In order to achieve the reductions in emissions that nowadays our planet urgently needs, the collaboration of citizens is necessary. It is necessary that citizens consume products and services that sustainably reduce indirect emissions, but also it is necessary that citizens reduce their associated direct emissions, through the use that they make of their time. In this Thesis, a study is carried out on the direct carbon emissions produced by UK citizens in 2005. These emissions are those emitted when citizens carry out certain daily activities in their households. Later, a comparison with the results of total emissions that other studies obtained is done, to show the importance of the direct emissions derived by this Thesis. This is done first for an average UK citizen, and then the variations in the time use between men and women in each daily activity are analyzed, as well as age ranges, to examine how these variations affect emissions. A relationship between direct and total emissions is found, as well as a gender role issue and a household labor role issue, which produce variations in emissions produced by women and men, as well as variations in emissions associated with different age ranges. In the discussion, the implications of the results obtained in this Thesis are explored, both individually and collectively within the social and economic structure, as well as certain changes that can be introduced daily to achieve a reduction in the direct carbon emissions. “This document presents results drawn from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS), but the interpretation of this data and other views expressed in this text are those of the author. This text does not necessarily represent the views of the MTUS team or any agency which has contributed data to the MTUS archive. The author bears full responsibility for all errors and omissions in the interpretation of the MTUS data.” / För att lyckas uppnå utsläppsminskningar är det nödvändigt att göra förändringar för både indirekta utsläpp, som konsumtion av produkter och service, men också hos de direkta utsläppen. För att minska dessa utsläpp är medborgarna en viktig roll och deras samarbete är nödvändigt. Detta arbete undersöker de direkta koldioxidutsläppen som uppstår i vardagslivet för de brittiska medborgare under år 2005. Resultaten jämförs med tidigare studier som utförts på brittiska medborgare och som analyserar både direkta och indirekta utsläpp. Detta arbete analyserar både utsläppen från en genomsnittsmedborgare i Storbritannien men undersöker även de skillnader som finns mellan kön och olika åldrar. Hur lång tid de olika grupperna spenderar på olika aktiviteter i hemmet skiljer sig åt och även hur mycket arbete de bidrar till i hemmet. Detta har tagits med i beaktning och koldioxidutsläppen från de olika rollerna analyseras. Det var möjligt att dra slutsatser mellan direkta och de totala utsläpp, det var också möjligt att se en variation av utsläpp orsakade av de olika kön och inom olika åldersintervall. I diskussionen genomförs analysen av individuella och kollektiva utsläpp inom den sociala och ekonomiska strukturen. Där förs även en diskussion om vilka förändringar som kan införas i vardagen för att minska koldioxidutsläppen.

This project explored aspects of English-related out-of-class time use by Japanese university students. The aim was to identify the salient temporal and motivational features of the episodes. The study had three parts, two longitudinal components and one cross-sectional component. Data from these three components consisted of out-of-class English time use information collected through a time diary (8,838 episodes). The episode data was collected from longitudinal study participants (n = 125) and cross-sectional study participants (n = 642) who maintained the time diary for at least one week. Data also include interviews with longitudinal participants (n = 40) about their time use and motivation and motivational information collected through an L2 motivational self system survey administered to cross-sectional study participants (n = 1,399) that was modeled after the survey developed by Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009). Two sets of time use and interview data were collected longitudinally (one semester per dataset) through Longitudinal Study 1 (ninitial = 66, nfinal = 15), which included participants from three universities in Western Japan, followed by Longitudinal Study 2 (ninitial = 59, nfinal = 25), which included participants from two universities in Western Japan. Interviews were with participants from these studies. Participants maintained a record of their out-of-class English-related time use during the semester. These data provide an overview of the out-of-class time use of Japanese university students during a full Japanese academic year. Longitudinal Study 1 data were collected during the fall semester, the second term at Japanese universities. Longitudinal Study 2 data were collected during the spring term, the initial term. Longitudinal Study 1 participants reported 2,529 episodes and Longitudinal Study 2 participants reported 3,322 episodes of out-of-class English access during the study period. One interview was held with the Longitudinal Study 1 participants (n = 15), at the end of fall semester. Two interviews were held with Longitudinal Study 2 participants (n = 25), one during the term and one following summer holiday. Data were examined for their temporal patterns and the contextual and affective features of the time use episodes. The cross-sectional component collected data from participants (n = 1,399) at 11 universities in Western Japan. These participants provided data for the motivational survey (n = 1,399) and at least one week of out-of-class English time use (n = 642) data. The participants in the cross-sectional study reported 2,987 out-of-class English access episodes. Episode data for all three components (K = 8,838) and the motivational survey data (n = 1,399) were analyzed at the person, group, and