Securing trends in Dutch time use surveys

The Dutch series of time use surveys (TUS) is something special indeed. Internationally, this series of detailed measurements at five-year intervals, spanning the 1975-2000 period, is unrivalled. Nationally, the TUS-series is well established as a source of information among scientists and policy makers. It opens up the possibility to analyse trends in the use of time, which can be applied to numerous themes in sociology and society, as the TUS-series reflects both patterns and changes in society. Among the themes addressed by means of TUS-data are: emancipation of women, informal labour, mobility patterns, media use, consumption of cultural facilities, flexibilization of the temporal regime (e.g. working patterns and shop opening hours), time pressure, volunteering, etc. NWO itself recently assessed that the TUS-data are among the top-five most frequently called for data in its data archive. For a number of reasons (see 7.3), achieving further compatible measurements in the now familiar format becomes more and more difficult, while new formats of collecting data become available. As a result, from 2005 onwards SCP and its partners will conduct the TUS in a new manner, hopefully in a format that can be used for a prolonged period of time again. Though the contours of TUS new style are not yet finalized, the possibility of linking in with formats for conducting TUS developed by Eurostat (see 7.5) is among the more important new avenues opening up. Experiments conducted in 2000, experiments that were co-financed by NWO through an earlier grant (480-10-007), made it clear that almost any change in the format of TUS-measurement influences the measurement itself. Adopting a new format of conducting TUS, therefore, implies a grave loss: the 2005 measurement (and the future measurements to follow) cannot be compared to the available TUS-series over the 1975-2000 period. There is, of course, the solution of conducting parallel measurements in 2005: a TUS new style and a TUS old style. In this way, a gauging measure between new style and old style measurements can be obtained. This opens up the possibility to secure data on trends in time use in the Netherlands. In as much as Eurostat TUS-standards are adopted, another possible gain of parallel measurements is that prior Dutch data can be made compatible to earlier measurements across Europe. During an expert meeting, organized by SCP and NWO on August 26 2004, at which 44 experts were present, university staff emphasized the importance of securing the trends, pointing at national institutions to do do. It will be quite an effort for SCP and its partners to get TUS new style financed. Fully financing a simultaneous TUS old style is beyond the financial capacities of SCP and its partners.