Uses of Time

» Barcelona City Council has participated in the analysis table, framing the generation of knowledge and new public policies on time management.
» The need for time policies is supported by science, both in children and adults, especially in women: 37.8% of Barcelona women suffer from it.

Last January 23, the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (ASPB) held its first scientific session of the year, focused on analyzing the link between the use of time and health. The debate table had the participation of Lucía Artazcoz, director of the Public Health Observatory of the ASPB; Elisa Stinus, a researcher at the Institute of Childhood and Adolescence in Barcelona; Marta Junqué, co-coordinator of the Time Use Initiative; and Sonia Ruiz, director of the Gender and Time Policy Services of Barcelona City Council, who moderated the session. This event session was held as part of the meetings that the ASPB has been organizing for thirty years, in which it study how new public policies can be produced to improve collective health.

The Barcelona City Council emphasized the value of this space, as it is necessary to open a transversal dialogue on the uses of time. Specifically, he highlighted how the Council for Time Use and the Pact of Time, which is twenty years old, are the necessary space to continue building social uses of time that bring more equality, efficiency, sustainability and, in the case you occupy, health.

The approach that continued during the day was to analyze it by sector. Elisa Stinus presented how the lack of time is also a problem during childhood: 20% of girls and boys in Barcelona have little satisfaction with their free time (a fact that increases or decreases depending on the level of income). The message was clear: it is necessary to include the dual generational perspective, both that of children and that of families, in order to create spaces that value shared time, the role of public spaces such as schools and attend to the use of screens . In doing so, the actions cannot generate new inequalities, such as the female burden of care, and must allow to generate both family time and peer-to-peer time.

For her part, Lucía Artazcoz analyzed the causes and consequences of time poverty, both internationally and locally. This type of poverty, linked to economic causes, the social prestige of the lack of time or long urban commuting times, implies the limited availability of time for the same person. Although it affects both men and women, its impact clearly has a gender factor: in Barcelona, 37.8% of women suffer from time poverty, while 30.3% of men suffer from it.

As an organization that works transversely on the subject, Marta Junqué proposed the possibility of responding to time poverty from public policies through the generation of a new right of citizenship: the right in time. Through its formalization from the public administrations, it proposed to achieve a new model of time organization based on a different distribution of time to work, rest, care and enjoy leisure.

As Sonia Ruiz concluded, more than three hundred and fifty thousand people are receiving unpaid intensive care in the city of Barcelona. The 80 actions of the city council mostly focus on this issue in order to improve the time poverty of these people directly. In the words of the director: “getting people to live their daily time in a healthier way will improve the general well-being of the city”.

The session can be viewed deferred in this video.