Working at the weekend: Supermarket and shopping centre workers in Salford/Manchester (UK) and Porto (Portugal)

Abstract

This paper firstly discusses the origins and importance of the weekend in the industrial cities of Manchester (UK) and Porto (Portugal). Drawing on previous work specifically focused on this subject, it examines the spatio-temporal shifts evident during the industrial revolution, which produced a more disciplined labour process. Work and leisure were, thereafter, constituted as separate domains, the weekend being a designated leisure time and space. We consider the more recent temporal shift, generated through the processes of flexibilisation, which, we argue, renders the weekend as we understand it, under threat. We discuss this through the presentation and analysis of testimony from workers, those working in a supermarket in Salford/Manchester and in shopping centres in Porto. Our conversations, in the form of semi-structured interviews, with workers in these locations led us to questions of social time and whether there is any longer, recognition of time for ourselves.