Work Time, Flexible Work, and Contemporary Family Dynamics

The organization of work has become increasingly flexible in contemporary societies. The expansion of remote and hybrid work, compressed workweeks, irregular hours, and expectations of constant availability has transformed how individuals and families manage the boundaries between paid work and family life. Simultaneously, demographic changes including delayed marriage, declining fertility, shifting parenthood patterns, and growing caregiving responsibilities across the life course have reshaped the contexts in which family life is organized. Together, these developments raise critical questions about how changing work arrangements shape family outcomes, relationships, and inequalities.

This open session explores the intersections between work arrangements and family dynamics across diverse institutional and regional contexts. We invite research examining how work-time arrangements and flexible forms of work influence family formation, partnership quality and stability, fertility intentions and behavior, parenting practices, caregiving responsibilities, intergenerational relationships, and family well-being.

Contributions employing a gender perspective are particularly encouraged, as are analyses of the institutional mechanisms, including parental leave policies, childcare accessibility, and labor market regulations that mediate work-family linkages. Potential topics include remote and hybrid work, flexible scheduling, nonstandard working hours, overwork, work–family conflict and enrichment, gendered divisions of paid and unpaid labor, parenting and childcare, elder care, partnership dynamics, fertility, and the role of social policies in shaping work–family outcomes. Comparative and interdisciplinary approaches from all world regions are welcome.