Toward chosen doing: Young working women's experiences, perceptions, and critical re-imagining of non-work time

Abstract

This study uses an exploratory approach to investigate the non-work time of young working women (YWW) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By thinking about leisure as an alternate way of experiencing time (Marx, 1894; Pieper, 1948; Holloway, 2010), this research considers whether and how a distinct kind of doing – chosen doing (Holloway, 2010) – within a distinct kind of time – doing time (ibid.) – pushes back against the dominant experience of time characteristic of capitalism. In-depth qualitative interviews with eleven (n = 11) women revealed that the majority of YWW’s time is subsumed by necessity; constituted of productive and reproductive labour (Marx, 1894). In response, this study evokes YWW’s envisioning of alternative non-worktime grounded in desire: characterized by creativity, freedom, and spontaneity and enabled by community, connection, and reliance on others. This study regards these envisioned instances of chosen doing as critical sites for the transformation of non-worktime.