amalgamated episode levels for the patterns of participants' time use using ANOVA and nonparametric procedures. The data were also examined using nonparametric procedures (Kruskal-Wallis) to exam the affective variables (anxiety, enjoyment) by the contextual variables (purpose, location, persons present) of that time use. The episode data regarding participants' (n = 1,399) time use and motivational survey data were analyzed using ANOVA, factor, Rasch, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling. The analyses of the time use data considered the temporal features of the episodes (time of day, day of week, hebdomadal pattern), the contextual features of the episodes (purpose, location, persons with), and the affective features of the time use (enjoyment, anxiety). The analyses of the motivational data considered two models of the L2 motivational self system, an intention to learn model (ILM) and a time use model (TUM). The ILM replicates the model found in the final solution proposed by Taguchi et al. (2009) for their model of the L2 motivational self system. In this model, the outcome factor is Intention to Learn, a factor labeled Criterion Measures by Taguchi et al. In the TUM, the outcome factor of Intention to Learn is replaced by actual time use on out-of-class English access. Time use results from all three components of this study indicated most out-of-class episodes occur when the participant is alone at home either studying or listening to English music. The most typical episode was listening to music, either alone at home or while commuting. A similar pattern of out-of-class English access was found for participants in all three components of this study. Study-related episodes were not considered enjoyable but also were not seen as causing anxiety. The amount of out-of-class time varied widely between participants, with one longitudinal study participant devoting 40 hours per week to English outside of class. For longitudinal study participants, the time use episode data, along with interviews, indicated that habit was a primary driver of out-of-class English access, with participants showing stable patterns of time use, whether for enjoyment or study, during the term. For the most part, once participants in the longitudinal components for this project had established a routine it remained fairly consistent during the term. The interviews clarified the initial motivators and drivers of the participants' English-related out-of-class time use. Interviews also confirmed the importance of habit in out-of-class time use patterns. Moreover, the interviews also indicated that the participants' L2 motivation was set in junior high school, though initial interest may have begun much earlier. Moreover, results from the three components showed that none of the participants met the time requirements of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Technology and Culture (MEXT, 2002, 2009b) for out-of-class time allocated to study for their English courses, a 2:1 ration, for every week that they participated in the study. Only a few of the participants met this requirement for out-of-class English access during any week of the study and only if all purposes, including enjoyment, were considered. This study also addresses the call that Dörnyei (2000) made for research examining the links between motivation and behavior in L2 learning. One unique aspect of this study is the use of a behavioral variable, Time Use, in addition to the survey-assessed latent trait, Intention to Learn, to explore the links between motivational profile and actual behavior. Motivational results show limited support for Taguchi et al.'s (2009) structural model following the same paths that they used in their model of the L2 motivational self system. More informative is the difference in the loading of the motivational profile factors on the outcome variable, Intention to Learn, which was the Criterion variable in Taguchi et al.'s final model, and the loading of the motivational profile factors on the measure of actual out-of-class time accessing English. Results show that Ideal L2 Self loaded strongly (.94) on the criterion, Intention to Learn, but much less strongly (.35) on actual out-of-class time use. However, the confirmatory factor analysis also indicated only a marginal fit to the model. Of importance, however, is that participants who rated highly on their Ideal L2 Self rated highly on the Intention to Learn, but not nearly as highly on actual time use on English. This suggests that responses on surveys of motivation to learn a second language are measures of intention and should not be used to predict or explain actual language learning behaviors. Like the results found by M. P. Eccles et al. (2012), who looked at intention and behavior in medical intervention studies and concluded that surveys targeting intention did not indicate actual behavior, language researchers might need to take a more critical approach to any interpretation of survey-based results as explaining actual learner behavior. This study set out to begin the process of understanding language learners' out-of-class time to language learning and exploring the links between out-of-class behavior and the learners' motivations. Through the longitudinal and the cross-sectional components, the study clarified the ways in which language learners use their out-of-class time allocated to second language access, the amount of time that they allocate, and the characteristics of this time use. It examined the connections between motivation and behavior and began the process of linking motivational studies with actual behaviors called for by Dörnyei (2000). If, as this study has suggested, there is little connection between the level of motivation and the type of motivated behavior that is being targeted, then researchers need to reconsider the current construction of such instruments and search for alternative ways to include actual measures of behavior in L2 motivational surveys. Given the large body of research on motivation in language learning, the results of this study indicate that researchers might want to consider ways include a measure of actual behavior or interpret results of surveys more conservatively when making claims of links between motivation and actual intention. / Teaching & Learning

