Hello hello, so this is a little Independent article on the 24 hour society. It says something about the demand side of this new 24 hour trend- it provides a little info about what people think. It was also written in 1997, which I think could say something about what the case is now.
'According to a report published last week by the Future Foundation, a commercial think-tank, most Britons approve of this trend. It found that 80 per cent think companies should provide telephone services outside normal hours. More than one-third said they wanted to shop late in department stores, while 58 per cent wanted pharmacies to open earlier and close later.'
'But it is not just shopping that marks the 24-hour society. People make twice as many telephone calls after 11pm than they did a decade ago, and one-third of banking transactions now take place out of hours. Telephone banking, pioneered by First Direct, has been eagerly embraced by other banks.'
Another interesting report- more recent- on the 24/7 lives of Western society: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2004/sep/12/worklifebalance.careers1
One interesting quote: 'People want to go out to eat, they want to go to yoga class, they want to be a good parent, they want to do the shopping. They are cramming more and more things into their leisure time. The shift to a 24/7 culture is not being driven by external forces, it's part of how we live these days.'
I think it's interesting because it says some about what has (perhaps) caused this shift. Maybe demand led to the 24 hour society (also driven by capitalist consumer culture, however), and not that we were pushed into a 24 hour culture and thus adapted our lives to it. Maybe it adapted to us, and our capitalist driven demands? Either way, of course, capitalism seems the driver...
I also think it might be interesting to consider the counter-argument to this idea. Maybe 24/7 is good for people, in some ways? Is it necessary? Leon Kreitzman's 'The 24 Hour Society' seems to argue that 24 hour days are 'the way forward' (I haven't read this, but it seems to provide a somewhat positive- or at least, unbiased- interpretation of the 24 hour society).
Just thought it was interesting! See you soon.
’24-hour society enables us to regain a
broader sense of time. In that regard,
it is a social revolution of epic proportions’.- The Future Foundation, 1998
Interesting post! From what were talking about the video project is kind of focusing on the 'pre 24h' world that maintains the illusion that we all sleep at night, whilst in reality as Cain a lot of people use the transport at night to do all the cleaning/preparatory work that allows the 'spectacle' of the day to run.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am pro 24h very much. I think of the 9-5 pattern as very much the capitalist streamlining which forces us all to have identical days, whilst living in a 24h society gives many, especially those who are not 'morning people' a chance to be productive at times that suits them best.
Productivity is not always 'bad' if done on your own terms, but the 9-5 world kind of forces you to accept its terms, destroying natural rhythms that we might have. E.g how much better London's infrastructure could work if we did not have to stick to those ours, we could decrease rush hour problems..etc. etc.
I agree to a considerable extent. I think it provides more choice to those who do not wish to structure their lives around 9-5pm, and can be beneficial to some.
ReplyDeleteHowever I think it becomes a problem when people feel forced to work longer. Some offices, for example, especially ones serving the 24 hour news we now have, are pressured to do much more than the typical 9-5pm. E.g some have to stay until 10pm +. If you don't like it? We can employ some graduate who'll do happily do it. So I think it becomes problematic for people when it's not just a case of restructuring their original routines, but actually when they use it as a way to do extra. So instead of working throughout the day and resting at night, they are working throughout the day, going to the gym in the evening, doing some shopping in the evening (why do it on Saturday when I can do it at 7pm?) and then when it does come to the weekend they do more shopping, see friends, more gym, party etc. They might even have children. Obviously this is quite an extreme routine, but we all know at least one person who is just so busy all of the time! To add, they are online all night (leaving phones on) and often stay up late. Then we get stressed and tired.
I can recall some sort of study/research into the effects of too much choice on people. Apparently too much choice stresses us out! Which gym to go to, what food blender to buy, which TV, which mobile phone etc...maybe there's so much choice that people feel as though they're not leading fulfilling lives if they're not busy all of the time. The social media illusions add to this- everyone seems to have exciting lives online.
So though I agree with the capitalist streamlining of 9-5, the 24hour lifestyle is also a product of capitalism. I mean without it, why would a supermarket feel the need to open all hours? Businesses are constantly looking for gaps in the market and night time is not going to stop it. This is where our sleep project comes in very well- will it control that, too? I do think it's a little deterministic, though, to think like this, and we can't forget that people do have agency. Sure, more people are getting less sleep, but some people aren't. Maybe 24hr could work if people didn't overwork themselves?
