The 24 Hour Society, By Leon Kreitzman, Profile Books, £7.99stg
If you think 24/7 is Eminem's shorthand for a week, think again. The term 24/7/365 is the new definition of time for the business world.
In a global environment with 24 hour markets, just-in-time deadlines, the ability to shop, research or browse the Internet at any time and a burgeoning 24-hour leisure sector, the concept of nine to five or even early 'til late is well and truly dead.
In a foreword to Leon Kreitzman's book, Peter Cochrane, BT's head of research, sums it up thus "customers don't want choice, they want what they want, when and where they want, and at a price and quality they dictate" and compares it to the 20th century philosophy of "customers want choice, our choice, supplied at a place and time of our choosing, at a price and quality we dictate".
According to Kreitzman, a social trends forecaster , Bolton is the future. On a windswept site a 24-hour world, Middlebrook, is being born and Bolton, rather bravely, has declared itself an around-the-clock city.
The bank and supermarket are open all the time, book shops open 15 hours a day and the cinema is experimenting with all-night showings. With more people working from home and telecommunications offering flexible approaches to work the idea of office and nine to five is withering.
What Kreitzman does is to explore the implications of this seemingly irreversible trend. He finds that opinion is divided and that those expected (retail and leisure workers) to provide the services are not half as keen on the idea as those who wish to avail of them.
Kreitzman argues that there is a strong puritanical core to those who object to the 24-hour society and says it is a moral posture that identifies consumption as wrong or even sinful.
He signs off his argument with the anti-consumerist lobby with the "should try explaining to the shoppers at Middlebrook how their lives were somehow better under the rigid time constraints of a generation ago."
Kreitzman has produced a thought-provoking and engaging work which tackles the idea of a 24-hour society and its detractors in robust style. Where the book is let down is in its difficult typesize a and bland layout. Otherwise, go see the future.
comidheach@irish-times.ie
