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OUR TIME FAMINE:
A Critical Look at the Culture of Work and a
Re-evaluation of 'Free' Time.
Iowa Memorial Union -
University of Iowa -
Iowa City, Iowa
March 8 - 10, 1996
Our mothers and fathers thought that ours would be the century when the
machine and technology freed human beings - freed us to live a life beyond
"necessity" and work, in which our major concern would be "the question of
freedom." People who lived at the turn of the last century fully expected
that future generations would be better off not just in material goods, but
in the goods of life - in abundant hours and days free from jobs and
economic concerns.
But we who toil in the century's last decade dare not imagine such a thing.
Instead of our work continuing to decline, as it did, steadily, for a
hundred and fifty years before mid-century, it has expanded. Now more of
our populations work, and more of us work longer hours than our mothers and
fathers. Instead of proving to be "labor saving devices," our machines
create more work for more of us to do! Instead of the "problem" of
leisure, we face an array of problems caused by overwork; such as families
that erode because we have no time to be at home, troubled and troubling
young people who share little or no time with adults, anemic communities
bled dry of time, their life's blood, and institutions that focus solely on
teaching people how to work rather than how to live together freely.
Even though ours has become the wealthiest nation in history, we languish
in a time famine with no relief in sight. What happened?
This conference will bring together leading historians, economists,
educators, labor leaders, and politicians to explore the phenomenon of
work's expansion, the problems overwork has caused, and possible ways to
address them.
The historical rise of the culture of work and the politics of work
creation will be critically investigated. Alternative historical visions
of active and democratic cultures based in time outside modern work and
consumerism will be remembered. The recent, unfortunate results of work's
ascendancy will be explored, including; the maldistribution of work (the
widening division between the overworked with good jobs and the
under-worked who are unemployed or marginally employed); the
time-starvation of families; and the decay of communities and institutions
outside work/consumption/mass amusements in what Jürgen Habermas calls the
"collapse of the discussional."
Traditional, but neglected solutions and remedies, alternative to the
prevailing faiths in perpetual economic growth and politics of eternal work
creation, will be investigated, including; work redistribution (or work
sharing); regeneration of what Cornel West called "democratic culture" in
leisure, and volunteerism. Strategies to reclaim free public spaces
"outside" work/consumerism/amusements, and recover "free activities" that
return culture making and transmission to the communities will be proposed.
Our Time Famine: Conference Information
Iowa Memorial Union
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
March 8 - 10, 1996
Schedule:
Friday, March 8
4:00 - 5:30 pm Registration
5:45 - 6:00 pm Welcome - Benjamin Hunnicutt, Ph.D.
6:00 - 7:00 pm The Historical Origins of the Culture of Work and
the Politics of Jobs, Jobs, Jobs - Benjamin Hunnicutt, Ph.D.
7:00 - 8:00 pm Time, Work, and Money: Escaping the Cycle of Work
and Spend - Juliet Schor, Ph.D.
8:00 -11:00 pm Reception
Saturday, March 9
7:30 - 8:15 am Continental Breakfast and Registration
8:30 - 9:30 am Concurrent Sessions
Topic Area: Economics
Session 1: The Economics of Overwork, The Failures of Job Creation,
and The Maldistribution of Work - John Kenneth Galbraith, Ph.D.
(videotape presentation)
Session 2: The Basics: Money and Our Economic Life -
Jerome Segal, Ph.D.
9:30 -10:30 am Concurrent Sessions
Topic Area: Labor Issues
Session 1: Is Shorter Hours an Option for American Labor? - Jerry Tucker
Session 2: To be announced
10:30 -10:45 am Break
10:45 -11:45 am Concurrent Sessions
Topic Area: Labor Issues/Consumerism
Session 1: Shorter Hours and the Canadian Auto Workers - Basil "Buzz" Hargrove
Session 2: How Much is Enough? - Vicki Robin
11:45 - 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 - 2:00 pm Shorter Hours: A New Paradigm Beyond Sexual Politics - Betty Friedan
2:15 - 3:15 pm Concurrent Sessions
Topic Areas: Women and the Family
Session 1: Women: The New Providers - Ellen Galinsky
Session 2: That Delicate Balance: Production and Reproduction in
Modern Society - Jennifer Glass, Ph.D.
