The debate surrounding work-life balance has increasingly recognized the need to study the factors influencing lifestyle, or ways of living, within a broader context than has often been the case hitherto. This international collection explores aspects of lifestyle and identity, societal influences on ways of living, the relevance of social networks and geographic communities for lifestyle choices, and the significance of organisational policies and practices for lifestyle outcomes. In so doing, it broadens the focus of current debates and presents recent research findings collected in a range of different national, organizational and community settings. Findings from a variety of research approaches are discussed, ranging from in-depth interviews to analysis of cross-national data. Overall the collection points to the value of exploring the broader contexts within which the relationship between work and non-work lives are located.

Social Change and Ways of Living: An Introduction; B.Blunsdon, K.Reed, P.Blyton & A.Dastmalchian

PART I: LIFESTYLE AND IDENTITY

An Analysis of Time Use to Reveal National Differences in Lifestyle Patterns; K.Reed & G.Cucumel

Households, Work, Time Use and Energy Consumption; S.McEachern

Longer to Launch: Demographic Changes in Life-Course Transitions; R.A.Venne

Fortunate Lives: Professional Careers, Social Position and Life Choices; T.Castleman & R.Reed

Live to Work or Work to Live? The Search for Work-life Balance in 21st Century Japan; T.Craig

PART II: COMMUNITY

Personal Communities and Lifestyle: The Role of Family, Friends and Neighbours; B.Blunsdon & N.McNeil

To Downshift or Not to Downshift? Why People Make and Don't Make Decisions to Change Their Lives; C.Goulding & K.Reed

Ways of Life after Redundancy: Anatomy of a Community Following Factory Closure; P.Blyton & J.Jenkins

PART III: WORK AND ORGANIZATIONS

What Do (and Don't) We Know About Part-Time Professional Work?; V.Corwin

Work Values, Across Cultures: The Role of Affect and Job Outcomes Among Young Executives in Canada, Iran and Turkey; H.Kabasakal, P.Imer & A.Dastmalchian

Designing for Well-Being: The Role of the Physical Work Environment; C.Steinke, R.Kurosawa & A.Dastmalchian

Shifting Responsibility for Health and Healthy Lifestyles: Exploring Canadian Trends; Angela Downey, A.Dastmalchian, H.Kelley, D.Sharp & K.D'Agnone

PAUL BLYTON is Professor of Industrial Relations and Industrial Sociology at Cardiff Business School, and a Research Associate in the ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS) at Cardiff University, UK.

BETSY BLUNSDON is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia and member of the Australian Survey Research Infrastructure Network (ASRIN). Her main research interests include understanding how significant others (family, friends, neighbours) influence lifestyle decisions; issues around sustainability and lifestyle; understanding social and workplace trust and institutional level confidence; and the impact of organizational change on the individual experience of work, family and community. Her publications include work on organizational flexibility, work-family integration, employee-management trust and whether or not confidence in institutions has collapsed in Australia since the 1980s. She also has specialist expertise in methodological issues in survey research in Australia.

KEN REED is Associate Professor at Deakin University and Co-director of the Australian Survey Research Infrastructure Network (ASRIN), Australia. He is also currently Chair of the Australian Consortium of Social and Political Research Inc (ACSPRI) a consortium of universities and government agencies whose objective is to advance social science methodology in Australia. His main areas of research are in organizational theory and the sociology of work. His current research focuses on the issue of how people make choices about lifestyle, and the roles that societal institutions and social networks play in shaping those choices.

ALI DASTMALCHIAN is Professor of Organizational Analysis and Dean of the Faculty of Business, University of Victoria, Canada. His work has appeared in journals such as the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial and Labor Relations Review and Human Relations.