The 21 Hour Society

25th Feb 2010; 13:00

Listen to the audio

(full recording including audience Q&A)
Please right-click link and choose "Save Link As..." to download audio file onto your computer.

RSA Thursday

A recent report published by the New Economics Foundation (nef) argues the case for moving toward a much shorter working week – with 21 hours as its goal.  Their evidence suggests that moving to a new standard working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: unemployment, over-work, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.  Working much shorter hours could help us all become better parents and carers, better citizens and more productive workers, in a more equal, contented and low carbon society. It also frees up time for more co-production as funds for public services are increasingly scarce.

During the three-day week in 1974, production fell by only 6 per cent, and when the state of Utah in the US introduced a four-day week for state employees, it saved $4.1 million through reduced absenteeism and overtime, $1.4 million through reduced travel in state-owned vehicles; it reduced carbon emissions by 4,546 metric tons, other greenhouse gases by 8,000 tons and petrol consumption by 744,000 gallons.

But could this tempting proposal actually work in practise? Can we afford the resultant drop in salaries, whilst still keeping up with mortgage repayments, taxes, travel expenses and bills?

Speakers: Andrew Simms, Policy Director and Head of Climate Change and Energy, New Economics Foundation (nef): Anna Coote, Head of Social Policy, nef; John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; Mark Littlewood, Director, Institute of Economic Affairs

Chair: Julian Thompson, director of projects, RSA

Suggested hashtag for Twitter users: #rsa21hour

Download the report

21 Hours. Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century
Anna Coote, Andrew Simms, Jane Franklin (New Economics Foundation, February 2010)

Related RSA Projects

Find out more about the Connected Communities Project

Get the latest RSA Audio

Subscribe to iTunes | RSS | Mixcloud

You are welcome to link to, download, save or distribute our audio/video files electronically. Find out more about our open access licence.