Topic Area: Education
Session 3: Work, Leisure, and Higher Education - Richard MacNeil, Ph.D.
3:15 - 3:30 pm Break
3:30 - 4:30 pm Second Shift - Arlie Hochschild, Ph.D.
4:30 - 6:00 pm Recess
6:00 - 8:00 pm Banquet Dinner
The Future at Issue: Overwork or The End of Work - Which Will It Be? -
Jeremy Rifkin and Stanley Aronowitz, Ph. D.
Sunday, March 10
7:30 - 8:15 am Continental Breakfast
8:30 - 9:30 am Shorter Hours and Governmental Policy - Eugene McCarthy
9:30 -10:30 am Concurrent Sessions
Topic Area: Practical Solutions
Session 1: Shorter Work Times: A Canadian Perspective - Bruce O'Hara
Session 2: To be announced
10:30-10:45 am Break
10:45-12:00 pm Practical Steps for Moving Forward - Round Table Discussion
(Barbara Brandt, Betty Friedan, and others to be announced)
12:00-12:15 pm Closing Remarks - Benjamin Hunnicutt, Ph.D.
Conference registration: $150 (regular) and $75 (student)
To register or obtain a confence brochure call: 1-800-551-9029.
Checks can be made payable to "The University of Iowa" and can be sent to:
Center for Conferences and Institutes
The University of Iowa
249 Iowa Memorial Union
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1317
INVITED SPEAKERS:
STANLEY ARONOWITZ
Aronowitz is professor of sociology at the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York. He is the author of 10 books, including False
Promises (1973), Working Class Hero, (1984), and Science as Power
(Minnesota, 1988). His current book Jobless Future (1995), written with
William DiFazio, is a stunning critique of America's movement toward a
knowledge based, high-tech workplace.
THEO BECKER
Profile unavailable at this time
BARBARA BRANDT
Profile unavailable at this time
BETTY FRIEDAN
Founding president of the National Organization for Women and author of the
groundbreaking 1963 book, The Feminist Mystique, Friedan has been one of
the most visible leaders of the women's movement for more than 30 years.
An activist, author and lecturer at universities worldwide, her most recent
book, The Fountain of Age, was published in 1993.
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH
Galbraith, considered one of the twentieth century's most influential
economists, is the author of more than 30 books on a variety of economic
topics, including the 1958 classic The Affluent Society and the 1967
bestseller The New Industrial State. His extensive career has included
service as a government economists, presidential advisor, Ambassador to
India and Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Now
retired, he continues to lecture and write extensively on contemporary
economic issues.
ELLEN GALINSKY
Galinsky is the Co-Founder and Co-President of the Families and Work
Institute. This non-profit institute is a national center for policy
research on issues of the changing workforce and changing family lives.
Previously, she was on the faculty of Bank Street College of Education
where she helped to develop the field of work and family life and directed
numerous studies of work and family life, stress and productivity. Author
of 14 books and more than 75 articles, Galinsky most recently received
national attention as project director and principal investigator for the
study Women: The New Providers (1995).
JENNIFER GLASS
Glass has authored and contributed to more than 15 studies on the subject
of gender, family and work. An associate professor of sociology at the
University of Iowa she is an expert on work and family life integration
issues whose work has been cited in such national publications as the Wall
Street Journal and Working Woman magazine. Glass received her Ph.D. in
1983 from the University of Wisconsin, and taught at the University of
Southern California and Notre Dame before coming to the UI in 1994.
BASIL "BUZZ" HARGROVE
Hargrove is president of the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW). Prior to
his appointment, he served as a CAW liaison between staff and local unions,
working with representatives from the auto, aerospace, airline, fisheries,
rail and agricultural industries.
He currently represents the CAW on the Federal Council of the New
Democratic Party and is a vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress.
