I’m very happy to have received four years of funding from FORMAS explore starting this week. This is the first time I have been able to hire colleagues and I am super excited to have people who are interested in the same topic around. Watch this space for happy research discussions.
(artwork behind by Candy Tuft Malmö)
Project abstract:
IDLE explores idleness as a profound response to interconnected existential threats, including climate change, species extinction, inequality, and decreased life satisfaction. While efficiency measures have failed to reduce environmental impacts, IDLE proposes idleness as an alternative organising principle for society that can reduce production and consumption while increasing well-being. This four-year project will investigate societal idleness through in-depth interviews to understand lived experiences of idleness, and impacts of increased idleness, as well as examine relationships between policy, idleness, working time, production and consumption, and social and environmental sustainability. Combining social practice theory and critical theory, IDLE will analyse reduced working hours. Fieldwork in Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland will provide cross-cultural insights. By empirically investigating the lived experience of idleness, IDLE aims to generate groundbreaking knowledge on how idleness help can meet sustainability challenges. The findings have the potential to inform policies on work, consumption and well-being, and contribute to broader societal changes in how progress and fulfillment are perceived. This research is in line with growing interest in work-life balance and sustainable lifestyles, and can potentially inspire new directions in sustainability science, sociology and policy development.