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Using a unique representative online time use diary survey, we examine the UK population's behaviour both before, and at five key phases during, the COVID-19 pandemic. A main focus of our analysis is which of the significant changes in activities associated with the pandemic survived the government-defined end of most restrictions on `freedom day' (July 19th 2021). Our data (N7,000 diary days) includes a baseline pre-pandemic survey, conducted in 2016, followed by five subsequent waves coinciding with key moments of pandemic restrictions, including all three lockdowns and two periods of relaxation of restrictions between lockdowns and after the final lockdown. In multivariate regression analyses, we find that changes in behaviour that characterised lockdown periods but did not persist following the end of restrictions were: watching more TV; spending more time doing other home-based leisure activities; doing less paid work, and reducing leisure time spent out of the home, including socializing with friends. However, other important and policy-relevant changes in time use during the pandemic appeared to `stick', i.e. persisted even after the lifting of almost all restrictions. These were: an increase in exercising; a shift to more active ways of travelling; the increased contribution of fathers to childcare; more shopping online, more time spent sleeping, and more time spent doing paid work from home (teleworking). We assess the subjective enjoyment associated with these `sticky' activities as a possible explanation for their persistence, and discuss their policy implications.

This paper adds to the literature on cultural stratification by revisiting cultural voraciousness, nearly two decades after it was first introduced as a measure of cultural participation designed to capture inequalities in the pace and variety of cultural activities. Specifically, using the UK 2014–15 Time Use Survey, we compare measures of cultural voraciousness in the UK in 1998 and 2015, focussing in particular on the way cultural voraciousness is associated with both gender and class. We find continuity over time in the patterns of relationship between cultural voraciousness, gender and class, which are not explained by income or hours worked. While women at the bottom of the class scale are still the most disadvantaged in terms of unequal access to cultural participation, high level managerial women now equal equivalent men in their voracious cultural participation. We conclude that not only is cultural voraciousness still useful in depicting cultural inequalities delineated by gender and class, and not only do gender and class gaps in cultural voraciousness persist over time, but also that there is evidence for accentuated class inequality over time in cultural voraciousness among men and among women.

The recent global pandemic, involving restrictions on movement, social distancing and the displacement of many work activities to the home, has created an upsurge of interest in changes in the distribution and sequencing of our daily activities. Time use diary data is recognised as the leading source of evidence on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to provide a timely overview of the current state-of-the-art in respect of the designs of time use surveys with a view to online/smartphone deployment. It has three parts: Firstly, we briefly summarise the main reasons for using diaries to collect time use information (as opposed to survey questions), and we sketch out the long tradition of time-use research from which these designs emerged. We then outline the main methods currently deployed to collect time use data, with the focus on online and smartphone app instruments. Finally, we present a detailed example of a specific kind of online diary design, the Click-and-Drag Diary Instrument (CaDDI), that may be of particular interest in respect of the sudden demand for new data on time use as it is both user-friendly to complete and capable of timely adaptation and deployment. © 2020 Journal of Time Use Research. All rights reserved.

Research on time use has seen several major developments in recent years. These include the adoption of exciting new technologies (e.g., smartphones, wearable Global Positioning System devices) that track behavior in real time, as well as a growing international database—the Multinational Time Use Study—that has surpassed one million days’ worth of harmonized time-diary data. These developments are transforming our understanding of the social patterning of everyday behavior. This article provides updates about this area of work, including recent findings regarding foundational sociological issues such as trends in gendered divisions of household labor and over-time, cross-national aggregate estimates of time spent on paid work and leisure. We also highlight new approaches to the study of time use. This includes an overview of advances in the collection and analysis of time-stamped behavioral data, as well as a discussion of methodological advances in the analysis of the temporal sequential structure of everyday activities.

Time-use data can often be perceived as inaccessible by non-specialists due to their unique format. This article introduces the ATUS-X diary visualization tool that aims to address the accessibility issue and expand the user base of time-use data by providing users with opportunity to quickly visualize their own subsamples of the American Time Use Survey Data Extractor (ATUS-X). Complementing the ATUS-X, the online tool provides an easy point-and-click interface, making data exploration readily accessible in a visual form. The tool can benefit a wider academic audience, policy-makers, non-academic researchers, and journalists by removing accessibility barriers to time use diaries.

