La participation sociale au quotidien : une analyse de l’emploi du temps
Our project focuses on the evolution of social participation and the new forms it takes in Canadian society. Social participation is an important issue in contemporary democratic societies, where social life is threatened by market orientations, and where the State’s actions invite more and more social involvement by individuals. For these very reasons, we ask how the distribution of social participation time has evolved for Canadians aged 25 to 49 years, so as to determine how people reconcile their daily professional, familial and civic requirements of their life. We have analyzed social participation by focusing on the place it takes in daily time use organization, rather than on its determinants as it is usually done. Two main conclusions stand out of our analysis. First, the evolution between 1992 and 1998 of formal (volunteering) and informal (helping) activities is characterized by a decrease in the participation rate. But there is also a lengthening of volunteering time, which indicates the existence of a “core of volunteers”. Second, the specific organization of people’s free time accounts for social involvement and for the time dedicated to it. Work time thus has a real, albeit not determining, influence on social engagement and on the amount of time dedicated to it.
Participation formelle Participation informelle