time we were meetingJohn and Sue


Figure 3 Plotting practices according to the dimension of synchronization

By Loose Noarrangement arrangement arrangement Total




Charlotte: Yeah, you sort of count back from that dont you, like an hour to getready, so thats seven

Mike: I was done by half seven so I got to check out the footie results on teletextwhile waiting

For Charlotte and Mike, going out with friends was fixed and getting ready togo out was interrelated because it needed to precede the fixed event. For Mike,however, a temporal gap emerged between getting ready and going out. This isindicative of how the allocation of practices conducted alone was overwhelm-ingly contingent on the emergence of temporal gaps within the sequence ofpractices. Fiona recounted how: I got back from Mums and, well, the traffichad been good so I was back at six and not going out til eight so I had a quickbrowse of the internet to kill time really. Even practices conducted alone andwith a high degree of regularity had a contingent location in the sequence ofpractices. James captured why this was the case: I always watch Emmerdale,without fail, but thats just because I aint got anything else on when its on, youknow Ive had my tea by seven and if Im doing anything its always at aroundeight. Practices conducted alone might take place at the same time every day or week but this was because those time slots were routinely caught betweenfixed practices.

Practices and Temporal Rhythms

Plotting practices according to Fines five dimensions of time creates an imme-diate impression of the temporal rhythms of respondents daily lives and of thecomponents that contribute to its ordering. The temporal organization of a daycan be hypothesized as one coordinated around fixed events that usually involvethe co-participation of others. Where those others are non-household membersthe degree of arrangement is likely to be high because social and spatial proxi-mity demands a greater degree of coordination between actors. Surroundingtemporally fixed practices are those where location within daily schedules is malleable, but which require allocation within a sequence of interrelatedpractices. Finally, there are practices that can be best described as time fillers,slotted into schedules when the sequence of practices left voids within parts ofthe day.


Figure 4 Plotting practices according to the dimension of sequence

Fixed Located inFixed set of practices Contingent Total




Characterizing the temporal organization of the day is a useful way offraming how practices are ordered within time. It moves analytic attentionaway from the distribution and measurement of time between different dailypractices towards an approach that considers the relationship between practicesand different dimensions of time. However, to avoid treating social actors ashomogeneous it is necessary to take account of the different socio-demographicconstraints that affected how social groups conducted non-work practices andexperienced time.

Constraints and the Allocation of Practices in Time

The most significant socio-demographic factors that affected how practiceswere allocated within the day are: gender, age and life-course, and education.As implied by the discussion of practices which required coordination betweenrespondents and non-household members, constraints related to space, forexample the location of jobs, schools, local amenities and social networks, were also important, although detailed discussion is beyond the scope of thisarticle. It is also necessary to note that all interviewees were white hetero-sexual UK nationals and consequently the analysis provides no insight into eth-nicity or sexuality. In addition, because analysis focused on non-work prac-tices, the impacts of the temporal organization of paid work could not besystematically analysed.

Gender

Consistent with previous studies, the domestic division of labour and mother-hood was at the heart of gendered temporal experiences. Women who haddependent children held primary responsibility for the organization of child-care, schooling, servicing friendships and attendance at clubs and other activi-ties. The distinction between mothers in paid employment, who are oftendescribed as suffering the dual burden of domestic and paid work, and home-workers was, however, less striking. Deborah, a mother of two and a home-worker, stated that:

Lots of things are planned for me if you like, like all the things the kids do, youknow, everything fits around them ... once Chloe is at nursery I get some time tomyself but then its like I havent got enough time to do anything I can read amagazine which is nice and get some jobs done but I cant go shopping cause thereisnt the time.

Charlotte, a working mum, described a similar situation:

I pick Beth up from my Mums about three and Mike finishes early on a Friday andeven if all the housework is done and Mike takes her to McDonalds so that I canhave a bath or whatever I know theyll be back soon so I cant really take my time




or anything. Its about grabbing the opportunities but even when you do you knowyou have to grab it quickly because there will be something you have to do after.

Charlotte and Deborah typified how mothers daily practices were orientedaround a range of fixed points which strongly influenced the sequence, tempoand duration of non-work practices.

