Too good to be true: the English-language discourse of working time reductions and its implications for environmental sustainability

Lehmann, Benedikt and Kmetty, Zoltán and Antal, Miklós (2025) Too good to be true: the English-language discourse of working time reductions and its implications for environmental sustainability. HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS, 12 (1). No. 511. ISSN 2662-9992

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Abstract

Working time reduction (WTR), particularly in the form of a four-day workweek, has emerged as a topical issue in the future-of-work discourse amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is relevant from a sustainability perspective since WTR has long been considered as potentially beneficial for the environment. Utilising Framing Theory, we study the characteristics of the current online, written media discourse of WTR that matter for sustainability. Based on 3617 English language news pieces and 156 advocacy documents, we find that the discourse focuses on a single type of WTR which leaves aggregate production and consumption unchanged. This is the least adversarial type of WTR, but its environmental benefits are very limited. The presentation of its feasibility and impacts is overly positive and scientifically unfounded. We suggest that this hinders learning from difficulties and hides unavoidable conflicts of more widespread WTRs. To achieve more transformative change, we advocate for the inclusion of new voices, more confrontational strategies and a disaggregated view of the labour force.

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