Working time in the new social and economic context

This article sets out to show that in the current context of the new economy working time can no longer be viewed in isolation from other forms of social time; even less can it be seen in a relationship of pure determinism to the latter. After a retrospective analysis of the social construction of the interrelationship between work and non-work, the article shows that flexibility linked to the introduction of new forms of work and working time organisation, as well as changes in the content and the nature of work, lead to a corresponding demand by employees for control over their working time structures and to the search for a balance among the various forms of social time. This approach gives rise to an analysis of the provisions which in different European countries are designed to give workers the power to alter their working time and its organisation. It is shown, finally, that it cannot be simply a question of regulating working time but that there is a need also to develop policies of a more comprehensive nature based on the interplay between different social times and the relationship between time and space.