We present findings from three waves of a population-representative, UK time-use diary survey conducted both pre- and in real time during full ‘lockdown’, and again following the easing of social restrictions. We used an innovative online diary instrument that has proved both reliable and quick-to-field. Combining diary information on activity, location, and co-presence to estimate infection risks associated with daily behavior, we show clear changes in risk-associated behavior between the pre, full-lockdown and post full-lockdown periods. We document a shift from more to less risky daily behavior patterns (combinations of activity/location/co-presence categories) between the pre-pandemic pattern and full lockdown in May/June 2020, followed by a reversion (although not a complete reversal) of those patterns in August 2020 following the end of the first lockdown. Because, in general, a populations’ time use changes relatively slowly, the behavioral changes revealed may be interpreted as a consequence of the UK COVID-19 lockdown social restrictions and their subsequent relaxation.

Using time diary evidence on change in the frequency and distribution of activities from UK time diary data over the 15 years from the turn of the 21st century, we assess whether the thesis of ‘the speed-up society’ is manifested in an increase in time intensity in people’s daily lives. Comparing indictors like time fragmentation, multitasking and ICT use, to respondents’ reports of how rushed they normally feel, we find no evidence that time pressure is increasing, or that ICT use is associated with greater feelings of time pressure. Rather, we find consistent cross-sectional differentials in our measures of time intensity by gender and occupational status, supporting the idea of relative stasis in the underlying social inequalities of time. These findings are consistent with previous research based on time use data, and we pose them as a challenge to theories of societal speed-up.

This article brings up to date welfare regime differences in the time fathers spend on childcare and core housework, using Multinational Time Use Study data (1971–2010) from fifteen countries. Although Nordic fathers continue to set the bar, the results provide some support for the idea of a catch-up in core housework among Southern regime fathers. The results also suggest an increasing polarization in Liberal countries, whereby fathers who were meaningfully involved in family life were increasingly likely to spend more time doing core housework and, particularly, childcare. Fathers living in Corporatist countries have been least responsive to change.

Gender inequalities in work–family balance have wide-reaching ramifications: women shoulder the greatest burden of unpaid work and care, both decreasing their opportunities for employment and contributing significantly to the gender pay gap. Concerted measures at both the policy and ideological level are required to redress this problem. // Recent statistics show a gender pay gap of 16% in Europe1, and 18% in the USA2, despite half a century of women moving into paid employment. Gender inequality in pay is intricately linked to gender inequality in work–family balance, especially in the division of paid and unpaid work. Women shoulder the greatest burden of unpaid work and care, decreasing their opportunities for employment and career progression. The extent and cross-national scope of this inequality is a pressing matter on an international level, and it will require both innovative policy approaches and major shifts in attitudes to amend it.

