Beyond 9 to 5: Your Life in Time

How do "clock time cultures" differ from "event time cultures"? What are the psychological and physiological effects of a highly scheduled lifestyle? And given the growing phenomenon of the "24-hour economy" with its "anytime" attitude to work and consumption, how is our changing relationship to time altering our light-dark and activity-rest cycles? Drawing on the latest statistics, Norgate, a lecturer in psychology in the faculty of health and social care at the University of Salford, England, addresses these questions and more as she surveys various cultural attitudes to time and explores the impact of such attitudes on world health and society—most disturbingly when surveying the long hours worked by children in certain parts of the developing world. In addition to exploring patterns of daily activity, Norgate examines the significance for our relationship to time of genes and lifestyle, longevity and attitudes to childbearing and life span, comparing how generation gaps across the world differ and analyzing world inequalities in average life expectancy. With a humorous touch, she also explores the notoriously irregular sleep and wake cycles of babies (cycles she traces back to the fetal environment). Rich in intelligently contrasted and contextualized data, Norgate's academic study skillfully captures how world communities differ in their relationship to time. (Dec.)