I also think that there is a little problem with people working at night time because our biological rhythms 'make' us sleep at night. Even without external zeitgebers such as light, we're still programmed to sleep at night (I think). I'd be interested to see how we would adapt to waking at night and sleeping throughout the day (as a society). Would we cope? Would we adapt? Those who work at night tend to have health problems (admittedly, much of this research is done on shift workers, where the problems are probably due to the erratic nature of their routine and not that it's necessarily night time). I do agree that there would be fewer problems on the roads, but could it not pose more problems? Also, how would the underground operate when it needs a time to check out the tracks? Ok I'm thinking about this way too much!
That report from Future Foundation made me shudder... what excellent news that people are now 'economically active' for longer! I feel so liberated from the tyrannical force that is sleep...
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of a quote from Agamben: 'the politicization of bare life... constitutes the decisive event of modernity.' So now, even those few hours where, despite whatever oppression the day brought, we could at least get some respite in sleep, are being invaded by state power... Slavoj Zizek argues we in the West now have 'an obligation to enjoy' and i can't help but agree with him. Of course, this makes us comparably more free than those, for example, in undemocratic systems, but undoubtedly, it is not that we are 'free' from coercion, just that 'the coils of a serpent are even more complex that the burrows of a molehill.' (Deleuze)
The idea that the 24 hour society can be a 'liberating' experience, a social revolution or whatever, really frustrates me.There was an insightful quote in that Guardian article: 'The consequences of this trend, the report's authors suggest, will be 'enormous'. As leisure time expands, so will demand for an army of dusk-to-dawn workers to support it.'
Surely that's the crux of it, the 10% of the world can get really excited about being 'free' from time restrictions, and crucially, further ignore the insane levels of subjugation of 'worse off' individuals on which this relies.
Some statistics:
'Those who work at night perform less well and make more errors. The risk of injury on a night-shift is 20 per cent greater than on a day shift... Night workers suffer from higher levels of indigestion, ulcers, constipation, diabetes and an increase in cardiovascular mortality roughly equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day. Their other nightmares include chronic fatigue, excessive sleepiness, difficulty in sleeping, increased irritability, higher divorce rates, lower sex drives, a greater incidence of substance abuse and depression, and a much greater propensity to view their jobs as extremely stressful. ' http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/surviving-in-the-world-that-never-sleeps/158035.article
one might update Nietzche's assertion that work 'is the best policeman', to encompass our modern processes that keep us active at all hours;
'it keeps everyone in bounds and can mightily hinder the development of reason... it uses up an extraordinary amount of nervous energy, which is thus denied to reflection, brooding, dreaming, worrying, loving, hating, it sets a small goal always in sight and guarantees easy and regular satisfactions.'
it's now seen as incredibly weird to just sit or lie and NOT BE DOING ANYTHING. how are we meant to draw away from the everyday and ponder as a whole 'the state we're in', when we're so constantly active? These are the new forms of control - we may have been liberated from 'capitalist streamlining' in the decline of the 9-5, but this is just capitalism melting more distinctions, causing more docility and anxiety.
I guess what I'm attempting to point out... is some of the malicious effects of convenience - having things on tap 24/7 engenders submission, apathy, and therefore acceptance of the current state of things
Hello, I also personally think 24/hr is a necessity, not everyone can fit in their schedule to finish everything during store open hours.What people are doing now is they are doing everything online. Online grocery shopping, normal shopping, birthday shopping and for many other occasion. The 24/hr tesco in Beckton is very convenient for me, my cousins gets off work at 8-9 (more than usual hours) then he goes home then comes late at night to go to Beckton tesco. We can spend few hours there taking our time and shop.
ReplyDeleteRe-reading these posts for the essay, it was Leon Kreitzman book I read which I was saying was the book that argues for 24/7 society, which I agree very much with.
ReplyDeleteAlso Anna, I agree with Jody, capitalism would rather a 24/7 society in which consumption/production is 24/7, due to consumer choice/producers profits.