Dutch-Style Work-Life Balance

Dutch-Style Work-Life Balance: Techniques to Survive the “Rush Hour of Life”
Ayami Nakatani

186 mm x 130 mm
254 pages
JPY 2,800
ISBN 9784790716464
Pub date: January 2015

Life is not just about work. During events that mark the stages of one’s life such as marriage, childbirth, and children’s schooling, how can one change one’s form of work ? How can we allocate our time ? Through interview surveys conducted over several years, this book reports on lifestyles in the Netherlands where many people work part-time.

Points of Appeal
1) Interesting case studies of the Netherlands, which seeks a way of life where working and caring do not conflict
2) Exploration of social systems that guarantee the right to choose or modify “work” and “life”
3) Extensive examples and knowledge of regular part-time work as a solution to correct long working hours

Table of Contents

1 Working and living: Why the Netherlands?
2 Work-life balance
3 How the Dutch have changed the work style
4 Tracing work history
5 “Combine” work and childcare 
6 When mothers work and husbands raise children
7 Why part-time work?
8 The future of change in Dutch society
9 Living and working: The art of “combination”

Reviews
“The history and reality of the “part-time superpower” is vividly portrayed through interviews with many people.”― Nikkei Shimbun 

“The stories that are presented are very moving”, “ I am encouraged by the people who are struggling with work and child rearing.”―AERA

Author Information
Ayami Nakatani
Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Oxford University. Professor of Kwansei Gakuin University. Specializes in cultural anthropology and gender theory. Author of Ethnography of “Women’s Work” and co-author of Anthropology of Work and Reading Gender Anthropology.