Transformations in the economy have led to changes in employment practices that can create a mismatch between parents’ work schedules and family routines. At the same time, approaches to child-rearing have become more time-intensive, with expectations of increased parental involvement in all aspects of children’s lives compared to previous generations. Mothers are subject to a more intensified maternal role and for fathers, the provider role is no longer sufficient. There are strong social pressures for more active participation in children’s lives and to nurture greater emotional connectivity in the parent-child relationship. These transformations in parenting and employment practices have contributed to a situation where parents now report increased levels of time pressure and greater dissatisfaction with the balance between work and the rest of their lives. The purpose of this study was to develop a broader understanding of how mothers and fathers with school-age children allocate their time, how it varies by household composition, season of the year, and work schedule, and how time use is related to subjective well-being. Given the role that leisure may play in creating a more satisfactory work-life balance, special attention was given to the amount of time available for leisure, with whom this time was spent and the relationship to quality of life. The gender relations perspective provided a theoretical framework since role expectations and experiences of parenthood differ for mothers and fathers. By considering individual, interpersonal, institutional and socio-historical levels of influence, patterns of behaviour may be better understood within the Canadian social context. This study is a secondary analysis of the 2005 Canadian General Social Survey, Cycle 19. Using a sub-sample of 2,062 parents of school-age children (ages 5-17 years), patterns of time use and perceptions of quality of life were assessed and compared by gender according to household composition, season of the school year, work schedule and flexible work option. Work schedules were categorized as traditional (daytime, no weekends), non-standard (evening, weekend and rotating shifts) and irregular (unpredictable, with “on call”, casual, or other irregular patterns). Gender inequality in the allocation of time to important life spheres remained substantial even when faced with very complex challenges in coordinating employment arrangements, family routines, and the school year schedule. With the exception of single fathers, men spent more time on employment-related activities than women regardless of work schedule, while women continued to perform greater amounts of domestic and child care activities. Combined workloads of paid and unpaid labour were significantly different only among single mothers and fathers. For married or cohabitating parents, the distribution of paid and unpaid labour was asymmetrical but the combined workload was not significantly different. Fathers continued to be privileged with greater amounts of leisure time. This was especially noticeable for men with non-standard work schedules and fathers of teenage children. Seasonal differences in time use indicated that women’s routines were more linked to the school year than men’s because of their greater child care responsibilities. When irregular or non-standard schedules were in place that could create more optimal conditions for reconsidering time allocation, parents still followed activity patterns that reproduced traditional gender roles. For women, non-standard schedules were the most detrimental to quality of life, whereas for men irregular schedules decreased well-being. Flexible schedules also perpetuated inequality in the distribution of paid work, unpaid work and leisure although quality of life actually improved for women. This improved quality of life may be attributable to more time spent on activities with physical health benefits or increased options for daily schedules, but it also leads to questions about how much control mothers actually have over their time and whether they recognize or care to challenge the inequalities that persist in the distribution of labour and leisure. Quality of life was diminished by conditions that contributed to a deviation from traditional role expectations. Some of these included not having a partner, women’s work schedules that conflicted with other family members, and for men, having an irregular and unpredictable work schedule. Since these conditions are characteristic of a sizable minority of Canadians parents, their experiences should not be dismissed but rather given greater attention. Additionally, future discussions of work-life integration should consider access to leisure since time for leisure was shown to contribute to parents’ quality of life. The gender relations perspective proved to be helpful in interpreting and understanding the dynamics of time use and behaviour. The four levels of interaction were highly interconnected, but changing institutional conditions such as employment schedules did not lead to greater equality. Instead, non-traditional work schedules widened the gender gap, particularly for child care and domestic activities. Dominant parenting practices were shown to be so deeply imbedded that stereotypical patterns remained a prevailing force guiding men’s and women’s daily activities. The GSS data, despite some limitations, provided considerable insight into the effect of parents’ employment and gender on time use and well-being. The findings of this study underscore the relevance of considering multiple levels of influence when assessing parenting practices, gendered behaviour, and quality of life for employed parents.

