Time Use Lab Speaker Series: Societal Determinants of Temporal Complexity in Personal Leisure: A Comparative Study of Germany and Poland

About the Talk:

Time has been shown to be a dimension of substantial social differences. Those differences are related to time allocation, but also the way time is used, which is reflected in the fragmentation and variability within the time use sequences. In this paper we analyse differences between social classes and categories in how leisure time-use patterns are organized. We test the hypothesis pertaining to social differences in the intensity of leisure. We also test whether more intensified pace of leisure is the feature of economically advanced and affluent societies only, by using two datasets in comparative perspective: 2001/2002 German Time-Use Survey and 2003/2004 Polish Time-Use Survey. The results show that social differences in temporal complexity of leisure are more pronounced in Polish society. We also find significant differences in leisure time complexity between Germany and Poland, but, contrary to our expectations leisure behaviours are more complex in Poland. The country net effect on leisure complexity remains significant also when controlled for social status indicators, gender and age.