Planning Time: An Emergent European Practice

In the 1960s, a reduction in the time spent at work promised an increase in leisure time. Architects and planners thought that the effects of this could lead to a new form of city. Nowadays, new changes in production, technology and gender relationships de-synchronize the time regime and have fundamentally changed life in cities. Tourism and globalization exchange across the world different cultures of time. In France, the UK, and other European countries time policy is dealing with the problems arising from these changes. This article presents a short overview of time planning in Italy in two main domains: time for care, and city time. It focuses on issues such as the social demand for new shops's and services' opening hours, or how the life cycles of individuals and populations are accommodated in urban spaces. Other problems, usually not thought of in terms of time concerns, such as rehabilitation of blighted areas, historic preservation and traffic flow control, may also be treated through a time approach. Two models of planning process are presented at the end of the paper.