Transformations in the economy have led to changes in employment practices that can create a mismatch between parents’ work schedules and family routines. At the same time, approaches to child-rearing have become more time-intensive, with expectations of increased parental involvement in all aspects of children’s lives compared to previous generations. Mothers are subject to a more intensified maternal role and for fathers, the provider role is no longer sufficient. There are strong social pressures for more active participation in children’s lives and to nurture greater emotional connectivity in the parent-child relationship. These transformations in parenting and employment practices have contributed to a situation where parents now report increased levels of time pressure and greater dissatisfaction with the balance between work and the rest of their lives. The purpose of this study was to develop a broader understanding of how mothers and fathers with school-age children allocate their time, how it varies by household composition, season of the year, and work schedule, and how time use is related to subjective well-being. Given the role that leisure may play in creating a more satisfactory work-life balance, special attention was given to the amount of time available for leisure, with whom this time was spent and the relationship to quality of life. The gender relations perspective provided a theoretical framework since role expectations and experiences of parenthood differ for mothers and fathers. By considering individual, interpersonal, institutional and socio-historical levels of influence, patterns of behaviour may be better understood within the Canadian social context. This study is a secondary analysis of the 2005 Canadian General Social Survey, Cycle 19. Using a sub-sample of 2,062 parents of school-age children (ages 5-17 years), patterns of time use and perceptions of quality of life were assessed and compared by gender according to household composition, season of the school year, work schedule and flexible work option. Work schedules were categorized as traditional (daytime, no weekends), non-standard (evening, weekend and rotating shifts) and irregular (unpredictable, with “on call”, casual, or other irregular patterns). Gender inequality in the allocation of time to important life spheres remained substantial even when faced with very complex challenges in coordinating employment arrangements, family routines, and the school year schedule. With the exception of single fathers, men spent more time on employment-related activities than women regardless of work schedule, while women continued to perform greater amounts of domestic and child care activities. Combined workloads of paid and unpaid labour were significantly different only among single mothers and fathers. For married or cohabitating parents, the distribution of paid and unpaid labour was asymmetrical but the combined workload was not significantly different. Fathers continued to be privileged with greater amounts of leisure time. This was especially noticeable for men with non-standard work schedules and fathers of teenage children. Seasonal differences in time use indicated that women’s routines were more linked to the school year than men’s because of their greater child care responsibilities. When irregular or non-standard schedules were in place that could create more optimal conditions for reconsidering time allocation, parents still followed activity patterns that reproduced traditional gender roles. For women, non-standard schedules were the most detrimental to quality of life, whereas for men irregular schedules decreased well-being. Flexible schedules also perpetuated inequality in the distribution of paid work, unpaid work and leisure although quality of life actually improved for women. This improved quality of life may be attributable to more time spent on activities with physical health benefits or increased options for daily schedules, but it also leads to questions about how much control mothers actually have over their time and whether they recognize or care to challenge the inequalities that persist in the distribution of labour and leisure. Quality of life was diminished by conditions that contributed to a deviation from traditional role expectations. Some of these included not having a partner, women’s work schedules that conflicted with other family members, and for men, having an irregular and unpredictable work schedule. Since these conditions are characteristic of a sizable minority of Canadians parents, their experiences should not be dismissed but rather given greater attention. Additionally, future discussions of work-life integration should consider access to leisure since time for leisure was shown to contribute to parents’ quality of life. The gender relations perspective proved to be helpful in interpreting and understanding the dynamics of time use and behaviour. The four levels of interaction were highly interconnected, but changing institutional conditions such as employment schedules did not lead to greater equality. Instead, non-traditional work schedules widened the gender gap, particularly for child care and domestic activities. Dominant parenting practices were shown to be so deeply imbedded that stereotypical patterns remained a prevailing force guiding men’s and women’s daily activities. The GSS data, despite some limitations, provided considerable insight into the effect of parents’ employment and gender on time use and well-being. The findings of this study underscore the relevance of considering multiple levels of influence when assessing parenting practices, gendered behaviour, and quality of life for employed parents.

