The Value of Time Matters for Temporal Justice

There has recently been a revived interest in temporal justice among political philosophers. For example, lone mothers have, on average, 30 h less free time per week than people in couples without children. Recent work has focussed on free time as a distinct distributive good, but this paper argues...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tyssedal, Jens Jørund (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V [2021]
In: Ethical theory and moral practice
Year: 2021, Volume: 24, Issue: 1, Pages: 183-196
Further subjects:B Distributive Justice
B Free time
B Value of time
B temporal justice
B Discretionary Time
B Time as a resource
B Time quality
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:There has recently been a revived interest in temporal justice among political philosophers. For example, lone mothers have, on average, 30 h less free time per week than people in couples without children. Recent work has focussed on free time as a distinct distributive good, but this paper argues that it would be a mistake for a theory of temporal justice to focus only on shares of free time. First, I argue that the concept of free time does not succeed in tracking discretionary control over time. All of time is a resource, and the particular moral relevance of free time must be established otherwise. Second, hours of time differ in use value, and we cannot fully track our concerns about the allocation of time, whether free or necessary, without taking this into account. We care about free time but also about ‘quality (of) time’. To explain this observation, I develop an account of the value of time as a resource. The value of time periods differs with the prospects for which a time period can be used, that is, what we can do and be with it. What we are allocating when we are allocating time is not just hours; it is hours of time with a certain value. Finally, I argue that a concern for the value of time is compatible with a resourcist theory of temporal justice.
ISSN:1572-8447
Contains:Enthalten in: Ethical theory and moral practice
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10677-020-10149-1