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Arlie Russell Hochschild On the Edge of the Time Bind: Time and Market Culture IN THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION, KARL POLYANI ARGUES THAT WE HAVE transitioned from a society with islands of market life to a market with islands of society (2001 [1944]).1As the market has grown, so too, I would argue, has market culture. In this essay I contend that the modem family is itself one such “society” within the market, and under strong pressure to incorporate aspects of market culture (Fevre, 2003). It responds to this pressure by resisting, capitulating to, or simply playing with it through an ongoing process of symbolization and re-symboliza­ tion. The degree to which families resist or welcome market culture depends on the fit between individuals’embrace of market culture and their orientation to time. Temporal strategies preferred by employees at the top o f the corporate ladders pose market culture’s first port of entry into the home. Or to put it another way, market culture slips into the family through a crack on the edge of the time bind. To illustrate market culture I describe a new consulting service, “Family 360,” organized by people trained to evaluate executives’work performance who now evaluate men’s performance as fathers at home. To illustrate individuals’ orientations toward time, I draw from my interviews with employees o f a large multinational company, reported in my book, The Time Bind (1997). First, what is market culture? I use the term here to refer to an “ideal type” cluster of beliefs and practices that are based on the prem­ social research Vol 72 : No 2 : Summer 2005 339 ise that the acts of buying and selling constitute an important source of identity. In truth, market culture is usually mixed with other sets o f meanings too (Lasch, 1977; Zelizer, 2000). In various combinations it can appear with the culture of scientism (a value placed on objectiv­ ity, the scientific method, quantification), rationalism (a value on stan­ dardization, bureaucracy efficiency), familism (a value on sacrifice for the sake of the family—including sacrifice of time), naturalism (a value on nature), and subjectivism (a value on acts—verbal or nonverbal—of interpersonal expression). We are forever affirming and reaffirming our bonds with family, lovers, and friends by drawing on a variety o f sets o f cultural mean­ ings to say what we feel (Swidler, 2001).2 Throughout history, market culture as I define it here has been intermingled with family culture (Zelizer, 1994,2000). But in modem America, the market—as structure and culture—has been sundered from the family that has elaborated an identity Actively autonomous from it—a “haven in a heartless world.” We are continually doing cultural work, choosing this symbol over that, or this combination of symbols over that combination in order to say “I love you” or “I would love you” or “I tried to love you” or “I’m trying to give up loving you.” It is my argument that one set o f cultural tools is gaining favor: those drawn from market culture (Hochschild, 2003; Kuttner, 1997). These, together with the salt and pepper of scientism and rationalism, draw into the home ways o f being at work. In light o f this rise o f market culture, families become very busy resisting, playing with, or—as in the case Ipresent here—embracing rationalism, scientism, and market culture. This affects the way we conceive o f time, and how we enact the way we see it—our temporal strategies. Contrariwise, our temporal strategies can form a “port o f entry” for market culture. “FAMILY 360”: FAMILY AS PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE One recent expression of market culture can be found in a new kind of service called Family 360. An issue o f the New York Times Magazine devoted to the 99 most innovative ideas of 2002 described this new 340 social research service. Designed by a management-consulting firm called LeaderWorks based in Monument, Colorado, the program offers “personalized family assessments” to executives at corporations such as General Motors, Honeywell, and Dupont. Based on “Management 360,” a widely used program for evaluating executives at the workplace, Family 360 offers, for...

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