Reducing work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: UK employees' preferences for working-time reduction and the factors affecting them

减少工作以减少温室气体排放：英国员工对减少工作时间的偏好及其影响因素

• 批准号: 2606207
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Southampton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2606207
• 关键词: Reducing; work; reduce; greenhouse; gas

Background and rationale: An equitable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in response to globalclimate change requires significant change in citizen's lives, particularly more affluent individuals in theGlobal North. A change recommended as fulfilling simultaneously environmental and social policyobjectives is a working-time reduction (Gough, 2013). Environmentally, shorter working hours are likelyto reduce consumption among those with greatest responsibility for emissions (Buchs et al, 2011;Druckman et al, 2012). Socially, working-time reduction can ease unemployment through job sharing(Jackson and Victor, 2011), and has been strongly associated with improved mental health (Buhl andAcosta, 2016).However, there are doubts about feasibility. Ecologically-aware citizens are sympathetic (Iosifidi, 2016)9 / 13but constitute only a small minority. More promising to generate broader interest are employee concernsabout overemployment ie preferences among national working populations for fewer hours (Simic, 2002).Research on these preferences is mainly quantitative, unable to explore underlying motivations:preferences are interpreted at face value rather than explored in relation to broader socio-economic andinstitutional factors related to national working-time regimes (eg workplace regulation, practices relatingto full/part time work and anti-social hours) (Fagan, 2001). Qualitative work has focused mainly ondebates about women's preferences (Hakim, 1995) or individuals with particular work challenges(Balderson et al, 2020).This project thus seeks to develop a more structurally-informed understanding of the working timepreferences of affluent employees in the UK (ie those earning above the average wage) as a means toestablish working-time reduction's potential in mitigating climate change. Its research questions are asfollows: To what extent are more affluent employees in the UK prepared to sacrifice income in return forgreater leisure time? Which groups (by income, gender, occupation etc.) are more prepared to do so andwhich less? What are the main obstacles preventing individuals from developing a working-timereduction preference, or acting on their preference if they do? How do these relate to the UK's workingtimeregime? How do gender considerations affect these dynamics?A mixed methods approach will be adopted to answer these questions. First, use will be made of UK'sQuarterly Labour Force Survey, a large household sample survey which includes questions on workingtimes, actual and preferred. From this micro-data, workers on or above average wages will be selectedand split between those who indicate overemployment (ie their actual working hours are greater thanpreferred) and those who do not. Using a dichotomous dependent variable (overemployed/otheremployees), a binary logit regression will be conducted using explanatory variables comprising sociodemographicfactors, household and family characteristics, employment conditions, occupation andincome. The qualitative part of the study will follow the completion of the quantitative part and bedesigned to explore in depth underlying motivations as indicated by the regression. It will focus on theexperience of employees of two UK companies which have voluntarily during recent years reducedworking hours to increase productivity. Their employees' experiences can provide particular insight onthe practical operation of working-time reduction and thus its broader potential.

背景和理由：响应全球气候变化时，温室气体排放的公平减少需要重大变化，尤其是北部北部地区的富裕人士。推荐同时满足环境和社会政策目标的变更是一个减少工作时间（Gough，2013年）。在环境上，工作时间较短，可能会减少对排放责任最大责任的人的消费（Buchs等，2011； Druckman等，2012）。在社会上，减少工作时间可以通过工作共享来缓解失业率（Jackson and Victor，2011年），并且与改善心理健康密切相关（Buhl Andacosta，2016年）。否则，人们对可行性有疑问。具有生态意识的公民是同情的（Iosifidi，2016）9 /13，但仅构成少数。更有希望的引起更广泛的兴趣的是员工担心过度就业，即在更少的时间内，国家工作人群之间的偏好（Simic，2002年）。对这些偏好进行研究主要是定量的，无法探索潜在的动机：偏好是在面对面值的解释，而不是在与更广泛的社会工作时间相关的相关性（EG-Intercitution contimentimentimentimentions）（EG-Intertimentionding contimentimentimentions）（EG-Intertication Compantimentions）（EG-Intercitution contimentimentimentimentimentimentimentimentimentimentimentions）（EG）的相关性（EG）的范围（工作和反社会小时）（Fagan，2001）。定性工作主要集中于妇女偏好（Hakim，1995）或具有特殊工作挑战的个人（Balderson等人，2020年）。因此，该项目试图在结构上对英国富裕员工的工作时间更高的理解，因为在英国的富裕员工（高于平均工资上的较高工资）上，这是一位不断的工作时间。它的研究问题是备受关注的：英国在多大程度上准备牺牲收入以回报福特勒休闲时间？哪些群体（按收入，性别，职业等）更准备这样做，哪些群体更少？哪些主要的障碍是阻止个人发展工作时间的偏好，或者如果这样做的偏好行事？这些与英国的WorkingTimereGime有何关系？性别考虑如何影响这些动态？将采用一种混合方法来回答这些问题。首先，将使用英国各地劳动力调查，这是一项大型家庭样本调查，其中包括有关工作时间，实际和首选的问题。从这个微型数据中，将选择或高于平均工资的工人在表明过度就业的人（即他们的实际工作时间都更大的工作时间）和没有的人之间进行分配。使用二分法因变量（过度就业/其他雇员），将使用包括社会人口统计师，家庭和家庭特征，就业状况，职业和incincome的解释变量进行二进制logit回归。该研究的定性部分将遵循定量部分的完成，并依次探索，以探索回归所表明的基础动机的深度。它将重点关注两家英国公司的员工的经验，这些公司在近年来自愿减少了工作时间以提高生产率。他们的员工的经验可以特别了解减少工作时间的实际操作，从而更广泛的潜力。