Work–Life Balance

References

Cite

Share

Abstract

Two years ago, when we received the proposal to engage in an editorial project for a handbook on work–life balance research, we were hesitant to accept, aware of the increasingly contested and problematic nature of the very construct of ‘work–life balance’. However, we eventually decided to accept the invitation, with the idea of collating not so much an exhaustive compendium of the research works focused on the relationship between work and other dimensions of the biographical experience of individuals, but rather a text offering both theoretical reflections and empirical research examples illustrating the multiple strategies through which the different articulations that characterize this intersection can be analyzed. Our aim was to devise a text not only able to account for the richness of lenses and perspectives, together with their translation and actualization into specific research practices and methodological choices, but that would also shed light on its potentialities yet to be thoroughly explored. We believe the final result matches these objectives to some extent and that the volume offers a rather broad and articulated selection of reflections and contributions focused on how research is carried out and could be carried out when it comes to the relationship between working life and other life areas; also in light of the controversies the work–life balance construct carries and especially the changes that have characterized these areas over the last few years, with the gradual dissolution of the boundaries between the different domains, and also as a result of the processes of digitalization. In this regard, it should be remembered how, just as we were composing the volume, we found ourselves confronted with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and its overbearing impact on everyone’s lives. The recent months’ events have deeply affected both our way of working and our way of managing personal and family relationships and commitments, producing situations where the boundaries between the different dimensions suddenly appeared blurred, thus generating the need to redefine our analytical and interpretative frameworks. Observing what was happening around us further consolidated our awareness that the theme addressed in this volume called for approaches other than those constrained within thematic or methodological boundaries, and to some extent it also pushed us to rethink the structure we had originally designed, which was based on a distinction between contributions according to the level of articulation (macro, meso and micro). Many of the texts in this volume prove in fact problematic when attempting to delimit or label it within a single category or boundary. In particular, on a methodological level, the book features numerous mixed-methods contributions, aiming to answer the same research question through different lenses, as well as contributions characterized by methodological pluralism, aimed at answering different research questions by combining data provided by different methods. This trend highlights how what the literature describes as work–life balance has become an increasingly complex terrain for the combination of a plurality of different factors. Among these, for example, are the rise in number of dual-earner couples and the ongoing redefinition of family roles; the