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)1.IntroductionIn this paper we update previous cross-national evidence on the gender division of housework. Due to the usual gap that occurs between the collection of survey data and their public launch, most research on this topic published up to the end of the first decade of the 21st century - including some influential decade reviews (Bianchi and Milkie 2010; Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard 2010) - relied on research based on data on housework time from the years up to 2005-2006 at the latest (although Bianchi et al. 2012 updated the US time use data to 2010).Using the Multinational Time Use Study (Fisher and Gershuny 2013), we bring the cross-national evidence up to date by including data from 10 additional surveys from 9 countries for the period 2005-2011 (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, U.K., and U.S.A.).The study of housework is interesting for three main reasons. Firstly, it is a routine, repetitive and disliked activity, which means that the relative time spouses spend on housework has long been recognized as an important indicator of marital power (Davies and Greenstein 2013). We use core housework (cleaning, cooking, and clothes care) as our measure in these analyses because these are both the most disliked domestic labour activities and the most traditionally feminine. They have, therefore, been the ones that have been most resistant to change. Since the burden of responsibility for these activities traditionally falls on women, this can have negative consequences for their work-life balance and their sense of time pressure. Secondly, the division of housework is significantly related to couples' well-being. Disagreement over housework is one of the main sources of marital conflict (Ruppaner 2010; van der Lippe, Voorpostel, and Hewitt 2014). Between 36% (Portugal) and 90% (Finland) of married/cohabiting couples across Europe report having disagreements over housework (van der Lippe, Voorpostel, and Hewitt 2014). Thirdly, housework has been an important measure in the debate over the stalling or not of the 'gender revolution' (e.g., England 2010). The inclusion of more recent surveys in our analyses allows us to bring the cross-national evidence underpinning the 'convergence versus stall' debate in the gender division of housework up to the end of the first decade of the current century.2.DataTime use diary data is generally regarded as the 'gold standard' for the measurement of time spent in routine activities such as housework (e.g., Robinson and Godbey 1997; Bianchi, Robinson and Milkie 2006). The data we use comes from Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS), an international archive of cross-national time use surveys dating from the 1960s to the current day. We use data from 19 countries between 1961 and 2011, chosen on the basis of their data series and quality. The sample is limited to adults aged 19 or older. Table 1 shows the full list of surveys included in the data, sample sizes, and average minutes spent on core housework by men and women.In the analyses that follow, housework refers to the most disliked, routine, and traditionally feminine-defined housework activities of laundry and cleaning, food preparation, and cooking. Household chores that are traditionally masculine or genderneutral, such as home maintenance, car repairs, or shopping, are excluded.3.MethodsWe first calculated average minutes spent on core housework by men and women across countries (see Table 1). We then applied multilevel models estimating the effect of gender, controlling for relevant socio-demographic factors. The baseline model is a random intercept model, where individuals are nested in surveys (country-year), showing the effect of being a woman on the time spent on core housework with no socio-demographic controls:...In a second model we add controls for demographic and socio-economic variables, namely age, educational attainment, employment and marital status, number of children under age 18 in the household, and the presence of a child under age 5 in the household. …

In this chapter I first define, and then examine the origins of research into, the gendered division of household labor and care. I outline the main theoretical approaches, finishing with the development of multi-level theoretical frameworks that connect the institutional and interactional levels of the gendered construction of labor and care. I follow the logic of these models to describe current configurations and trends. I focus on the factors identified by successive decade reviews as being the most important influences on the gendered division of household labor and care, and describe spousal resources and educational level as examples of individual-level influences. I then discuss cross-national trends in relation to institutional-level policy contexts, comparing evidence for and against the idea of a recent ‘stall’ in progress towards gender equality. I conclude by arguing that it is important to recognize the processes of progressive change that are at work, in order to continue to press for movement in the direction of greater equality. I outline the most significant barriers that need addressing, emphasizing in particular the persistency of traditional masculinities, and policy directions that fail to address the need for a better work-life balance for both women and men.

(1991). Unemployment: Family Circumstances and Childhood Correlates Among Young People in Britain. Population Studies: Vol. 45, No. sup1, pp. 115-132.

Comparing a cluster of European countries that have recently experienced very low fertility with other industrialized countries, we hypothesize a connection between fertility behavior and fathers’ increasing participation in unpaid work. Using cross-national time use data we find significant evidence of recent increases in the contribution of younger, more highly educated fathers to child care and core domestic work in very low–fertility countries that have recently experienced upturns in fertility. The pace of these increases exceeds that found in the comparison group of other industrialized countries. We interpret these findings as suggestive evidence for a process of cross-national social diffusion of more egalitarian domestic gender relations, in particular among more highly educated fathers, acting to facilitate a turnaround in the pattern of postponed and foregone fertility which has characterized lowest low– and very low–fertility countries.

Most research into the division of household domestic labor focuses on couple households, treating other household members such as children/youths and other adults as independent variables affecting the domestic work of husbands and wives. We present an integrated analysis of variance/variance decomposition that summarizes the determinants of the housework contributions of, and the housework burden imposed by, all the individuals in four common household types, with a focus on the contributions of older children and youths. We demonstrate the importance of statistical interactions between the contributions of different household members (distinguished by partnership status, gender, and the ages and genders of children/youths), in particular for those households containing children/youths. We conclude that in order to analyze the con- tributions of all household members jointly, it is necessary to distinguish different household compositions for separate analysis.

