James Mahmud Rice

James Mahmud Rice is an Australian sociologist at the Australian National University.

Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research

In 2009, Rice won the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research, along with Robert E. Goodin, Antti Parpo, and Lina Eriksson, for their book Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom. [1][2]

Research: Discretionary Time

Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom,[3] by Robert E. Goodin, James Mahmud Rice, Antti Parpo and Lina Eriksson, is based on the authors' analysis of data from the US, Australia, Germany, France, Sweden and Finland.[4]

The authors propose that temporal autonomy can be used as an indicator of freedom, which is measured by how many hours people are free to do as they please.[5]

Another one of their statements is that the richer an individual is, the more he or she feels stressed.[6] However, they argue, a richer individual's prosperity could be part of the problem.

An example is that a banker who earns £200 per hour has a greater opportunity cost by choosing not to work, than a cleaner who earns only £10 per hour. As a result, the banker may feel compelled to work a greater number of hours than the cleaner does, despite making a greater total income.[6]

Research: Appliances and Their Impact

Research by Michael Bittman, James Mahmud Rice, and Judy Wajcman[7] has shown that domestic appliances which are designed to make our lives easier do not reduce the overall time spent doing housework, and in some cases may even increase the time spent doing chores.[8]

"The authors... believe that people use the devices simply to achieve ever-higher standards of cleanliness and refinement in their home, rather than to free up time for other pursuits," according to John Elliott in The Sunday Times.[8]

The results of this research received wide press coverage in Australia and the UK.[8][9][10][11][12][13]

References

  1. ↑ Stein Rokkan, from the International Social Science Council website
  2. ↑ Stein Rokkan Prize, from the European Consortium for Political Research website
  3. ↑ Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom by Robert E. Goodin, James Mahmud Rice, Antti Parpo and Lina Eriksson, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  4. ↑ Description of Discretionary Time from the publisher, Cambridge University Press. (Retrieved on Feb. 10, 2014.)
  5. ↑ Peter Graeff, "Measuring Individual Freedom: Actions and Rights as Indicators of Individual Liberty," in Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom, chapter 4, Fraser Institute (2013). Available at FreetheWorld.com (retrieved on Feb. 10, 2014).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Time in Our Hands" by Stephen Cave, Financial Times (FT, FT.com), 23 May, 2008. (Available from FT.com, retrieved on Feb. 9, 2014.)
  7. ↑ "Appliances And Their Impact: The Ownership Of Domestic Technology And Time Spent On Household Work" by Michael Bittman, James Mahmud Rice, and Judy Wajcman, British Journal of Sociology, 55(3), September, 2004, pp. 401-423.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "It's a hard life on the 'labour saving' domestic front" by John Elliott, The Sunday Times, 19 Sept, 2004.
  9. ↑ "The lost weekend - Dream Travel" by Mike Safe, Weekend Australian Magazine, 18 Oct, 2003.
  10. ↑ "Money can't buy bliss in the kitchen" by Adele Horin, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Oct, 2003.
  11. ↑ "Leisure in the red with white goods", mX, 20 Sept, 2004.
  12. ↑ "The labour savers that are making slaves of us" by Tom Morgan, The Daily Express, 20 Sept, 2004.
  13. ↑ "Time savers aren't doing their job" by John Elliott, The Australian, 6 Oct, 2004.