Disconnected Lives: Trends in Time Spent Alone in Finland

Discussions about social isolation have been extensive over the past few decades. A less sociable nature of social ties has been identified in Western societies. The phenomenon has been associated with demographic changes such as aging and living alone as well as changes in the use of new technologies. In this study we employ representative Finnish Time Use Surveys from three decades, 1987–1988 (n?=?1887), 1999–2000 (n?=?2673) and 2009–2010 (n?=?1887) to examine the trends in social isolation, measured as time spent alone. Our results showed that between 1987 and 2010 the time spent alone increased by 124 min per day. The increase was linear and occurred in nearly all population groups. Structural factors, such as aging and an increase in the number of single households, are strongly associated with increased time spent alone. Time spent alone has increased, especially during leisure activities. Specifically, time spent watching television and using computers is associated with the decreasing tendency for face-to-face interaction.

     

THE EXPERIMENTS OF REDUCED WORKING HOURS IN FINLAND

This paper examines experiments of shorter working hours in Finnish municipalities between 1996 and 1998 in terms of the effects of the experiments on work–family interaction and which of the ways of reducing working time had the most positive effect. We analyse the experiment in respect of the Finnish working time regime, and in addition, from the perspective of community time. The analysis combines questionnaire and interview data. The results indicated that the experiment had a positive effect on work–family interaction. Six-hour shifts, in comparison to other forms of working time reductions, had the strongest impact on the decrease in conflict arising from work and affecting family. The interviews demonstrated various effects of the working time experiment on family, including the negative effects caused by unsocial working hours and the loss of time autonomy at work among the highly educated. Furthermore, reduced working hours in a culture based on the principle of full-time work caused some negative effects, such as feelings of guilt. The impact of the experiment on community time depended on the way the experiment was implemented.     

Crowding‐in: how Indian civil society organizations began mobilizing around climate change

This paper argues that periodic waves of crowding‐in to ‘hot’ issue fields are a recurring feature of how globally networked civil society organizations operate, especially in countries of the Global South. We elaborate on this argument through a study of Indian civil society mobilization around climate change. Five key mechanisms contribute to crowding‐in processes: (1) the expansion of discursive opportunities; (2) the event effects of global climate change conferences; (3) the network effects created by expanding global civil society networks; (4) the adoption and innovation of action repertoires; and (5) global pressure effects creating new opportunities for civil society. Our findings contribute to the world society literature, with an account of the social mechanisms through which global institutions and political events affect national civil societies, and to the social movements literature by showing that developments in world society are essential contributors to national mobilization processes.