The bulk of responsibility for domestic work and childcare in heterosexual couples falls on women. But the means they find to cope with this load, and how these means relate to the factors underpinning the division of labor are not often studied. Two much-cited ways of reducing overall work time are purchasing domestic assistance (outsourcing) and the multitasking of domestic/caring tasks. Using UK 2000/2001 time-use data (N = 4196 couples), we find domestic outsourcing is related to having dependent children and to partners’ resources, but has little impact on the total domestic/caring workload of either partner. Nor can outsourcing account for the reduction in women’s unpaid labor with increasing economic resources. Wives spend more time multitasking than husbands, but their proportion of multitasked domestic time is similar, and is not affected by resources or dependent children. Domestic multitasking seems to be more related to opportunity (time at home) than to time pressure.

This article presents an overview of the gendered distinctions between housework and child care, illustrating those distinctions through time-use diary research. Following the logic of the gender structure perspective, I discuss findings that demonstrate differences between the gendered performance of housework and child care at the individual, institutional, and interactional levels of the gender structure. I show that distinguishing between housework and child care at these different levels of analysis aids in developing a more nuanced appreciation of the processes that underpin the gender division of domestic work and care, and I argue that these distinctions have important implications for gender theory and policy.

This article addresses the dilemma of consumption for those in income-rich, time-poor households in the contemporary affluent economies of the West. Following Linder, two `temporal strategies of consumption' are proposed, reflected in the consumption profiles of high status groups. The first is `voracious' consumption, denoting a fast `pace' and variety of leisure participation. The second is inconspicuous consumption — the purchasing of expensive consumer goods without the time to use them or the primary intent to display them. From a political economic perspective a solution is provided as to how to increase consumer spending among those with high disposable incomes and little leisure time.

According to the gender-deviance neutralization hypothesis, men and women in household circumstances that contradict the normal expectations of gender display their gender accordingly, by either increasing or decreasing their contribution to household tasks. In this article, I review and reassess the large-scale quantitative evidence, concluding that considerable doubt has subsequently been cast on this hypothesis. For women, research shows that the original identification of gender-deviance neutralization behavior was questionable, as it failed to take into account women's absolute levels of income. For men, both more recent quantitative and indicative qualitative research suggests that such behavior was always limited to a very small group. Subsequent changes in the contributions to housework of men from lower socioeconomic groups suggest that such display may no longer be evident.

A number of general features of interest in a social policy context emerge from the evidence for changes in patterns of time use. The question that we address here is: is it possible to specify public policy regime effects on patterns of time use? Some hypotheses are advanced concerning likely patterns of relationship between the liberal and social-democratic public policy regimes and the use of time in these societies. The data used are drawn from a multinational time-use data archive held at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. A clear relationship is found between public policy regime and paid work time (those in liberal market regimes work longer on average), however, there are no consistent regime effects found either for the amount of time spent in different leisure activities or in respect of the domestic division of labor. The conclusion is that, at least in relation to the time-use variables used in the these analyses, the gender division of domestic labor and type of leisure activity represent different dimensions of variability than those commonly used in the classification of public policy regimes.

Cross-national trends in paid and unpaid work time over the last 40 years reveal a slow and incomplete convergence of women’s and men’s work patterns. A simplistic extrapolation would indicate a 70—80 year process of gender convergence, with the year 2010 representing an approximate mid-point. However, in conformity with the expectations of gender theory, time use data show that gender segregation in domestic work is quite persistent over time. Women still do the bulk of routine housework and caring for family members while men have increased their contributions disproportionately to non-routine domestic work, suggesting that gender ideologies and the associated ‘doing’ of gender in interaction remain important features of the division of domestic labour. The effects of institutional barriers are also apparent, with differential changes in women’s proportional contribution to routine housework and caring activities related to different national policy clusters.

