Life balance: work, care, rest, and personal time
Local and Regional Time Agenda
Historical and current data point to deep disparities among people around the world, especially between men and women. In the 21st century, citizens, their democratic institutions, private companies and social agents must define and achieve a better balance between the three main uses of time in everyday life: care, work and personal time. This factor is key to promoting a better life balance and building a healthier, more egalitarian, more efficient and more sustainable life.
Three features are key to improving our life balance: multidisciplinary measures (implemented by public and private institutions), well-informed short- and medium-term measures and government coordination at international, regional and local levels. To date, the most resilient time policies have come from local and regional institutions. This chapter seeks to provide visibility to these policies.
The chapter describes 35 already implemented time policies that have been classified in two groups: policies that aim to promote a better life balance for citizens, and policies promoting this balance within public institutions.
