No Time to Lose: A Search for Work / Life Balance

While stopping by Take Back Your Time’s website, I was prompted to repost some information about a very interesting book. Although the emphasis here is on life in America (in particular, the United States of America), the content surely applies to so many, many more places worldwide…

Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork & Time Poverty In America
By John de Graaf, Editor
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, July 2003.

Table of Contents

Preface: TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY

Introduction: TIME POVERTY AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT –John de Graaf, co-author, Affluenza

PART I: OVERWORK IN AMERICA
– AN ISSUE FOR EVERYBODY — Barbara Brandt, National Staffperson, The Shorter Work-Time Group, Boston
– THE (EVEN MORE) OVERWORKED AMERICAN — Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College and author of The Overworked American
– THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING VACATION — Joe Robinson, Director of the National Work To Live Campaign, Santa Monica, CA
– FORCED OVERTIME IN THE LAND OF THE FREE — Lonnie Golden, Professor of Economics, Penn State University

PART II: TIME IS A FAMILY VALUE
– OVERSCHEDULED KIDS, UNDERCONNECTED FAMILIES — Bill Doherty, Professor of Family Therapy, University of Minnesota, and Barbara Carlson, co-founder, Putting Family First, Minneapolis
– RECAPTURING CHILDHOOD — Betsy Taylor, Executive Director, The Center for a New American Dream, Takoma Park, Maryland
– WHAT ABOUT FLUFFY AND FIDO? — Camilla Fox, National Campaign Director, The Animal Protection Institute, Sacramento, CA

PART III: THE COST TO CIVIL SOCIETY
– WASTED WORK, WASTED TIME — Jonathan Rowe, Director of the Tomales Bay Institute, Pt. Reyes, CA
– TIME TO BE A CITIZEN — Paul Loeb, author, The Soul of a Citizen
– TIME AND CRIME — Charles Reasons, Professor of Law and Justice, Central Washington University

PART IV: HEALTH HAZARDS
– AN HOUR A DAY (COULD KEEP THE DOCTOR AWAY) — Suzanne Schweikert, MD, Physician, San Diego, CA
– THE (BIGGER) PICTURE OF HEALTH — Stephen Bezruchka, MD, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle

PART V: ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE HURRIED LIFE
– HASTE MAKES WASTE — David Wann, co-author, Affluenza
– THE SPEED TRAP — Robert Bernstein, Sierra Club Transportation Working Group, Santa Barbara, CA
– ON TIME, HAPPINESS AND ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS — Tim Kasser, Professor of Psychology, Knox College, Illinois, and Kirk Warren Brown, Professor of Psychology, University of Rochester, NY

PART VI: HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
– WHEN WE HAD THE TIME — Benjamin Hunnicutt, Professor of Leisure Studies, University of Iowa
– CAN AMERICA LEARN FROM SHABBAT? — Rabbi Arthur Waskow, The Shalom Center, Philadelphia

PART VII: TAKING BACK YOUR TIME
– ENOUGH-THE TIME COST OF STUFF — Vicki Robin, co-author, Your Money or Your Life, chair of The Simplicity Forum
– THE SIMPLE SOLUTION — Cecile Andrews, author of Circle of Simplicity and lecturer at Stanford University

PART VIII: WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS
– A JOB TO SHARE — Carol Ostrom, staff writer, The Seattle Times
– A NEW BOTTOM LINE — Irene Myers, Larry Gaffin, Barbara Schramm, career counselors
– WORKING RETIRED — Beverly Goldberg, Director of Publications, The Century Foundation and author of Age Works
– A CASE FOR SABBATICALS — Bob Sessions, Professor of Sociology at Kirkwood College, Iowa, and Lori Ericson, freelance writer
– AMERICA NEEDS A BREAK — Karen Nussbaum, director of the Women’s Division, and Chris Owens, Director of Public Policy, The AFL-CIO
– IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS TOO — Sharon Lobel, Professor of Business and Management, Seattle University

PART IX: RETHINKING PATTERNS OF CULTURE
– RECIPES FOR CHANGE — Anna Lappe, food activist and co-author, Hope’s Edge, New York City
– TIME BY DESIGN — Linda Breen Pierce, author of Choosing Simplicity, Carmel, CA

PART X: CHANGING PUBLIC POLICY
– EUROPE’S WORK-TIME ALTERNATIVES — Anders Hayden, author of Sharing The Work, Sparing The Planet
– A POLICY AGENDA FOR TAKING BACK TIME — Jerome Segal, Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy, University of Maryland
– WHAT’S AN ECONOMY FOR? — David Korten, former professor at Stanford and Harvard Business Schools and author of When Corporations Rule The World

RESOURCES FOR TAKING ACTION
– ORGANIZING TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY IN YOUR COMMUNITY — Sean Sheehan, Outreach Director of the Center for a New American Dream
– HOW TO DO A TEACH-IN OR A SPEAK-OUT — Cecile Andrews and John de Graaf
– HOW TO REACH YOUR LOCAL MEDIA — Eric Brown, Director of Communications of the Center for a New American Dream