This article contributes to the study of stratification in consumption activities by focusing on the association between ‘voracious’ leisure, gender and social status. Cultural voraciousness is a measure of the pace and pattern of leisure activities designed to complement the concept of cultural omnivorousness. We show that men are more voracious than women but that the pattern of the relationship with social status is not significantly different: individuals with higher levels of human, economic and cultural capital are more voracious than others regardless of gender. However, we find support for a reinforcement effect of gender and social status, which creates the greatest differential in voraciousness between men with the highest social status and women with the lowest, lending support to the idea that voracious cultural consumption acts as a marker of social boundaries and a sign of social exclusion.

Based on a genetic algorithm a computer simulation was constructed to generate the process of development of time-use among large population samples across long time-spans. The simulation uses empirical time-use data to reconstruct empirically observed behaviors, and tests the impact of parameters representing economic constraints and behavioral preferences. Seeding the simulation with random data and probabilistic combination rules, we produced an archetypal society with the same essential characteristics as the empirical data. The addition of empirically derived and theoretical evolutionary selection pressures alters the development of patterns of time-use, revealing the interplay between inhibiting constraints and motivation to adopt new behaviors.

We augment measures of cultural omnivorousness, based theoretically on the breadth of cultural tastes, with a new but related dimension of voraciousness. This reflects a ‘quantitative’ dimension of leisure consumption based upon both the range and the frequency of leisure participation. Voraciousness is theoretically interpreted in relation to notions of cultural repertoires, to the changing pace of work and leisure in late modernity, and to the ‘insatiable’ quality of contemporary consumption. From British time use data, voraciousness proved to share many relationships found in the analysis of omnivorousness, for example, with educational qualifications and job’s social status. Moreover, these relationships persisted over time irrespective of individuals’ time and money resources. Since voraciousness is associated with high status individuals, and since it is not primarily about the availability of time or money, we argue that it is a symbolic status marker associated with notions such as being harried, keeping busy, multitasking, and embracing a diverse cultural consumption pattern.

Dans cet article, nous analysons différentes façons de conceptualiser les liens entre l’appartenance sexuelle, les loisirs et les goûts, et nous présentons une analyse longitudinale des différences selon le sexe qui sont apparues en Grande-Bretagne dans le temps consacré à diverses activités de loisir. Nous nous demandons si les hommes et les femmes ont les mêmes habitudes en matière de loisirs au cours des années et si nous pouvons repérer des changements dans la répartition relative de leurs activités de loisir. Nous analysons la théorie de Bourdieu sur la distinction ainsi que celle de Simmel sur les interactions en cascade afin de voir si ces théories peuvent contribuer à notre compréhension des différentes tendances selon le sexe au cours des années. Nous trouvons des tendances qui peuvent être décrites sous l’angle de la théorie des interactions en cascade de Simmel (par exemple la hausse de la participation des femmes aux activités sportives), des tendances qui confirment la théorie de Bourdieu sur la distinction (par exemple la participation des hommes dans le domaine des communications électroniques) et d’autres tendances qui ne correspondent à aucune de ces deux théories., This paper discusses various conceptual ways of linking gender, leisure and tastes and offers a cross-time analysis of gender differences in the time allocated to different leisure activities in Britain. We ask whether men and women have similar leisure participation patterns over time and whether we can identify changes in the relative distribution of leisure activities between men and women. We discuss Bourdieu’s theory of distinction and Simmel’s trickle down theory as possible additional contributions to the understanding of differences in gender trends over time. We find some trends in participation which may be described in terms of Simmel’s trickle-down theory (for example, increasing participation in sports activities among women), some which support Bourdieu’s theory of distinction (for example, men’s participation in electronic media) and some which cannot adequately be described by either., En este artículo, analizamos distintas maneras de conceptualizar los vínculos entre la pertenencia sexual, los ocios y los gustos, y presentamos un análisis longitudinal de las diferencias según el sexo que aparecieron en Gran Bretaña en el tiempo consagrado a distintas actividades de ocio. Nos preguntamos si los hombres y las mujeres tienen las mismas prácticas en cuanto al ocio durante los años y si podemos situar cambios en la distribución relativa de sus actividades de ocio. Analizamos la teoría de Bourdieu sobre la distinción así como la de Simmel sobre las interacciones en cascada con el fin de ver si estas teorías pueden contribuir a nuestra comprensión de las distintas tendencias según el sexo durante los años. Encontramos tendencias que pueden describirse desde el punto de vista de la teoría de las interacciones en cascada de Simmel (por ejemplo el aumento de la participación de las mujeres en las actividades deportivas), de las tendencias que confirman la teoría de Bourdieu sobre la distinción (por ejemplo la participación de los hombres en el ámbito de las comunicaciones electrónicas) y de otras tendencias que no corresponden a ninguna de estas dos teorías.