ARLIE HOCHSCHILD
Hochschild is best known for her 1989 book, The Second Shift: Working
Parents and the Revolution at Home. A study of 50 couples, The Second
Shift revealed that in addition to maintaining careers, most women do
about 75 percent of the housework and 80 percent of the childcare for their
families. The book received glowing reviews and has been featured in
Newsweek, the New York Times Book Review, Time and the Washington Post
Book World. Hochschild is a professor of sociology and has been a member
of the University of California Berkeley faculty since 1971.
BRUCE O'HARA
O'Hara is the founder of Work Well, Canada's first center to facilitate
better and more balanced ways to apportion work. For more than 10 years,
he has helped a wide range of organizations, unions and individual workers
to create work environments more suitable to the 1990s, including job
sharing, flextime, permanent part-time, phased retirement and banked
overtime. In 1993, he organized the Shorter Work Time Network of Canada, a
coalition of individuals and organizations committed to stimulating a
national debate on working times. The network now has chapters in cities
across Canada.
BENJAMIN HUNNICUTT
Hunnicutt is a nationally-recognized authority on the culture of work in
the U.S. and author of the 1988 book, Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter
Hours for the Right to Work, which received excellent reviews in the New
York Times Book Review and the Washington Post. A professor of leisure
studies at the University of Iowa, his research focuses on the ways
increasingly larger portions of modern life have been taken over by work
since the 1930's, and how modern beliefs about work have corrupted the once
commonplace notions of lifelong learning, civic participation, active
leisure and play.
RICHARD MACNEIL
MacNeil is a professor of leisure studies at the University of Iowa and an
expert on using recreational activities as therapy for older adults. He
has lectured across the U.S. about therapeutic recreation and has written
and contributed to more than 40 scholarly articles and books on the
subject. His most recent book, Aging and Leisure: Vitality in Later
Life, was published in 1992. MacNeil received his Ph.D. from the UI in
1979 and has been a faculty member since that time. In 1993, he was a
co-recipient of the National Therapeutic Recreation Society's Professional
Research Award.
EUGENE MCCARTHY
Two-time Democratic presidential candidate, congressman, senator, anti-
Vietnam war activist, educator, best-selling author and poet, McCarthy has
been a popular figure in American discourse since the late 1960's. Known
for his own brand of politics, devoutly liberal but also an advocate of
smaller government, his ideas have been criticized as much as praised, but
always noticed. He now resides in Sperryville, Va. and continues to
lecture across the country and write.
JEREMY RIFKIN
President of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC, Rifkin is
the author of the 1995 book, The End of Work, which suggests that in an
increasingly automated world, the end of mass employment and the emergence
of new ways to generate income are among the most pressing issues of the
next several decades. Rifkin holds a B.A. from the Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from Tufts University.
VICKI ROBIN
Robin is President of the New Road Map Foundation and co-author of Your
Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship With Money and
Achieving Financial Independence. Called the prophet of
"consumption-downsizers" by the New York Times, she is a leader in the
national trend towards sustainable lifestyles. She is a member of the
President's Council on Sustainable Development's Task Force on Population
and Consumption and a founding member and Trustee of Sustainable Seattle.
JULIET SCHOR
Schor is author of the popular 1992 book, The Overworked American: The
Unexpected Decline of Leisure, a critical look at the tendency of Americans
to spend increasing amounts of time working at the expense of involvement
in self-improvement, volunteer service and rest. The increase in work
hours, she notes, has caused a myriad of social problems, including less
time for children, fewer jobs, increased stress, and skewed ideas of
"happiness." Schor is a senior lecturer on economics, head tutor of
women's studies at Harvard and a research associate at the World Institute
for Development Economics Research of the United Nations.
JEROME SEGAL
Profile unavailable at this time
JERRY TUCKER
Tucker, a widely regarded labor strategist, is currently Director of the
New Directions Worker Education Center and the New Directions Education
Fund. He is a former UAW International Union Executive Board member and,
before that, a UAW staff member. In the 1980's he co-founded the UAW New
Directions Movement and served as its national organizer from 1989 until
1993. In addition, for the past several years he has been an advisor to
the A.E. Staley workers in Decatur, IL, a case that has received national
attention.