Reconceptualizing lifestyles: a time- use approach Adina Dumitru & Ricardo García Mira University of A Coruña

Questions What are the main determinants of current unsustainable lifestyles? What are the obstacles to sustainable lifestyles and what role do patterns of time-use play? What are the trade-offs between temporal, material and environmental dimensions of our lifestyles? What types of changes are necessary for sustainable lifestyles to become mainstream? What alternative systems of consumption and provision would need to be set in place for transitions to sustainable lifestyles to be possible?

Zooming in “Run, run always faster, not to reach an objective, but to maintain the status quo, to simply remain in the same place.” (Hartmut Rosa) No consistent transition to sustainable lifestyles Lifestyle changes in an area by area approach are not sufficient from an environmental impact point of view Lifestyles are the result of efforts to reach multiple goals under complex constraints Overwork and overconsumption – a treadmill Complaints over stress, lack of time, overwork, meaninglessness, loneliness – lack of wellbeing Economic limitations of resource depletion due to overconsumption 3www.glamurs.eu

A new perspective on lifestyles People choose how to use time by pursuing activities for different goals Traditionally, analyses of how to support lifestyle change start from specific behaviors and the identification of factors influencing them GLAMURS moves away from: -An additive perspective on lifestyles -Sustainable consumption as a proxy for sustainable lifestyles.

Lifestyles in GLAMURS A lifestyle - an outcome of a multitude of decisions about how to use time undertaken at an individual level & a socially-shared symbolic entity which conveys particular meanings and thus enters a “social conversation”. Material consumption as “infrastructure” through which certain activities are performed; present, in varying degree, in all human activities Lifestyles are: -a result of choices of time-use/activities and associated consumption, -bundled together in an observable everyday structure of life, -with individual and social symbolic connotations (thus is used to satisfy individual needs and indicate, establish and negotiate our position in a social group; organize our social life in culturally meaningful ways).

A time-use approach Time-use approaches – a useful way of studying conditions for transitions to sustainable lifestyles and a green economy, as: -All human activities take time: work, leisure, getting from one place to another etc. -time is a limited resource, and people experience increasing time scarcity & time pressure -an absolute limit to consumption -the experience of acceleration and time pressure - an increasing complaint of European societies, and a motivator for lifestyle change The effects of time scarcity on consumption-intensive activities - “work and spend” cycle (Schor, 1992)

Wellbeing -Societal evolution towards consumption-intensive lifestyles has not led to more time affluence & wellbeing. -Being time affluent supports life satisfaction, while being materially affluent does not, when it relates to high working hours. -Working many hours might decrease the likelihood that people will spend time to act in ecologically sustainable ways (Kasser, 2006)

The work-leisure balance Increased work productivity and material affluence has not contributed to time affluence Working hours have decreased overall – yet acceleration is experienced – How does acceleration and time pressure relate to consumption, pro-environmental and community activities – to (un)sustainable lifestyles? The effects of time scarcity on consumption or consumption- intensive activities such as - eating pre-processed foods; travelling further away to relax in exotic places for shorter periods of time; extensive car use Analyse lock-ins, vicious spirals with negative environmental, social and economic outcomes; find ways to support virtuous loops.

Empirical research -Qualitative and quantitative exploration into determinants of key lifestyle choices – both rare and frequent -Qualitative: -Focus groups -In-depth interviews -Quantitative -Regional survey -Sustainable lifestyles initiative survey - Desired future lifestyles – back-casting scenario development workshops

Implications of a time-use perspective -From discrete consumption behaviors or even specific environmentally-relevant activities, towards the division of time-use in everyday life -Choices regarding time-use and the reasons behind them become the focus of inquiry

Implications of a time-use perspective - Focusing on people´s choices of time use gives us the possibility to look at complex motivations & the level of lock-in related to participating in accepted social practices – a more realistic account of obstacles - Shift in our understanding of sustainability policy – e.g.: new working arrangements;

Questions: What would you change in our European lifestyles in the period up to 2025? What areas of policy might need to be addressed if we adopt a time-use perspective in sustainability policy? Institutional divisions to be bridged?