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Temporalities of Harriedness

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Time, Consumption and the Coordination of Everyday Life

Part of the book series: Consumption and Public Life ((CUCO))

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Abstract

This chapter reports on empirical studies that consider whether people feel time-squeezed and if so, why they feel this to be the case. The data revealed an overwhelming sense of feeling time-squeezed, which respondents explained as a consequence of different examples of ‘doing more’. However, first-hand experiences of the time squeeze in day-to-day lives revealed it to be a consequence of the challenge of coordinating everyday activities with others and synchronizing the timings of those activities. This challenge of coordination and synchronization led to everyday temporalities that were captured as experiences of ‘hot spots’ of intensive activities deemed necessary to create the possibility of (temporal) ‘cold spots’ reserved for meaningful practices with others (often referred to as quality time).

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Correspondence to Dale Southerton .

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Southerton, D. (2020). Temporalities of Harriedness. In: Time, Consumption and the Coordination of Everyday Life. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60117-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-60117-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-230-57251-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-60117-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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