While recent emphasis has been placed on transformations of gender in the public sphere, changes in gender relations between heterosexual couples in the domestic sphere have been less fully developed in the theoretical literature. The author presents evidence for change at various levels, from the discursive to the quantitative. She outlines a theoretical framework for the analysis of such change based on the “doing gender” and gender consciousness perspectives, readdressed in the light of the new emphasis on discourses of reflexivity and intimacy. She argues for a conception of change that is slow and uneven, in which daily practices and interactions are linked to attitudes and discourse, perhaps over generations.

Addressing the relationship between consumption behaviour, leisure time and the market, we seek a solution to the problem of the maintenance of consumption expenditure in economies where leisure time is shortest for those who have the most to spend, a contradiction particularly characteristic of societies belonging to the politico-economic regime type identified as ‘liberal market’. In contrast to ideas of conspicuous consumption based on display, we present a concept of ‘inconspicuous consumption’ relating to an imagined future use of purchases already made. Expensive leisure goods that symbolize a wished-for self-identity or lifestyle are purchased by high-income earners with little leisure time. From the point of view of the production sector, the purpose is achieved and a sale is made. However, the purchased goods remain ‘in storage’at home as symbols of a potential but unrealized and, in the meantime, unrealizable future. We illustrate different modalities of the practices of inconspicuous consumption and distinguish it from other consumption practices.

This paper addresses two important questions in the area of the division of domestic labour. Firstly, what change is observable in the patterns of men and women's time spent in domestic labour over the past twenty years, when taking into account structural factors such as employment patterns and social class? Secondly, among which groups of the population of couples can change be identified? One of the problems of this area of research has been that relatively few studies have systematically analysed change over time using directly comparable large-scale data. Here I present a detailed examination of the nature and pattern of change in the domestic division of labour among couples in Britain based on nationally representative time-use diary data collected in 1975, 1987 and 1997. The data are drawn from a cross-national data archive held by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex. Notwithstanding the fact that in 1997 women still performed the bulk of domestic work, it is found that, in relation to changes in time use in other areas of life, the increase in men's participation in domestic work (at least as measured in terms of time contributed) should be regarded as significant. In support of this, there had been (i) a reduction in gender inequality in the performance of some of the normatively feminine-associated tasks, (ii) a larger proportional increase in the time contributed to domestic work tasks by men from lower socio-economic strata, to a position of near equality with men from higher socio-economic positions, and (iii) a substantial increase in more `egalitarian' couples.

Investigating the possibilities of change in marital relationships, we argue, involves examining the interplay of gender consciousness, relational resources and material circumstances in their concrete, interactional manifestations. The attempt to address this interface is grounded in the idea that understanding gender relations necessarily involves both institutional and interactional dimensions. While much research has been devoted to the influence of material or structural resources on indicators such as the domestic division of labour, relatively little direct attention has been given to the issue of differing ‘relational’ or interpersonal resources. We use a multi-method approach based on interviews with women in different occupations to analyse possibilities of change in marital communication and the domestic division of labour in relation both to women's material and to their relational resources. We conclude that a combination of increased gender consciousness and the development of particular inter-personal skills facilitates negotiation and change in the boundaries regulating both communication and the domestic division of labour within the marital relationship.

