Worklife Balance: The Agency and Capabilities Gap

Across welfare societies we have seen the emergence of policies and norms for work-life balance alongside rising expectations among working parents to be able to participate in employment and caregiving, and to have more time for family life and leisure. Yet despite this value placed upon work-life balance, working parents face increasing work demands, as well as rising numbers of insecure and precarious jobs, both of which produce a deepening sense of economic uncertainty in everyday life, which has been intensified in the current period of financial crises. The agency and capabilities gap addresses these tensions in work-life balance within families, workplace organizations, and policy frameworks. Inspired by Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, this volume considers not just what individuals do, but also their scope of alternatives to make other choices. It includes rich contextualized studies across Western and Eastern European countries and Japan, with a focus on gendered agency inequalities for work-life balance. Contributors to this volume - Nevenka Cernigoj Sadar, University of Ljubljana Laura den Dulk, Erasmus University Rotterdam Sonja Drobnic, University of Hamburg Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes, Erasmus University Rotterdam Colette Fagan, University of Manchester Susanne Fahlen, Stockholm University Sandra Groeneveld, Erasmus University Rotterdam Barbara Hobson, Stockholm University Saori Kamano, Stanford University Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrcela, University of Ljubljana Margarita Leon, Universitat Autonoma Barcelona Suzan Lewis, Middlesex University Business School Tomoko Matsuda, Bukkyo University Setsuko Onode, Kyoto Kacho University Bram Peper, Erasmus University Rotterdam Janet Smithson, University of Exeter Mieko Takahashi, Osaka University Judit Takacs, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Kyoko Yoshizumi, Otemon Gakuin University Pierre Walthery, University of Manchester