Jaroslav Rudiš wrote his novel The Sky under Berlin in the year 2002. Berlin was acity that found its way into his heart for anumber of reasons. Most of all, because it is acity of Central Europe where the West and the East collide. The novel’s protagonist, Petr Bem, escapes Prague for Berlin because he is afraid of responsibility and maturity. Rudiš wrote aliterary rather than atraditional city guide. Berlin is abustling city that has an unusual energy. According to the author, there is athrilling atmosphere of great restlessness emerging in Berlin.
The discourse about commodification of time indicates that under the current socio-economic regime important values get systematically ignored. This paper reviews literature about the value of time in classical political economy, neoclassical economics, the household production approach, household economics, and activity models. Starting with neoclassical economics, all these approaches are largely in accordance with utilitarian methodology. Utilitarian methodology turns out to be incapable of explaining the value of time. The debate about “quality work” allows us to identify the following intrinsic values: power, playfulness, a sense of meaning, and a sense of belonging. These intrinsic values match with the “five sources of motivation” in contemporary psychological research, which confirms the empirical relevance and irreducibility of these values for understanding behaviour. We propose a definition of commodification of time and illustrate some of the potential effects of commodification of time.
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