Time-use and the satisfaction of human wants: the international context

Jonathan Gershuny, University of Essex

Societies spend time to satisfy wants. This paper describes a system of social accounts denominated in terms of time, which connects specific categories of paid and unpaid work and consumption time, with the satisfaction of particular classes of human want or need. It uses historical sequences of time diary sample surveys from North America (US, Canada) and Europe (UK, France, Finland, Sweden) to explore the impact of technological innovation and changes in social organisation over the last third of the 20th century.