Routledge International Handbook of Time Use Themes and Applications : Time Use Research

This two-volume handbook, written by leading international scholars, provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on the collection, analysis, and application of time use data.

Time is a crucial yet finite social resource, fundamental to processes of growth, equality, and well-being. Much of the world’s essential production―raising children, preparing food, household maintenance―occurs within households, and relies on time, rather than monetary exchange, as its central input. Despite its centrality, this non-market dimension is often overlooked in official indicators. Time use diary data is increasingly recognised as the foremost source of reliable information on these key temporal dimensions of daily life.

The second volume provides an authoritative outline of the contribution of time use research to key contemporary scholarly and policy applications in both the Global North and the Global South. The chapters consist of a wide-ranging selection of exemplary contributions chosen to illustrate the varied areas of substantive empirical research for which time use diary data has been used in research across the globe, including gender and life-course studies, research on employment and the labour force, care-giving, and contributions to the measurement of both population well-being and sustainable development goals.

With a focus on the application and future directions of time use research, it will be a valuable point of reference for students and scholars from fields including sociology, demography, social policy, economics, gender studies, psychology, leisure and tourism studies, public health, and legal studies. The first volume of the handbook addresses methodological issues concerning the collection and analysis of data and is available at www.routledge.com/9781041123934.

Michael Bittman is Emeritus Professor at the University of New England, Australia. He has chaired United Nations expert committees on time use research and served as President of the International Association for Time Use Research from 2005 to 2013.

Oriel Sullivan is a Professor and Co-Director in the ESRC-funded Centre for Time Use Research (CTUR), home of the Multinational Time Use Study, at the Institute of Social Research, University College London. She was jointly responsible for the UK 2014–2015 Harmonised European Time Use Survey and the CTUR ELiDDI online diary design.