This dissertation explores the relationship between people’s conceptualisation and use of time in everyday life against the background of the political economy of the late modern welfare state. The main focus lies upon their evaluation of different time-uses in order to approach a better understanding of the moral economy of time. Special consideration is given to the role of commodification of time and the experience of time scarcity. Another topic investigated is the association of time with the striving for ecological sustainability in everyday live. The study is based upon three empirical materials. The first one consists of a subset of Statistic Sweden’s time-use database for inhabitants of Stockholm. The other two materials are qualitative interview studies. One was conducted with 85 unemployed people in Sörmland and Jämtland, the other with 45 inhabitants of Stockholm. The interviewees in the latter study were asked to consider two options for the future of welfare politics in Sweden: increasing wages combined with the same work hours as today or a substantial decrease in working hours accompanied by stagnating wages. Many interviewees consider time scarcity to be an important issue that needs to be integrated into the traditional concept of welfare. Time conflicts in everyday life, also regarding the choice of sustainable options, are solved with a certain moral flexibility still dominated by work ethics. Some interviewees try to articulate counter-images to the commodified concept of time by challenging traditional conceptions of the value of time and envision an ecological sound time use. These attempts draw attention to the importance of temporal commons such as vacations and also the need for a conscious time-politics in order to strengthen temporal welfare.

Ett gott samarbete mellan lärare och vårdnadshavare är en av de viktigaste förutsättningarna för att uppfattas som en bra lärare. Detta kan bidra till en ökad administrativ belastning, vilket kan bidra till ökad stress och minskad tid för att förbereda undervisning. Hur mycket tid, vilka frågor som hanteras och vilka kontaktmedier som används för kontakter med vårdnadshavare är huvudsakligen okänd. I denna studie har mängden och tiden av kontakt med vårdnadshavare kvantifierades och de frågor som hanteras och vilka kontaktmedier som används analyseras. Både antalet kontakter och hur mycket tid kontakterna tog varierade kraftigt mellan individer, men kvinnliga lärare, som grupp, hade fler kontakter och använde mer av sin tid för kontakt med vårdnadshavare än sina manliga kollegor. Från de insamlade uppgifterna var det också uppenbart, i enlighet med den granskade litteraturen, att kommunikation om administration och information prioriterats framför pedagogiska frågor. Dessutom, arbetsuppgifter som det som inte är lagstadgade utförs, hade i högre grad, utanför arbetstid. Det insamlade materialet ger en god överblick över hur kontakt med vårdnadshavare kan se ut, och kan ge en grund för diskussioner om lärarnas arbetsmiljö och kan hjälpa unga lärare förbereda sig. / A good cooperation between teachers and guardians is one of the most important requirements for being perceived as a good teacher. This may contribute to an increasing administrative load and contributing to increased stress and reduced time to prepare for teaching. How much time is spent, what issues are handled and what contact media is used for teacher-guardian contacts is mainly unknown. Therefore, in this study, the amount of, and time spent on contact with guardians was quantified and the issues handled and contact media used analyzed. Both the number of contacts and how much time was allocated to contact guardians varied widely between individuals, although it was clear that female teachers, as a group, had more contacts and spent more of their time on contact with guardians than their male colleagues. From the collected data it was also evident that communication regarding administration and information was prioritized over communication regarding educational activities. In addition, duties that where not legislative had to be carried out outside working hours. The material collected provide a good overview of how contact with guardians may look, may provide a basis for discussion of teachers' work environment and may help young teachers prepare.

