Moving to London Time

Abstract

This article calls for cross-disciplinary scrutiny of the costs of time squeeze – beyond current preoccupation with time allocation and the organization of employment. Discussion turns to an integrated, materially embedded infrastructure of everyday life, drawing on vignettes from in-depth biographies with London working families to put the time-squeeze into material context. Reference is made to generic decision ‘dilemmas’ commonly experienced across the sample: housing affordability, childcare shortage, transport failure and school choice. These illustrate the co-constitutive nature of urban inequalities and city time.