From working time to city time : the case for a single approach to time policies

Abstract

Changes in working time are calling into question the social organisation of time inherited from the industrial revolution. By social organisation of time we mean the way in which the various timetabling arrangements characteristic of life in society combine to form a single system. A number of economic, social and cultural developments serve to accentuate the trend towards reduction and above all diversification of working time observable since the beginning of the 1980s. And so it seems reasonable to argue that the desynchronisation which is such a central factor of the economic and social development of our societies will be at the heart of the transformation of urban time structures. To the extent that economic progress depends increasingly upon the development of service activities, particularly non-material services, desynchronisation of schedules is one means of improving accessibility to services and broadening opportunities for the use of time. The field of enquiry and experiment known as "times of the cities", as it is currently being developed in Italy and some German cities, thus appears as one major structural component of time policies, to be viewed in close conjunction with working time policies.