Abstract
The Research Handbook on Work-Life Balance: Emerging Issues and Methodological Challenges, edited by Sonia Bertolini and Barbara Poggio, is an extensive review of the work-life research field that encompasses the disciplinary conversations around the evolving definitions of concept of “work-life balance,” the variety of research topics and methods used by researchers, and the benefits of more interdisciplinary approaches to examining the complexity of work-life domains. It takes a broad approach to consider the conceptual development of work-life balance research along with the variety of methods used to conduct this research. The divisions between research models are not mutually exclusive, but the examples provide guidance into the different types of questions that these methodological choices can answer. Particularly interesting is the final section of the book that emphasizes newer digital and visual examinations of work-life balance, including the ability of using visuals to expand the focus of future research.
The volume also includes an international and interdisciplinary group of authors that highlights the socio-cultural component of work-life balance and brings an international voice to the conversations. While focused in the neoliberal economies of Europe and the United States, the assortment of authors provides a breadth of coverage of work-life balance topics, interests, and explorations. By incorporating a wide array of work-life scholars, the conversation around concepts and methods is richer and more diverse, adding nuance to a broad and changing topic.
Finally, the handbook was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic and so emphasizes the challenges that country lockdowns created, the long-lasting effects on work-life balance research, and the possibilities generated with the use of new technologies at work and in research. The timing of this collection underscores the value of studying work-life balance to better understand individual, community, and national well-being concerns.
The volume is divided into six parts, each emphasizing an area of work-life balance research that can guide future researchers in exploring methods and areas of focus. Part I, “Theoretical and Methodological Framework,” gives a strong overview for the rest of the collection. In Chapter Two, Anna Carreri, Analisa Dordoni, and Barbara Poggio lay out the development of work-life from work-family and the changes in the field over time while highlighting the continuing salience of gender. They also point to the growing understanding of class, generation, and multiple social identities in what work-life balance means to individuals and how it can be addressed.
Sonia Bertolini and Rosy Musumeci (Chapter 3) similarly provide a comprehensive overview of the variety of methods and lenses used in work-life balance research, pointing to the few unique approaches and the limitations of studies that focus narrowly on individuals in traditional families. The shift from work-family balance to work-life balance allows for greater diversity in family forms, as does incorporating a variety of research methodologies. They recognize the growth in mixed methods that can complement one another and reinforce our understanding of the mechanisms underlying work-life balance. The chapter also provides an important call to use the challenges of the pandemic to enhance our understanding of how (and why) some work-life policies can adapt to better support workers. These first chapters set up the book well with overviews of the concepts and methods, and each additional part focuses more closely on one general approach to research.
Part II, “Multilevel Perspectives along Gender and Temporal Axes,” presents a set of projects that look at work-life balance with gender and life-course in mind. These chapters argue that focusing on the individual experiences and cultural expectations of women and older cohorts can provide greater insight into unpacking the changing meaning of “life” activities in relation to work. In Chapter Four, Emily Hallgren and Barbara Risman point to the importance of understanding “the individual-level choices, interactional expectations, and the macro structures and cultural logics” (p. 50) and how those change over time. When researching work-life balance, this framework can help tease out the pervasiveness of gender inequality. Chapters Five and Six show how understanding life-course expectations and experiences can benefit the field of work-life research by considering how shifts across and within one’s life impact their own life expectations. These studies use a variety of methods and reinforce the argument that the use of multiple methods can enrich our understanding of work-life balance among a variety of people and in a variety of settings.
In Part III, “Comparative Research (Approaches and Studies),” the two chapters take quantitative approaches to studying work-life balance. By using large-scale survey research, these chapters focus on the major trends in the household division of labor (Chapter 7) and work-family conflicts of self-employed workers (Chapter 8). Both chapters provide insights into the work-life of individuals within specific contexts but also point to some of the challenges of using survey research to address work-life concerns. Rossella Bozzon and Annalisa Murgia in Chapter Eight specifically point out the constraints on research that use cross-sectional available data because they do not provide opportunities to examine mechanisms for change or the distinctions in the experiences of those in less represented positions (e.g., self-employment).
The limitations set out in Part III are addressed by the studies discussed in Part IV: “Longitudinal, Discursive and Narrative Analysis.” These three chapters employ qualitative research to show how parents’ experience of work-life balance are influenced by life transitions as well as national policy. These studies accentuate the richness of qualitative data in illuminating how people make meaning of their own experience. The qualitative longitudinal study by Manuela Naldini (Chapter 9) is a powerful example of how life-course, gender, and national context influence parental understanding of work-life and how they change over time. Similarly, Chapters Ten and Eleven use discursive and narrative analyses, respectively, to provide an in-depth understanding of men as fathers and workers within work-life research.
The earlier chapters often use a variety of methods to examine work-life balance; however, Part V, “Mixed and Multimethod Research,” most directly examines the use of multiple types of research. By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, Chapters Twelve and Thirteen use quantitative research to show trends in labor force participation in the United States (Chapter 12) and Estonia (Chapter 13) that constrain parents. They then supplement their findings with qualitative examples of the challenges individuals face and the perceptions of their own situations within the national and institutional context. In Chapter Fourteen, Eleni Stavrou and Myrto Anastassiadou take a different approach to investigate the interwoven social systems that affect the diversity and experience of flexible work arrangements. Their social systems approach shows how individual outcomes are nested within organizational practices and industrial or national policies to provide a multilayered understanding of work-life balance.
As noted earlier, the final section, “Digital and Visual Methods,” contains projects using novel methodologies that allow researchers to examine work-life balance in mostly unobtrusive ways. Using data collected through a mobile phone app, Julia Cook and Dan Woodman (Chapter 15) explore how young couples organize and manage time together. They followed this data collection with in-depth interviews to clarify issues and deepen their understanding of challenges along the way. In Chapter Sixteen, Caroline Gatrell discusses a netography project on the lives and concerns of pregnant and breastfeeding employees. The final chapter, by Marjan De Coster and Patrizia Zanoni, uses visuals to challenge the gendered binary nature of much work-life balance research by allowing participants to step outside of the normative scripts of work-life and gender.
Overall, this collection shows the breadth and depth of work-life balance research and methods. It engages an international group of authors using a wide variety of methods and touches on the challenges and opportunities created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The volume also encourages ways to think about work-life in understudied populations. While the inclusion of research on fathers and older adults shows the expansion of work-life research outside of the focus on mothers and traditional populations, it also highlights the continuing heterosexual and parenting focus of much work-life research. Yet the studies and newer methodologies point to ways that work-life among non-heterosexual, non-parenting, and non-partnered individuals could be studied.