Prelims

Half Title Page

The Social Life of Busyness

Title Page

The Social Life of Busyness

BY

CLARE HOLDSWORTH

Keele University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

Copyright © 2021 Clare Holdsworth. Published under an exclusive license by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78743-699-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-698-5 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78754-511-3 (Epub)

Dedication Page

In memory of my father, David Becket, and my mentor, David Morgan. Both Davids exemplified the benefits of leading a busy and fulfilling life.

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

My time to research and write this book was facilitated by a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship, The Social Life of Busyness in an Age of Deacceleration (MRF-2017-044). I am extremely grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for this unique opportunity to be able to dedicate time to this project. I would like to thank Reena Mistry from the Leverhulme Trust for her assistance in managing the fellowship. I would also like to thank Jonathan Wastling, Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and Chris Fogwill, Head of the School of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, at Keele University for approving and supporting this research fellowship. My time spent teaching crochet was also supported by a Collaborative Investigator Grant, Putting self-care into practice: a creative learning approach, awarded by Methods North West, part of the Economic and Social Research Council North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership.

I would like to thank Pete Adey, David Bissell, Graham Crow and David Morgan for their support and encouragement of my original Leverhulme application. Special thanks to David Bissell for suggesting the title. David Morgan’s enthusiasm for this project has been extremely encouraging in shaping my ideas. His ability to think tangentially about family life and weave together diverse literature has always been inspirational. David very sadly died in July 2020 and his loss to sociology is shared by many researchers who, like me, had the privilege to work with him.

In writing this book, I have benefitted from conversations and suggestions from current and former colleagues and PhD students at Keele University and the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, University of Manchester. These include Daniel Allen, David Amigoni, Laura Brennan, Alison Briggs, Sarah Briggs, Stephen Cropper, Mark Featherstone, Janet Finch, Emma Head, Sue Heath, Mark Lucherini, Vanessa May, Marina Mendonça, Ceri Morgan, Kat Mycock, Alex Nobajas, Emma Randall, Paul Simpson (who introduced me to the work of Roberto Esposito), Simon Pemberton and Richard Waller. I would also like to thank Rich Burgess, Stef Everill and Elaine McFarlane for technical and administrative support at Keele. Further afield I would like to acknowledge Jennifer Whillans who commissioned the Mass Observation diaries and made these available electronically for other researchers to use. Jennifer also kindly shared her initial analysis with me. Beverley Sykes copy-edited the manuscript and the text is much improved by her careful observations.

Special thanks to Lisa Dikomitis, Tamsin Fisher and Sarah Hall who collaborated on the Putting self-care into practice project. We are all very grateful to Charlotte Burke for initiating and organising the Keele Student Union Crafternoons. Sarah Hall, along with Mark Lucherini, also very generously took the time to read and comment on a draft of the manuscript and I am very grateful for their insightful comments. I have greatly enjoyed my many virtual chats with Sarah and Mark that have been welcome distractions during Covid-19 lockdowns.

I would like to acknowledge the help and support of staff at the Mass Observation Archive at The Keep, University of Sussex. Material from the archive is reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.

Kathryn Hughes at the Timescapes Archive, University of Leeds generously assisted in access to the Work and Family Lives dataset. These data are kindly provided with the consent of Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Lynn Jamieson, and Jeni Harden and the Timescapes archive, administered by University of Leeds, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council.

A previous version of Table 4.1 was published in Holdsworth (2020b). Three of the case studies of working busyness discussed in Chapter 5 were originally published in Holdsworth (2020a). These materials are reproduced with kind permission of Taylor Francis.

At Emerald, I have had the pleasure of working with a number of editors. Phillipa Grand originally encouraged me to write the book and subsequently to apply for the Leverhulme Trust fellowship. Helen Beddow supported the writing stage and shared her enthusiasm for sewing and fabric craft. Kathy Mathers has overseen the production of the book.

Writing about busyness necessarily touches on all aspects of everyday life and my family have contributed to this book is many different ways. This is especially the case as I wrote most of this book during the isolation of Covid-19 lockdowns. My partner Marty has been an invaluable and patient sounding board for my ideas. My daughter Bethan Holdsworth, my sister Janet Curran, and my mother Anne Becket have all encouraged and inspired me to remain busy and not be too pre-occupied with writing. Bethan especially learnt not to disturb and kept me going with a plentiful supply of cake. Janet very kindly read a draft of the manuscript and provided professional advice on time management. As a family, we have all supported each other following my father’s death in April 2020. My father was an active, busy person and his tireless commitment to supporting his family and local community has inspired my ambition to identify the positive benefits of keeping busy.