Our grandparents lived in an era when a future golden age of leisure was promised. Today we are more shackled to our work than ever before

It’s hard enough to find time for lunch - let alone make time to see our partners and families, go to the gym, hang out with friends or enjoy our hobbies. So what gets in the way of re-designing our lives? Must work be an albatross around our necks? Or can we find time for a finer marriage not only with work but with time itself?

This course examines the current landscape of work but also the art of play, promising relief from the pressures of the Protestant work ethic and our relentless drive to succeed. We’ll look at how difficulties in our working life can point us towards better futures, probe what lies behind our assumptions about leisure, and practice reversing our thinking about our free time, making it 'time on' rather than 'time off'.

We’ll ask where out identities are located, what cultural myths may be imprisoning us, and how we can be passionately engaged in the areas which really matter to us. Above all, we’ll explore how we can enjoy rich relationships not just with work but with our own self and loved ones, and how we might draw these relationships into a more harmonious partnership of equals.