UC Berkeley

Time for Well-Being is a sociological examination of how socioeconomic status and the social experience of time jointly influence well-being in formative life course conjuncture periods. It is based on qualitative and quantitative analyses examining the relationships between the social experience of time and sociodemographic characteristics. I draw on Interaction Ritual Theory, the Theory of Conjunctural Action, theorizing from the sociology of emotions, the sociology of the life course, and from the interdisciplinary literature focusing on the individual and social experience of time to show how the temporal characteristics of a particular context are instantiated by the intersections of socioeconomic and gendered inequalities, shaping individual and community well-being. Chapter 2 honors the perspectives of first-time fathers, showing that both SES and the sociocultural experience of time are salient when it comes to family structure change, with ramifications for inequalities in well-being. Through the lens of Interaction Ritual Theory, Chapter 3 examines how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the socioemotional experience of time, aggregating up to community well-being. Chapter 4 incorporates both qualitative and quantitative analyses to examine how socioeconomic and neighborhood characteristics influence the experience and ramifications of time scarcity in early retirement. Through this mixed-methods approach, my dissertation contributes to the sociology of everyday life, the sociology of the life course, and to the sociology of time by providing a rare case study on the relationship between sociotemporal disparities and well-being.