Quite a lot is already known from the existing sociological literature about the overall time spent by women and men in different domestic tasks, but there is much less information available on more complex sociologically-relevant facets of the experience of time, such as the social context of activities, and the common combinations of different activities. In this paper I use time-use diary data to focus upon three important aspects of the gendered experience of time. These are the social context of domestic tasks in relation to their (gendered) patterns of management, the intensity or density of time-use involving combinations of different activities, and the fragmentation of leisure time according to which activities are responsible for interrupting it. Overall these analyses support the conclusion that women's time is not only more pressured in terms of the intensity of domestic tasks, but that the more enjoyable aspects of their time, such as leisure time, tend to be more fragmented than that of men.

There are only a limited number of studies comparing housework among couples and individuals in different marital statuses, and the focus of attention has tended to be on married compared to cohabiting couples. This article focuses on differences between couples where one or more partner is remarried or recohabiting and those where both partners are in their first married or cohabiting relationships, using nationally representative survey data from Britain. It is shown in multivariate analysis that women in their second-plus partnerships contribute less in terms of their proportion of total housework time than women in their first partnerships. However, there is no effect for the man's number of previous partnerships or for current marital/cohabiting status. It is argued that the significant issue is interaction and negotiation with a subsequent partner in the light of experience gained from the breakdown of one or more previous married/cohabiting relationships.

In this paper I investigate the use of a measure of well-being derived from time-use data on the enjoyment of activities, and explore the association between the well-being of partners. The measure of well-being used is directly derived from the subjective assessment of the enjoyment of activities as recorded in time-use diaries. It is shown that this measure yeilds plausible results which share many of the characteristics of other measures of well-being. In addition, since the diaries used in the analysis were collected from couples it has also been possible to investigate the association between the well-being of partners. It is shown that in multivariate analyses including both time-use and socio-demographic variables the effect of a partner's well-being has by far the most significant impact on individual well-being. It is argued that this combination of information offers a useful means of analysing the relationship between time-use, well-being and the couple relationship. In this sense the analysis cross-cuts some of the conventional disciplinary boundaries which have served to separate the study of emotional relationships and psychological states from that of the daily activities of households.

In this paper we have three goals. First, to provide a critique of attempts to theorise in the area of intimate care and domestic division of labour which do not pay adequate attention to issues of plurality/difference. We argue that the ideological environment within which contemporary couples operate consists of more than one existing normative structure, and that therefore an approach which can incorporate the idea of change can only really arise in the context of a focus on plurality and difference among households. Secondly, to discuss large-scale empirical evidence relating to the domestic division of labour which seem to indicate an increasingly narrow basis for blanket ‘no change’ arguments. Historical series of time-use diaries suggest that over a long period consistent changes have occurred in the amount of time that both women and men devote to domestic labour, such that (some) women are doing on average proportionately less, and (some) men proportionately more. Finally, to offer a framework for the discussion of difference and change in gender relations in the home. This focuses on the analysis of the continuing marital conversation as the key arena where the institutional and interactional dimensions of gender relations are played out. Our evidence suggests that the ‘opening up’ of the marital conversation is an important indicator and facilitator of change, and that mechanisms underlying this ‘opening’ can be shown to facilitate higher levels of men's participation in family work.

In this paper the time-use of diaries of a sample of couples are used to explore the relationship between partners' daily pattern of activities and their enjoyment of those activities. By analysing the diaries of couples together it is possible to assess which activities are undertaken simultaneously, which separately, and whether time spent in different activities is more enjoyable spent separately or together. So, in addition to the usual information obtainable from time diary analysis on the domestic division of labour, these data provide information on the quality of time, and the ways in which couples may manipulate it in order to increase the proportion of enjoyable time (which, it is shown, is more enjoyable when enjoyed together). The wider significance of this approach is that an empirical link is provided between `work-related' debates on the domestic division of labour, and those on the nature of affective relationships between couples found within the sociology of emotions.

