This book demonstrates how local contexts of urbanization and cultures of work are intimately meshed together. Each chapter explores a discrete dimension of the way people organize their working lives in post-industrial cities, taking close account of the social and environmental impact of this balancing act. The book features cross-national and inter-city comparative household level research, highlighting significant contradictions underpinning the nature of production, consumer expectation, work-life balance and urban environmental quality.

HELEN JARVIS is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She received her doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and held a prestigious Economic and Social Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship for three years. She is co-author of The Secret Life of Cities.