This point is reinforced when contrasted with men. Fathers described awhole host of constraints related to children. However, their narratives placedless emphasis on responsibility for the organization of childrens daily sche-dules. Take for example Mark, a father of two children and married to Amandawho also worked full time. They discussed an occasion where, on the day thathe usually finishes work early and collects the children from school, both thechildren went to play at friends homes:

Mark: Mand said shed pick them up on the way home from work so I thoughtgreat and met up with a couple of friends and went for a few pints

Amanda: Yeah and I got in and had to dash around, bath the kids and that becauseyou never got back till gone six when you said youd get back and get every-thing ready for when I got in with the kids. If that was me, I wouldve got backso the kids didnt have to hang round waiting for a bath and then be late for bed.

This is not to argue that fathers do not participate with childcare Amandaquickly qualified that Mark is very hands on when it comes to the kids. Rather,it suggests that the personal schedules and temporal organization of childrenslives had a stronger bearing on the temporal rhythms of mothers daily lives.

It was also interesting to note that women with adult children alsodescribed how the presence of those children impacted on their daily rhythms.Anne explained how:

They usually come over on a Sunday for lunch and that so my entire Sunday is takenup by that really. Obviously I get to read the papers in the morning and watch thetele on the night but a great chunk is cooking, getting things ready and waiting forthem all to arrive.

Rons response captured the point: Its just like the old days, only I get to sit here, read the papers and watch the box instead of having to entertain thekiddos or mend their bikes.

Gendered constraints related to senses and degrees of obligation to childrenand family. Fathers did not describe the same degree of primary obligation asdid mothers. Fathers, especially those with non-dependent children, did notdescribe activities centred around children as being key coordinating or fixedpoints in the daily schedule to the same extent as did mothers.

Age and Life-course

Life-course was important in relation to the range of practices in which respon-dents engaged. Parents of dependent children engaged in a range of practices




that were variously described as family or quality time. This involved playingwith children, taking them places and spending time together as a family. Asdiscussed elsewhere, such moments of family togetherness (Daly, 1996)required a significant degree of coordination between the personal schedules ofeach household member and synchronization with other practices (Southerton,2003). Sarahs account of the planning required for a day out at an adventurepark, discussed in the previous section, served as a good example.

Interestingly, respondents with teenage children, all of whom were agedbetween 41 and 50, described conducting more non-work practices in the twodays recounted than did any of the other respondents. This was because therelative independence of teenage children presented these respondents withopportunities to engage in personal practices while continuing to participate ina range of family activities. Audrey explained:

Now that shes older she does lots of things on her own which is nice because it givesme time to do my things like go out shopping and that, but we also, well shes not that grown up that we dont have meals together and that, play games, go to thecinema, that sort of thing.

Practices conducted by respondents who did not have dependent childrenwere more revealing with respect to age differences. Younger child-free respon-dents described the importance of socializing within networks of friends andconsequently identified a series of fixed social events within their daily life: Ivethree social events a week, golf on a Sunday, dinner on a Wednesday with col-leagues and I always do something on a Saturday night with some of my oldfriends (Elizabeth). Older respondents had less hectic social lives and describedthe pursuit of mini-projects. Mary had been tidying the gardens of hermothers elderly friends while Arthur had volunteered to help renovate a localbuilding and explained how you just turn up when you can and chip-in.

The presence of dependent children made the life-course important becauseit intensified the need to synchronize the practices of household members. Agewas significant because younger respondents identified more fixed events thatinvolved coordination within social networks, whereas older respondentstended to engage in a series of mini-projects in which they had autonomy overtheir synchronization with other practices.

Education, Cultural Orientations and Social Networks

It is not simply the type of practices in which respondents engaged that shapedtheir experiences of time but also their cultural orientations towards those prac-tices. Cultural orientations refer to expectations of how practices should beconducted competently and what personal satisfaction can be gained fromengagement. Differential orientations broadly correlated with respondents edu-cational achievements and can therefore be viewed as expressive of whatBourdieu (1984) calls cultural capital. Three orientations were important withrespect to different temporal experiences: variety and specialization; personal




commitment to a practice; and favouring routine or spontaneity. For this ana-lysis, distinction is drawn between those respondents with a university degreeor employed in a professional occupation that requires an equivalent qualifica-tion, and those with a level of educational qualification below this standard.

