1. Dance with the devil: TO CITE THIS PAPER PLEASE USE:
Finding subjective meaning in our use of time in neoliberal economies
TO CITE THIS PAPER PLEASE USE:
Clouston TJ Dance with the Devil: Finding subjective meaning in our use of time in neoliberal economies. 4th Occupational Science Europe (OSE) Conference: ‘Meeting in diversity-Occupation as common ground’, HAWK university, Hildesheim, Germany 7th-9th Sept.
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

2. Background and methods
Aims of the study were to explore the lived experience and meaning of occupational balance for occupational therapists living and working in the UK
Sample was across public sector
Interpretive phenomenological analysis
Large study so 29 participants
For more details please read Clouston (2014, 2015)
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

3. Findings
Little autonomy or choice over how resources of time & energy were used in daily lives
Sense that workload was intensified
Increased sense of responsibility
Driven to perform
Conflicts between work and non work occupations
Occupational compromises
Lack of meaning and wellbeing in life
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

4. Antithesis
Occupational science: the use of time & energy to participate in meaningful occupations is believed to be integral to health and wellbeing
Modern life, particularly in Western neoliberal economies: the use of time has a ‘performance orientation’
What people ‘do’ in time is measured in terms of its productivity and growth
How we ‘spend’ our time is a critical measure of social worth and economic security (Clouston 2015, p.16).
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

5. Why is this happening?
Neoliberalism is an economic model based on deregulated global markets
Uses both human and natural resources to best advantage to secure growth and power
People who participate in paid work are increasingly pressured to exchange more and more of their personal resources of time and energy for productivity in work
Non-paid occupations, including those that are freely chosen and personally meaningfully can be compromised in order to expend the necessary time and energy to achieve expectations in work.
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

6. Why is this a problem?
People how do not work are valued less than those who do
Busyness has become a ‘badge of honor’ (Gurshuny 2005, p.72)
The ‘opiate of the masses’…. ‘a way of suppressing feelings and ideas that challenge the status quo or the market culture into which we have unwittingly slid’ (Hochschild 2008, p.89).
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

7. Why is this a problem?
Paid work is a fundamental and purposive activity that underpins self-esteem and personal identity; thus participation in work is important
Arguably, its social value in neoliberalism is exaggerated and its links to wellbeing illusionary (Kahneman et al 2006)
Promotes ‘occupational compromise’
(Clouston 2014, p.154) over ‘occupational
integrity’ (Pentland & McColl 2008, p.136)
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

8. Moving to a meaning orientation
Return to meaning: knowing what your meaningful occupation is and why it is meaningful
Making time for it in everyday life
This is not easy – needs a mind shift
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

9. Value meaningful occupation and personal/social wellbeing
Transcend the discourse of performance and drive for productivity & reconcile yourself to that (not feel you have compromised)
Value meaningful occupation and personal/social wellbeing
Appreciate time for being, becoming and belonging as well as doing to achieve meaning and health & wellbeing
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

10. This needs you to Slow the pace and calm the mind Live in the moment
Share the load
Understand yourself and your temporal coping strategies
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

11. Temporal coping strategies?
People who reconcile are often called ‘downshifters’ or resisters
Busy bees (I can do it all)
Endurers (What will be will be)
Deferrers (It will get better someday)
Outsourcers (I’ll get others to do it)
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

12. Not easy but…….
Yet there is an inner sense of time - a back door – buried deep within human consciousness, intimately associated with our sense of personal identity and our unshakeable conviction that the future is still ‘open,’ capable of being moulded by our chosen activities (Davies, 1995, p ).
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

13. References
Clouston TJ Whose occupational balance is it anyway? The challenge of neoliberal capitalism and work-life imbalance. British Journal of Occupational Therapy 77,10,
Clouston TJ Challenging stress, burnout and rust-out: Finding balance in busy lives. London: Jessica Kingsley
Davies P (1995) About time: Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution. London: Penguin.
Hochschild A (2008) On the edge of the time bind: Time and market culture in C Warhurst, RE Eikhof & A Haunschild (Eds) Work Less, Live More? Critical Analysis of the Work-Life Boundary, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 80-91
Kahneman D. et al Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion. Science 312,
Pemberton S. & Cox D Perspectives of time and occupation: Experiences of people with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. Journal of Occupational Science 21, 4,
Pemberton S. & Cox D Synchronisation: Coordinating time and occupation. Journal of Occupational Science 22, 3,
Pentland W. & McColl NA Occupational integrity: Another perspective on "life balance". Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy 75, 3, 135-8
Wilcock AA Reflections on doing, being and becoming. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 46, 1, 1-11
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University

14. Contact CloustonTJ@cardiff.ac.uk @teenaclouston (#livinglifeinbalance)
Blog/website
clouston
mins plus mins discussion.
Dr Teena Clouston, Cardiff University