Freeing Time? The 'Family Time Economies' of Nurses

Bibliographic Data

ID2322010
AuthorsJanemaree Maher (0000-0002-6592-8390, Monash University, corresponding author), J Lindsay (0000-0001-9717-627X, Monash University, corresponding author), Anne Bardoel (0000-0002-6633-3882, Monash University, corresponding author), E Anne Bardoel (Monash University)
Year2010
Volume44
Issue2
Pages269-287
Publication date2010-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038509357205
OpenAlexW2148152805
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited50

This study uses the 'family time economies' concept for a nuanced investigation of family work-care experiences in 20 Australian nursing families. The family time economy captures information on the management and coordination of work and care responsibilities in families. Our study investigates how nurses were utilizing nursing flexibility to support time for caring for their families. We report on couple interview research which offered important insights into how shift work and family time are described and negotiated between partners caring for children. The study shows that the complex work schedules generated by shift work are reflected in domestic life, as nurses and their partners use available employment flexibility to ensure they have time for family care. The 'taylorized' allotment of time within the family competed with the desire to make, and preserve, free and unstructured family time, reflecting the incursion of, and resistance to, industrial temporalities in the familial sphere

Allotment · Economics · Family economy · Flexibility (engineering) · Management · Market economy · Paid work · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Temporalities · Time allocation · Time management · Work (physics) · Working time · Employment and Welfare Studies · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics