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 --

Introduction : capabilities and agency for worklife balance-a multidimensional framework / Barbara Hobson -- Part I. The individual/household and the agency and capabilities gap : policy frameworks, norms, and work organizational cultures. The agency gap : policies, norms, and working time capabilities across welfare states / Susanne Fahlen -- A sense of entitlement? : Agency and capabilities in Sweden and hungary / Barbara Hobson, Susanne Fahlén, and Judit Takács -- Worklife balance in Japan : new policies, old practices / Mieko Takahashi, Saori Kamano, Tomoko Matsuda, Setsuko Onode, and Kyoko Yoshizumi -- Agency freedom for worklife balance in Germany and Spain / Sonja Drobnič and Margarita León -- Part II. The firm level and the agency and capabilities gap : policies, managers, and work organization. Workplace worklife balance support from a capabilities perspective / Laura den Dulk, Sandra Groeneveld, and Bram Peper -- Working time capabilities at the workplace : individual adjustment options between full-time and part-time working in European firms / Colette Fagan and Pierre Walthery -- Capabilities for worklife balance : managerial attitudes and employee practices in the Dut…