Variety and Specialization

Variety of practices represents a relatively straightforward set of implicationsfor the ordering of daily rhythms. The concept of omnivorousness (Petersen andKern, 1996), which refers to preferences for a variety of cultural activities thatdraw from a diverse range of cultural genres, captured the orientations of manyhighly educated respondents. Steven discussed how he indulged his passion forgastronomy alongside activities such as playing computer games, watchinghigh- and low-brow television programmes, viewing a variety of sports on tele-vision or live at the event, and being an active member of the local running club.For him, it was impossible to fit in all of his cultural interests and consequentlythe days he described were characterized by flitting from one thing to the next [I] just have to see whats going on, see what other things I have to doand try and fit it all together.

While Steven was the only respondent who overtly described omnivoroustendencies, other highly educated respondents implied that they found switch-ing between practices of different genres challenging, largely because I haveone set of friends for some things and another for other things, so thats a lotof people to keep happy I cant get them all together because they wouldntget on, theyre into different things (Fiona). Engaging in a range of practiceswith different networks for each also meant that respondents moved through avariety of contexts that were often spatially dispersed, thus adding to the com-plexities of coordinating with other people and synchronizing related practices.Managing a multiplicity of network ties (having different friends for differentpractices) and cultural contexts was mentioned by all respondents with higheducational qualifications to varying extents, but was not implied by any ofthose with lower education.

The highly educated also tended to have an orientation toward culturalexperimentation and novelty (Warde, 1997). One implication was that the per-sonal significance attached to trying new cultural practices led to senses of feel-ing guilty if I sit down and watch the TV on my day off because I think thereare so many things I could do that I havent done yet (Elizabeth). Steven,Bradley, Fiona, Amanda, Audrey and Arthur echoed this anxiety.

Those with low education favoured familiar cultural practices, such as eating traditional foods at conventional times. These respondents often hadlong-term interests in specific cultural activities, such as Ron who had a passionfor motor racing and growing vegetables, and thats about it really. He had nodesire to deviate and grow herbs nor to watch a different sport on a Sundayafternoon. This offered a degree of predictability to his daily schedule and theaccurate anticipation of the duration of practices, and meant others around him




also had a good sense of where he would be and what he was doing.Coordinating practices with Ron was relatively unproblematic. The familiarityof customary practices favoured by many, although not all, respondents withlower educational qualifications meant that practices were often submerged intemporal routines. This had the effect of reducing anxiety about fitting practicesinto time, about coordinating with networks and about moving between cul-tural contexts. Respondents with high and low educational qualifications mighthave shared similar rhythms of the day, but those rhythms were experienced dif-ferently because of different modes of engaging in practices.

Degree of Commitment to Practices

Commitment to any given practice was not directly related to educationalattainment; the enthusiast of gardening is not necessarily the possessor of highor low educational qualifications. However, some practices lent themselves tocommitment more than others sport, the arts and food being good examples.And ways of engaging in different types of practices were related to educationalattainment. There are also different modes of commitment. The enthusiasttakes many forms, from someone committed to frequent participation to thosewho engage in an activity for the purpose of self-actualization, which Lamont(1992) describes as the continuous pursuit of self-improvement within a par-ticular activity.

Of the highly educated respondents, Elizabeth and Bob provided theclearest examples of self-actualization. Elizabeth described how I like the tech-nical side of the game [golf], so I am constantly refining my swing, looking fortips and then when my handicap improves I feel like Ive achieved something.Bob used travelling to work as part of his cycling training routine:

I dont cycle the most direct route, because I still compete cycling wise. So I use theride in the morning and the ride home to put extra miles on the journey. But if I cyclestraight in its 3.23 miles and my personal best is eight minutes 48 seconds, but itusually takes me about ten minutes 30 seconds.

Steven discussed a commitment to acquiring knowledge about food, I lovereading about it, cooking, different produce, its all important to me. Angelaand Fiona presented similar narratives of gardening. While those with low edu-cation did express commitment to practices through the frequency of engage-ment, they described the pleasures gained as being based mainly inparticipation. Contrast Elizabeths orientation to golf with Mikes: its just alaugh, a chance for a few of us to get together really.

The consequence of a high degree of personal commitment is that it fixes apractice within a daily or weekly schedule. Being highly educated did not relateto degree of commitment, but it did affect type of practices and mode of engage-ment. Those with high education engaged more extensively in practices thateither required or were more amenable to high degrees of commitment, result-ing in more fixed non-work practices within the days they recounted.




