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PRESS RELEASE – October 21, 2020 – EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA
Natural Time: An Easy, Inexpensive, and Necessary Step Toward a Healthier Society

European and North American NGOs and advocates for healthy time-use have joined to form the International Alliance for Natural Time. Backed by renowned scientists and experts in the fields of chronobiology, neuroscience, economic science, and social science, the Alliance emphasizes natural time for health, safety, education, economy, and environment. They urge governments on both continents to restore permanent, sun-based time zones as soon as possible, preferably before March of 2021.

Many experts and researchers at global level have written about the seasonal clock change effects.

Participants such as Carl Honoré and Judy Wajcman and representatives of the International Labour Organization, the European Trade Union Confederation, the 4-day Week Foundation, among others, both local and international, will take part.

All over Europe, time of citizens faces acceleration, coordination difficulties, time squeeze, temporal inequalities and injustice. In this memorandum, we call upon the European institutions to provide for explicit time policies leading to better quality of life and healthier and sustainable society, to just relationships of genders and generations and to sustainable development

The former Setmana dels Horaris (Timetables Week), that this year will take place from 23 to 29 November in Barcelona, arrives at its 7th edition becoming the Time Use Week, consolidating locally and beginning the transition towards its internationalization. A hundred Catalan municipalities and companies will participate in this new edition, also counting with 20 international experts.

Last Friday 5th June, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Diputació de Barcelona and the Ajuntament de Barcelona, together with the Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society

The Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society, which aims to place time use factor at the center of economic and social policies so to achieve a healthy society.

The Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society (BTUI) already warms up for the celebration of the first edition of the International Time Use Week, which will take place in Catalonia from November the 23rd to 29th, as approved by the institutional steering committee composed by representatives of the Barcelona City Council , Generalitat de Catalunya and Diputació de Barcelona. The socio-sanitary crisis due to COVID19 has been the cause of the postponement of the Time Use Week to November. In addition, the International Time Use Week will be the embryo of the International Time Use Week 2021, which will also hold the 43rd IATUR conference in Barcelona.

The Barcelona Time Use for a Healthy Society has the goal to become a platform for meeting and discussion between people from different disciplines and activities, in order to create consensus around time policies. To advance towards this goal, an Expert Lab has been created. This meeting space for researchers, experts and activists in time use policies will enhance the scientific and political discussion on time use and guide future lines of research.

It is clear that the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact on our daily life in a way we have never experienced before; it is also specifically affecting our life regarding our time use, as we are developing both our work and personal life at home in the frame of a massive lockdown and stressful or, at least, uncertain circumstances.