In the midst of climate and health crises, a shortage of skilled workers, and fears of globalization and digitalization, Switzerland is confronting major challenges.
Some pioneering companies and experts believe that reducing working hours provides a forward-looking solution. Studies by CDE and other research groups show that switching to shorter workweeks in affluent societies not only promotes individual well-being, but can advance the goal of societal sufficiency.
Together with Dezentrum, and in collaboration with Swiss companies, civil society and institutions, CDE is developing desirable scenarios for innovative and resilient working-time models. Co-design activities and the communication of the results are channelled through the fictional office Amt für Zeit (Office for Time): a specialised office for matters of time that registers time poverty, records reports of time loss, and advises people whose time is slipping away from them.
Project activities
- Scenario techniques are used to develop desirable visions of the future, from which approaches are derived that either address SME or involve societal interventions (e.g. contributions to public debate) or institutional change.
- The desirability of the developed scenarios is validated by means of standardised surveys.
- The macroeconomic factors influencing working time are examined to complement existing knowledge about the effects of working-time reduction. This enables the development of a framework of the relationships between working time, wealth and resource use.
- Development and operation of the Office for Time as an interface between research and society.
