The Social Reorganization of Time

Abstract

U.S. workers labor longer hours, on average, than do their counterparts in most other countries. They also work longer than previous generations of U.S. workers. As a result, many people feel as though they are trapped in what Monica Bauerlein and Clara Jefferey have termed the “Great Speedup.” We can better understand this problem by viewing it as a social reorganization of time and work discipline brought about by growth imperatives of global capitalism. In the United States, this response is characterized by a lengthening of the workday, made possible by reducing time spent completing household and childcare tasks (i.e., reproductive labor), and by reducing time spent in leisure. It is also accomplished by strategically embedding productive work into consumption or what I refer to as “consumptive labor.” This occurs, for example, when businesses design the labor process to include self-service forms of consumption, wherein consumers perform work-like tasks but without being paid as employees. We can view this lengthening of the workday as a significant change in what E. P. Thompson termed “time discipline.” Relying on new digital information technology, both producers and consumers can more effectively than in the past minimize time spent completing tasks, not only at work but also at home and in leisure. The time made available through these reductions can then be transferred into productive labor, thereby increasing the hours people spend working. However, this trajectory of unlimited economic growth and increasing hours of production is not socially, economically, or ecologically sustainable. Moreover, I assert that having access to and control over an ample portion of one’s time is an important part of our humanity within a free and democratic society.