ABSTRACT

'Harried and Hurried'
time shortage and the co-ordination of everyday life

CRIC Discussion Paper No. 47

Dr Dale Southerton, Elizabeth Shove & Professor Alan Warde

Being 'harried', the 'time squeeze' and 'time famine' are popular phrases in contemporary society. This paper begins by surveying five strategies that individuals are claimed to employ in their negotiation of the 'time squeeze'. Having identified strategies, five mechanisms are advanced as the source of experiences of being 'harried'. Employing an analytical scheme in order to frame the strategies and experiences of the harried, it is argued that the distinction between task allocation and co-ordination illuminates the source of the contemporary time problem. This leads to six hypotheses regarding the conditions and circumstances of harriedness. These hypotheses primarily concern non-paid work experiences of time, although it is argued that the work - non-work distinction could be misleading in the analysis of harriedness. In conclusion, it is argued that strategies for managing time are individual responses to a collective problem of co-ordinating movement within time and space. This is therefore a story of constraints that centre on the disordering of time - space trajectories and the de-coupling of socio-temporal rhythms and everyday routines, which make timing and sequencing key features of everyday life.

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