This paper analyzes how remittance receipts affect labor force participation and daily time allocation of individuals residing in remittance-receiving households of rural Pakistan. In particular, I use the first Time-Use Survey of Pakistan (2007) to assess how members of remittance-receiving households distribute time over market production and its complements, namely, home production, leisure consumption and educational investment. I employ the statistical technique of propensity score matching to find a comparison group for individuals residing in remittance-receiving households. My results indicate that impact of remittances on daily activity sets cannot be analogously identified across genders. Men residing in remittance-receiving households devote less time to market production and consume more leisure. Women, on the other hand, invest more time in home production while maintaining the same level of market production.

Ma thèse de doctorat a comme objectif de contribuer d'un point de vue théorique et empirique à la littérature sur les modèles collectifs avec production domestique. On veut montrer que les modèles collectifs représentent un instrument alternatif aux modèles unitaires de représentation du comportement individuel. Les modèles collectifs peuvent être utilise pour analyser la distribution des ressources au sein du ménage et pour évaluer le pouvoir de négociation de l'homme et de la femme. Ce dernier a des effets sur l'offre de travail, sur la consommation et sur le bien-être des individus dans le ménage. Dans les deux premiers chapitres, en utilisant les données de l'American Time Use Survey, on veut estimer les offres de travail de marché de l'homme et de la femme. Dans le première on se concentre sur la question de l'identification de la règle de partage lorsque il n'y a pas des facteurs de distribution observés. Dans le deuxième travail on prend en compte les solutions en coins. Dans les troisième et le quatrième chapitre on veut étendre les modèles sur les ménages agricoles du pays en voie de développement à l'approche collective. Dans le premier travail on se concentre sur la propriété de séparabilité du model lorsque les individus du ménage sont engagés dans la production d'un bien non-marchand et peuvent ne pas travailler sur le marché. Dans le deuxième on conduise des simulations en utilisant des données italienne. / The objective of this research project is to contribute from both a theoretical and empirical perspective to the literature about collective models of household behavior accounting for household production. In particular, the aim is to show that the collective models represent an alternative tool with respect to unitary models of household behavior with the advantage to allow the analysis of intra-household distribution of resources. This has some effects on individual labor supply, consumption and material well-being. In the first two chapters, using the American Time Use Survey, the objective is to estimate man and woman's market labor supply. In the first work we prove a new identification result of the sharing rule for the case where no distribution factor is observable. The second work develops a theoretical model of labor supply with domestic production that is consistent with corner solutions. In the third and fourth chapter the objective is to extend the farm-household literature to the collective approach. In the first work we focus on the separability property on the model when both the price of the domestic produced good and the price of individual time are endogenously determined within the household. We present some statics comparative results. In the second work, using Italian ISMEA data, we carry out a simulation.

Cette thèse vise à explorer comment et de quelle manière la production domestique a un impact sur les choix des consommateurs qui, à son tour, détermine l'inégalité des revenus et la pauvreté en Turquie. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'examiner la nature de la décision d’allocation du temps en respectant la technologique de production domestique de chaque ménage. À cette fin, les hypothèses posées pour chaque chapitre sont progressivement testées afin de mieux saisir le profil des activités ménagères par des estimations micro-économétriques. Ainsi, l’objet de la thèse est de répondre à 5 questions : 1) Est-ce que le taux de salaire sur le marché est une bonne approximation du coût d’opportunité du temps dans les pays en voie de développement ? 2) Quelles sont les activités domestiques qui sont les moins sensibles à une variation du coût d’opportunité du temps qui accroît par substitution l’intensité en biens de la consommation ? 3) Quels sont les effets d’une variation du revenu et des prix lorsque l’on prend en compte la production domestique ? 4) Est-ce que les activités domestiques déterminent le secteur informel et jusqu’à quel degré ? 