Routine vs Spontaneity

The final cultural orientation that influenced the allocation of practices relatedto the valuing of routine or spontaneity. Many highly educated respondentsdeliberately attempted to create temporal spaces in which the potential forspontaneity was increased. This involved tactics like juggling many tasks toleave a Sunday afternoon empty of practices in the hope that ones partnermight: surprise me, you know, take me shopping or to the cinema (Louise).Amanda described how I dont like things to become too routine, its nice whenthings happen unexpectedly, like a friend phoning and saying lets go out fora drink tonight, its those sort of occasions that always seem most fun.

Lower-educated respondents were generally inclined to maintain routinesand firm boundaries between practices. For example, Mary insisted on a clearboundary between domestic work and her evening of non-work practices. Toachieve this she went to great lengths to eat at the same time each day, andfrowned upon unexpected interruptions to her potter time: to my mind whenyou get home is when you come home, its our time and I take a very dim viewof it being interrupted it just means our evening is messed-up. Mary was oneof seven respondents with lower education who explicitly expressed a personalneed for preserving routines and viewed spontaneity as disruption.

Conclusion

The day is the context for the allocation of composite practices. The temporalorganization of the day can be characterized as being constituted by practicesthat have a fixed position within schedules. These are surrounded by interre-lated practices that have a more malleable position within sequences, leaving astock of practices contingent on filling empty slots within the day. Practices thattended to be fixed were those that involved the co-participation of others wherea degree of coordination was necessary; a high degree of obligation to others;and, significant degrees of personal commitment. Temporally fixed practicesalso tended to have a relatively long duration within the context of a day.

While the temporal organization of the day followed the same componentform for all respondents, how practices were allocated and the experience ofthose practices differed according to a range of social constraints. Parentsexplained how childrens activities took priority, acting as fixed points whichlimited the range of practices in which they could engage. Mothers found them-selves primarily responsible for the organization of childrens schedules and thishad a significant impact on the sequence, tempo and duration of their non-workpractices. Gender, age and life-course therefore represent constraints thatshaped differential temporal experiences.

Level of education, which, by definition, is closely related to social class,was influential with respect to the range of practices and modes of engagementin them. Those with high educational qualifications expressed a preference for




engaging in a variety of practices, often with the objective of self-actualization.This had the effect of generating more fixed practices, either because commit-ment increased the personal significance of the practice in relation to other prac-tices sequenced within the day, or because engaging in a variety of practices ledto a multiplicity of networks and exacerbated the need for spatial and tempo-ral network coordination. By contrast, those with lower educational qualifica-tions tended to favour customary practices which were conducted withregularity and varying degrees of commitment.

The advantage of considering how social practices map onto Fines fivedimensions of time is that it allows for the analysis of several factors: the inter-relationship between different practices; how practices are sequenced to pro-duce the temporal rhythms of daily life; and, when taken together with varietiesof social constraints, the nuances of temporal experience. In this study, the tem-poral rhythms of respondents daily lives indicate a degree of uniformity interms of the structural organization of practices in time, but social differentia-tion with respect to how those practices are engaged and experienced. Directinganalytic focus onto the relationship between social practices and dimensions oftime therefore presents a framework for systematically measuring and account-ing for time use while also capturing multiple experiences of time.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Alan Warde, Elizabeth Shove and Mark Harvey for their intel-lectual support during the research upon which this article is based. I am also grate-ful to Rosemary Deem and colleagues at the ESRC Centre for Research onInnovation and Competition and the European Sociological AssociationConsumption Network, and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier draftsof this article.

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Dale Southerton

Is a research fellow at the ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition,

University of Manchester. His research interests centre around the sociology of con-

sumption, with particular focus on time and space, domestic technologies, identity-

formation, sustainability and innovation. He is currently working on two ESRC research

projects: the Diffusion of Cultures of Consumption: A Comparative Analysis; and

Sustainable Domestic Technologies: Changing Practice, Technology and Convention.

Recent publications include articles in the journals Time and Society and Sociological

Review and an edited book, Sustainable Consumption (Edward Elgar, 2004).

Address: CRIC, University of Manchester, Harold Hankins Building, Booth Street West,

Manchester, M13 9QH, UK.

E-mail: [email protected]




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Dale Southerton - Analysing the Temporal Organization of Daily Life - Social Constraints, Practices and Their Allocation