Interdisciplinary applications of human time use with generalized lexicons

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Economics

Background:

• Time use studies are crucial for understanding societies and economies but suffer from fragmented, non-standardized lexicons.
• Existing methods often require arbitrary categorizations and lack interdisciplinary translation, hindering comprehensive analysis.
• This fragmentation limits the ability to gain novel perspectives on fundamental aspects of human behavior and experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel approach for time use analysis by constructing the 'human chronome'.
• To develop and demonstrate the utility of parallel, multi-dimensional lexicons for low-ambiguity characterization of human activities.
• To provide a framework for novel interdisciplinary perspectives on human behavior, particularly relevant during periods of rapid societal change.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Motivating-Outcome-Oriented General Activity Lexicon (MOOGAL) focusing on physical outcomes.
• Ensured MOOGAL's theoretical orientation, exhaustiveness, exclusivity, and minimized ambiguity for broad applicability.
• Compared MOOGAL with existing economic, sociological, and anthropological lexicons and applied it to time use data from two countries.

Main Results:

• MOOGAL exhaustively covers previously defined activities with significantly reduced ambiguity.
• The human chronome approach, enabled by generalized lexicons, effectively incorporates diverse observational constraints on time use.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of using this framework to provide rich interdisciplinary perspectives on the human system.

Conclusions:

• The human chronome framework and standardized lexicons like MOOGAL offer a more robust and translatable method for time use research.
• This approach facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration and deeper understanding of human activities and their societal implications.
• The findings are particularly relevant for analyzing complex changes in social, technological, and environmental spheres.