This paper outlines an analytic framework for the comparative study of housing access, based upon the concept of the `processes of housing access'. The aim is to devise a framework which is generalised enough to permit systematic cross-national comparison, but sufficiently grounded to take on board the wealth of empirical detail on a country by country basis. Defining the processes of housing access in any specific context involves the identification of: a) the sets of social relations that consumers enter into in gaining access to particular forms of housing; and b) the formal and informal conditions of negotiation surrounding access, defined in terms of the characteristics of both consumers and housing. The identification of the dynamic constituents of the negotiation of housing access (during which the underlying relations of power are concretised and reproduced in housing outcomes) involves an explicit focus on the interface of macro- and micro-level analyses. It is hoped that a more widely applicable model for the analysis of access may be developed from the attempt to model housing access in this way.

In understanding processes of change in family work, examining differences in the degree of change between different social groups (‘changing differences’) can be more informative than focusing either on overall changes or on cross-sectional differences by social group alone. British and US time-use data sets are used to examine 30-year changes in men’s contribution to domestic work and child care by differences in educational attainment. Changes are compared for fathers in dual-earner couples with different levels of education. The findings illustrate two contrasting changing differences: a ‘catch-up’ effect over time between fathers with different educational attainment in the case of domestic labour; and in the case of child care, a widening of the gap by education. The challenges posed by these changing differences for common structural explanations of change in family work are discussed.

In this article, the authors explore how data on the use of time might be used to investigate the multilevel connections between family-related policies and fathers' child care time in a cross-national context. The authors present a case study analysis of “fathering strategies” in which empirical findings from time-use data are compared with detailed policy information from Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These analyses show that time-use data can not only shed light on the effects of specific policies in different national contexts but also point to the need to consider the complexity of multiple policies and their adoption in specific national contexts across time. The authors describe the development of a cross-national, cross-time database that combines time-use data with relevant social and family policy information, with the aim of providing a multilevel research tool to those interested in exploring further the relationships between policy and family work.

The paper examines some of the technical and epistemological questions raised by the debate on linking qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. For illustrative purposes, we discuss a qualitative research project on the distribution of resources within households currently being conducted by the British Household Panel Study at the University of Essex. Initially, we provide a general background to the current research, moving on to examine some of the methodological problems which emerge and the epistemological questions which they raise. These include the general issue of classification; the difficulties of defining the analytical boundaries of households; the particular problems associated with using households as longitudinal units of analysis; and the relationship between actors' accounts and the conceptual categories which we use to describe behaviour. We suggest that the tendency to see qualitative and quantitative methodologies as mutually exclusive and antagonistic paradigms is a misleading representation of the reality of social research practice, and argue for the importance of maintaining a qualitative component in the BHPS in order to understand the complex processes involved in the intra‐household distribution of resources. 1991 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review

In this paper the authors first address arguments that have been made within the sociological literature concerning the nature of time; in particular they question the validity of the distinction between concepts of natural and social time. Secondly, they discuss some direct sociological critiques of the use of time-use diary methodology. They argue that much of the substance of these critiques relies upon a limited conception of such diaries, based upon relatively crude early analyses of time-use data. In fact diary materials have the potential to provide measures of many of the aspects of the experience of time which they have been accused of ignoring. They present a series of example analyses which consider : the rhythm and sequencing of daily activities; the occurrence of multiple simultaneous activities; the duration of specific activities; the enjoyment of time spent in different activities; and the social context of activities

In this paper the author contributes to the critique of the inconsistencies of the concepts of modern and traditional when applied in macro-sociological accounts of the family, through the examination of a relatively under-utilized indicator of household behaviour: time use. Israeli Jewish households offer the opportunity to examine a range of patterns of family life along dimensions of differentiation such as ethnicity, education and religiosity. In some instances, these patterns display characteristics which have been used in the literature to differentiate traditional and modern variants. For example, it is clear that those identifying as not religious conform most, in terms of leisure participation and shared eating behaviour, to notions of the modern secular family. However, the complexity of the interrelationships between religiosity, ethnicity and time use demonstrates the pitfalls of the uncritical association of religious identification with traditional family behaviours. There is a need to take account of household behaviours and characteristics other than those customarily analysed in order to facilitate a fuller understanding of dimensions of differentiation.