Much of the literature on spillover theory and work-life balance adopts a rather static model of the home as a fixed space in which family life is experienced and lived. By contrast, contemporary sociology of the family emphasizes relationships, connectedness, and practices. For example, David Morgan stresses that family life is always continuous with other areas of existence: “family practices are not necessarily practices which take place in time and space conventionally designated to do with ‘family,’ that is the home.”9 Rather, families are actively constructed through the day-to-day activities of their members, including in places of paid work. For Morgan, then, individuals are doing family, instead of passively residing within a pregiven structure. Family is designated less as a noun and more as a verb.10
The division between home and work, apparently so natural, is historically specific and built by social actors through repeated practices over time. Among these practices are those aimed at controlling the flow of information, communications, and demands across this boundary. The very concern about spillover and colonization signals the contested, changing nature of the public/private divide. These debates assume that mobile technologies inevitably produce workers, consumers and parents who are perpetually available. In the next section, I will start to show the limitations of such a view.
Patterns of Mobile Phone Use
To date, research on mobile phones has taken the form of either smallscale studies or surveys of attitudes toward the device.11 My own research, which was conducted over several years starting in 2007, is based on a nationally representative survey of Australian employees. It was designed to investigate how individuals and households use the mobile to negotiate the diferent dimensions of everyday life.12 The aim was not only to report on people’s perceptions of their phone use but also to collect objective data on their actual behavior and practices. In order to capture this, I utilized two supplementary instruments: a unique analysis of the logs of calls held on mobile handsets and a purpose-designed time diary recording why, when, how often, and in what context people use their mobiles. Taken together, this information sheds light on the question of whether mobile phones help or hinder individual eforts to manage work and family time.
Chapter six
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