Time, Consumption and Everyday Life

I imagine that every reader of this publication feels more or less time pressured. This book invites people to step back from their situation and consider time from a number of different angles, investigating the changing rhythms and temporal organisation of everyday life and how we handle stress. As the editor puts it: 'Time is about co-ordination and rhythm, but it also involves material, and emotional, moral and political dimensions. Time is punctuated by extraordinary events like birth and death, but is also organised through a range of ordinary routines, like sleeping, eating or watching the evening news.' The book is arranged around a number of case studies from different cultures, including a comparative analysis in the UK between 1937 and 2000 and seasonal and commercial rhythms of domestic consumption in Japan. The reader comes away with a much more subtle understanding of the topic.