Comparative Analysis of Time-use in a Planning Perspective
Abstract
Contemporary cities are less spaces of permanence and more spaces of multiple flows. Various forms of urbanity have the chance to subsist in a 24/7 city. Several transformations in society and the economy have allowed work and social practices, such as leisure or sports, to continue during the night. Nowadays time-use is shaped by a new range of labor and family dynamics that provide interesting schedules among not only males and females, but also different time uses within countries and cultures. This paper aims to analyze disparities between time-uses in some European countries, by comparing time-use in Europe to the results of similar studies carried out in USA, Japan, Korea and Canadas. An online survey was administered by the Portuguese team studying the night in Portugal (Project NOITe), observing Eurostat survey guidelines, in order to update statistics first obtained in 1999. Gainful work/study, domestic activities and free time will be put into evidence and discussed. The comparable results are an important source of discussion regarding day and night use of time, providing orientation clues to urban planning, which is the main goal of our work.