The work—life interface
The past century has seen a gradual move towards a greater emphasis on the importance of maintaining a work—life balance.
This change has been driven by various complex and interconnected factors including: attitudinal changes and evolving social expectations around the value and productiveness of people’s non-work life; the emergence of new technologies that have radically transformed how people work and companies operate; demographic changes to the workforce; increased awareness of wellbeing and mental health; and wider demand for flexible working patterns.
This Collection invites research that explores the realities of how people’s work and non-work lives connect, coexist — and inevitably messily overlap.
This call is intentionally broad in scope and welcomes contributions of all types, from conceptual to empirical research. Perspectives are invited from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary vantage points, including anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, human resources, psychology, philosophy and gender studies, and beyond. Research on policymaking and comparative analyses (country, sector) are also welcomed.
Perspectives on the following and related themes are invited:
- Concepts of work versus non-work (e.g., leisure, recreation, childcare, family life) in light of globalisation, automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence
- Expectations and social norms around work/recreation
- Obstacles and blockers to achieving a work—non-work balance
- Demographic, generational, racial, socio-economic and cultural issues
- Industry innovations and ‘best practice’ cases
- Flexible working models and working time reduction
- Health and wellbeing, and job quality
- Temporary and insecure employment (e.g. gig economy)
- Concepts of freedom, justice, dignity at work
- Utopian and dystopian imaginings of work/non-work
- Challenges and tensions arising from perceived work-life imbalance
- Spillover effects between work and non-work life (e.g., distraction and fatigue)
- Disconnecting/switching off from work (e.g. role of sleep, rest)
- Re-engaging with work (e.g., after a period of absence)
- Flexibility, self-regulation and control
- Structural insecurities (e.g. economic) and their effect on work-life balance/imbalance
- Non-Western perspectives and comparative analyses (e.g. cross-country and -sector)
Research must explicitly consider the ‘work and non-work’ interface or dynamics. Research that looks at only one or the other theme will be considered out of the collection’s scope and instead evaluated for the general journal section.
Editors
Submitting a paper for consideration
To submit your manuscript for consideration at Humanities & Social Sciences Communications as part of this Collection, please follow the steps detailed on this page. On the first page of our online submission system, please select your article type from the drop down menu. When on the “details” tab, you will be presented with the option to select which Collection your article should be submitted to. Authors should also express their interest in the Collection in their cover letter.
Accepted papers are published on a rolling basis as soon as they are ready.