5) Est-ce que l’activité domestique et le secteur informel diminuent les inégalités de revenus et baissent le niveau de pauvreté dans l’économie ? La thèse apporte une contribution importante à une question qui se pose depuis longtemps dans les travaux de recherche sur les liens à faire entre le temps consacré au travail rémunéré et le temps qualifié de libre utilisé dans la production domestique. La théorie du consommateur doit en effet intégrer ces deux types de temps pour arriver à donner une vue d’ensemble des comportements en mettant en évidence le rôle de la production domestique. / The main focus of this dissertation is to examine the nature of time allocation decision with respect to domestic production technology pattern of each household in Turkey. Households’ main preference structure is defined under domestic production technology viewpoints. We measure the degree of complementarity and substitution for each consumption groups of the households. Therefore, our findings in this research highlights that the households resources are not only the function of market wage rates, as the opportunity cost of time, but also of the domestic production technology. However, demand elasticity measurement enables to identify the characteristics of decision-making of the households with regard to their domestic production technology. This measurement is highly important for political interventions. As a matter of fact, compensate of the loss, due to change in price or in income, in household’s welfare can be limited by domestic production technology. This finding underlines that the income and substitution effects as supposed by theory can be biased if domestic production technology is excluded from the model. The compensation of utility loss through inflation or decreasing purchasing power of the households may require good intensive domestic production for certain activities. However, this later points out a contradictory situation especially for developing countries. High level of working hours and constraints in labour markets may prevent households to compensate these lost thorough domestic activities. Thus, informal earnings appear to be the only solution to overcome shortages in time use and commodity used in domestic production. Lack of necessary goods and services with limited time allocation capacity inevitably yields increasing under reported incomes for these economies. Thus, the participation in informal activities rescue from income shortage for given labour supply which in turns reallocates income distributions and poverty within the society.

Irrespective of the great individual variation, people diagnosed with RTT largely rely on support from others to be able to do and participate in activities throughout their lives. This thesis focuses on which activities are done and liked/disliked by girls and women with RTT in Sweden. The overall aim was to describe the everyday lives of female individuals with Rett syndrome. Two studies are included in this thesis. The first is a descriptive study, using secondary data from three earlier questionnaires, encompassing data from 175 participants (girls/women) described by 365 informants (parents/staff). Content analysis was used to analyse the openended questions. In the second study a Time-geographic diary method and the software VISUAL-TimePAcTs computer program, DAILY LIFE 2011 were used. Ten participants (teenagers/young female adults) with RTT and their 63 informants participated in the diary study. The main findings in the first study (I) were that the girls and women with RTT enjoyed activities that included aspects of ‘contact’, ‘sensory impression’ and ‘motion’. The activities most enjoyed over the years were bathing/swimming, listening to music or being outdoors/walking. The parents and staff also liked to do the same activities that the girls or women enjoyed doing, described as sharing their joy. Of the few activities that were reported as being unenjoyable, most were daily care activities. The diary study (II) showed that the most frequently reported activities were hygiene/toilet, moving around indoors, eating and getting dressed. Most time was spent in sleeping, daily care, medical and health care activities and also for travel/transportation. Little time remained for other kinds of activities especially for the young adults. Most time was spent with staff, thereafter with families, and the least time was spent with friends. The participant response that was reported most often during activities was ‘interested’, while ‘opposed’ was the least reported. Responses of ‘opposition’ were primarily seen during caring activities such as toileting, using the breathing mask, stretching, brushing teeth, being woken up, dressing and putting on orthoses. Responses of ‘engagement’ were noted in contexts of socialising, playing and communicating activities with friends or staff. Engagement responses were also reported during activities of ‘motion’ such as changing body position, moving in the water or gymnastics, eating food and snacks, and even when watching/listening to films, books or music. Thus, increased knowledge concerning the importance of activities for girls and women with RTT is essential for their well-being, participation and continued development. Increased knowledge could facilitate the choice of activities and a more varied use of activities. Regardless of age, severity of symptoms or developed skills, it is important that not only basic needs such as sleep, daily care and medical health care activities are fulfilled for individuals with Rett syndrome. It is also essential for them to spend time with friends, family and staff doing enjoyable activities both at home and in other places. / <p>Funding:</p><p>Linnéa and Josef Carlsson’s Foundation, Helsingborg, Sweden and the Folke Bernadotte Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden.</p>