WTR as a Radical Niche in the Work-Time Regime

The previous sections outlined the characteristics of the work-time regime and identified

persistent problems that create tensions within it. Additionally, landscape trends were identified that amplify tension in the regime and create opportunities for the development of alternative niches. A transition ultimately occurs when the dynamics between levels synergize: when landscape pressures and niche innovations reinforce the inherent tensions to produce structural change in the dominant regime. This section evaluates the potential of a WTR from a ‘bifocal’

perspective (Kemp and Loorbach, 2006:109). This includes evaluating two criteria: (1) its capacity to synergize with landscape and regime dynamics to achieve sustainability goals, and (2) its overall contribution to a potential transition (Ibid:109).

Regarding the first criteria, Chapter 4 elucidated how WTR’s can contribute to sustainability by improving indicators related to the social, economic, and environmental spheres. However, it also demonstrated that the effects of WTR’s vary by context and that increased sustainability is not guaranteed. With the understanding that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach, the question becomes how WTR can contribute to sustainability goals in the Netherlands. One such way might be through addressing persistent problems in the regime.

Persistent problems in the regime include unsustainable levels of mental stress, gender inequity, and environmental pressures created by scale and composition effects. WTR’s have frequently contributed to improving gender equity and reducing mental health problems like stress and burnout. Additionally, there is a growing body of research that demonstrates the correlation between reduced working hours and lower levels of environmental pressures. Niches develop slowly through reflexive processes of ‘experimentation and learning-by-doing’ before they become viable alternatives to the dominant regime (Loorbach, 2017:196). This means that in the Dutch case, WTR initiatives can be designed, reflexively monitored, and altered over a long timescale to increase their impact in these or other areas that may become relevant like unemployment or productivity. In the context of many successful WTR initiatives that have achieved these and other goals in the past, adding a long term, reflexive strategy appears to be a promising way to enhance WTR’s ability to address desired policy goals and persistent

problems.

Support for this position comes from the fact that WTR niches are already synergizing with regime tension and landscape developments. For example, Dell has introduced a four-day work week to fill vacancies caused by two factors: the labour shortage in the Netherlands and women’s struggle with conventional working hours (Karabus, 2022). The Vice President and GM of Dell Netherlands ultimately declined to be interviewed, but ‘described the Dutch pilot as addressing the issues of scarcity in the labor market and a way to bring in more women and younger people’ (Ibid). Moll argued ‘The new generation doesn't want to work until it

drops. Those people leave the sector and prefer to work for a company where they can use their skills just as well’ (Winkel, 2022). Overall, this case, along with other already implemented or proposed WTR initiatives in the Netherlands appear to be evidence of the niche gaining momentum while being reinforced by regime and landscape factors, making the potential for WTR to address persistent problems in the Netherlands high.

Regarding the second criteria, the contribution of a WTR niche to an overall transition cannot be precisely forecasted. The overall impact of the niche will depend on processes of experimentation, design, and implementation, as well as governance. However, several potential scenarios can be identified. These include (1) ‘regime capture/backlash’, (2) ‘WTR as a

moderate niche’, and (3) ‘WTR as a radical niche’.

In a ‘regime capture/backlash’ scenario, the dominant regime would succeed in co-opting WTR initiatives or implementing them in a manner that produces societal backlash. This might occur if the dominant market logic of profit and the ‘traditional economic perspective’ of the state prevail in necessitating that WTR’s be implemented with the least potential risk to companies and ‘the economy’. Here, WTR’s are ‘paid for’ entirely by employees who

voluntarily accept reduced income for WTR. Rather than collectively reducing work hours in targeted sectors with no reduction in pay, initiatives might operate closer to an individual basis.

Consequently, WTR’s would be financially out of reach for low earners and would be associated with lower levels of material welfare. This might exacerbate inequalities between those who must work more hours to meet their needs and those who can choose not to. Overall, this could result in low levels of implementation and high levels of societal backlash, leading to phase-out and an affirmation of the current regime.

A second scenario involves WTR becoming a ‘moderate niche’ that has a synergetic relation with reinforcive power in the regime (Avelino, 2017:511). This might result if WTR is successful at addressing the symptoms of unsustainability in the regime without challenging its underlying values. For example, if WTR was strictly contingent on rising productivity and economic growth. Not only would this fail to properly valuate the social benefits of reduced work hours, but it could also result in an intensification of work that exacerbates mental stress and burnout. Another possibility is if WTR was taken by a vast majority of women, but not men.

While this would initially solve the dual pressure of work-home duties, it could ultimately reinforce gendered patterns of employment and the normative expectation that women belong in the home. A third way might be if WTR’s do not come with a shift towards more sustainable values. If the norms of unsustainable consumption are left untouched, this could increase environmental pressures as individuals with more free time and the same amount of income spend, travel, and consume more (Shao and Shen, 2017:327).

A final potential scenario is if WTR is fully realized as a radical niche. In this scenario, reflexive experimentation refines WTR to achieve sustainability and target persistent problems in the regime. Implementation over a long timescale allows workers to reduce hours while leaving incomes relatively untouched. Along with other transitions in society, WTR contributes to a shift in sustainable values that prioritizes leisure and time affluence over profit and unlimited

economic growth. Standard working hours are reduced from their current levels, resulting in

equal work times and equal work-home responsibilities for men and women, along with a reduction in work associated stress and burnout. Environmental pressures are reduced through scale and compositional effects, and the beginnings of a sustainable work-time regime that evaluates WTR for its capacity to increase dimensions of social welfare and environmental sustainability emerges.