1. Work-Life Balance
the renewal of a notion
Written by:
Lise Lund-Hansen - Student ID.: LHP859
Supervisor:
Charlotte Baarts
Lise Lund-Hansen
Institute of Sociology
University of Copenhagen
September 2015
Number of characters: 186.687
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2. abstract
The thesis’ pivotal objective departs in the investigation of the notion of a
work-life balance. Increasing work-related stress in Denmark indicates that
the Danish employees find it difficult to secure a work-life balance. Through
illuminating current research in the subject field, the thesis questions the dis-
covery that there seems to be a normative perception that a work-life balance
is achieved through the separation of the spheres of work and ’life’. The thesis
finds this framing incapable of capturing the diversity of contemporary work-
life. In order to validate the standpoint, the thesis sets out to identify relevant
challenges in finding a work-life balance – here with special attention given
towards flexibility and acceleration in the work environment.
Through the settings of a critical theoretical approach, the thesis seeks
to deconstruct the notion in order to reconstruct it yet again – here taking
new research into account. By pursuing the identification of social pathologies
within the normative basis of society, the thesis therefore takes a critical stand.
Drawing on elements from both German and French critical theory, the
thesis points to the new network organisation of work, where work prevailingly
has become a platform for self-realisation. Due to the fleeting and individual-
ised structures of self-management in the work sphere, the thesis argues that
navigating in worklife – e.g. how to obtain recognition and acclaim - can be
increasingly difficult for the employee, and hence pose a challenge in the find-
ing of a work-life balance. The new organisation of work sets new standards
of how work and ’life’ must be approached.
Through the main theoretical anchoring of the thesis, critical theorist Hart-
mut Rosa, I present the argument that we in latemodern society see an accel-
eration in the pace of life – enabling the objective timeframe to be extended
and intensified. Actions in work and ’life’ are for many employees compress-
ing and integrating, rendering a strict separation of the spheres difficult. In
order to investigate the work environment of acceleration and the compression
of actions, the thesis, through Hvid et. al and Ingold, introduce the notions
of temporality, temporal orders and the taskscape. Here conclusively arguing
that, in order to unfold the notion of a work-life balance, we need to expand
the chronological approach to time as linear, and also study the intensity and
pace of actions and workhours. The thesis, through Rosa and Willig, argues

3. that the mutual dependence between a constant mode of self-realisation and
an acceleration of the pace, both influential in worklife, cause the intensity
of actions to increase. This, the thesis argues, can risk the well-being of the
employee and consequently pose a challenge in establishing a work-life balance.
Through input from the corporate work culture of Japan, the thesis though
stresses that a lack of motivation and personal realisation in the work sphere
can be just as serious as an overdose – here emphasising the importance of a
notion of work-life balance.
On behalf of presented theoretical arguments, and the input from corporate
culture of Japan, I present a renewal of the notion of work-life balance – here
advocating a balance in worklife, rather than between the spheres of work and
’life’. Through redefining the articulation of ’the good worklife’ and hereby
establishing a more normative approach to time, the thesis argues, changes
within the social pathology of work-related stress are initiated.