Culture, Education, Science and Community

Time use. Tenth edition of Time Use Week, until 24 October.

Time Use Week, the most important international event for the promotion and dissemination of time policies, is being held from 21 to 25 October. Under the slogan “Advancing towards the right to time for everyone”, the event will present the new work plan for 2024-2026, updating the Barcelona Declaration signed in 2021.

The goal is to correct unequal access relating to the use of time and the social organisation of time, which affect people’s individual and collective productivity, particularly those in the most precarious financial situations and women. To this end, the new action plan sets out goals in four areas of work:

• Give effect to the right to time in local and regional organisations to improve individual and collective equality and well-being.
• Foster the connection between the world of research when it comes to time use and public policies on time, particularly now we will have a new wave of results from time use surveys.
• Implement key action to achieve a balanced organisation of the time devoted to work and personal and family life.
• Advance in the recognition of the right to time, particularly in the sphere of equality.

The commitments will be supported by over a hundred organisations that recently adhered to the agreement, including the World Organisation of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the global association that works to reduce working hours, as well as new cities and regions and pioneering organisations in the right to time.

Barcelona Declaration

Seventy-five institutions leading the way in time policies in the world, fifteen of them from Catalonia, signed a pioneering declaration in October 2021, making a commitment to work together towards the right to time for everybody, to improve health, sustainability and equality between all people, implementing a joint work plan.

Time Use Week 2024 offers a programme of talks and three-day working sessions complemented with different activities around Catalonia.