EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Daily routine arrangements: work and private life. Policy and Good Practices in Finland, France, Italy and The Netherlands.

Daily routine arrangements: work and private life. Policy and Good Practices in Finland, France, Italy and The Netherlands.

Introduction

What can countries learn from one another and what cultural, historical and political differences must be taken into account?

Description

How should work and private life be combined? Four countries and eight partners are working together in the European Daily Routine Arrangements; From Local Practice to National Policy project. The goal is to exchange knowledge as well as to give a broad range of ideas, practices and examples. Finland, France, Italy and the Netherlands are involved in the project. The Netherlands is the driving force behind the transnational project.

The Daily Routine Project is part of the Department of Emancipation of the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment . It disseminates the results among national and local policy makers, in both profit and non-profit sectors. It also facilitates regular meetings for the experiments, to exchange information, discuss new developments and learn from each other's failures and successes.

Furthermore, new experiments have started in the framework of the European Social Funds Programme (ESF3), and will continue till 2007.

Background information

How should work and private life be combined? This is the rubric under which the transnational collaboration project Daily Routine Arrangements; from Local Practice to National Policy was launched. In each of the partner countries, task combiners, i.e. people who work, are carers, are bringing up children of are active in any other way, find it difficult to balance paid work and other responsibilities. The goal of the project is to find solutions to these combination problems from as many angles as possible.

Methodology

The Netherlands is the driving force behind the project. The project is characterised by repeated study visits, an international kick-off meeting and a final meeting. The project’s four-language newsletter gives an impression of work visits. The partners inspire each other towards an innovative local and national policy geared to the needs of people to combine work and private life; they are looking behind the scenes in each country en exchange bottlenecks, experiences and strategies; they present good examples and distribute them widely; they visit projects in different countries to get ideas.

EU involvement

New experiments have started in the framework of the European Social Funds Programme (ESF3), and will continue till 2007.

Conclusions

People are looking for solutions for a better balance between work and private life. That is what citizens in various European countries are struggling with.
The angles vary by country. Finland is particularly innovative in its childcare policy. In France time policies and practical services are key. Italy excels in time and urban planning at municipality level and the Netherlands are leading the way in a practical bottom-up approach to combining work and private life.
History and culture of a country leave their mark on what is possible, desirable or necessary. In France a regional approach to time policies is being developed. In the Netherlands and Finland, it is still ´inappropriate´ to have a deliberate policy to pep up the birth rate. In these countries, the labour market policy plays an important role in childcare.

Contact info

Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment
Daily Routine Project / Directorate for the Co-ordination of Emancipation, tel. +31 70 3335889

Publication date

25/03/2004

Links

Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment Dagindeling (Dutch website)

Daily routine arrangements: work and private life. Policy and Good Practices in Finland, France, Italy (PDF, Eng, 2.8 MB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Economy knowledge & employment > Working patterns

Keywords

Flexible working