Time policies are aimed at improving the use and organisation of citizen's time. Time management has become relevant due to social changes, such as the massive incorporation of women into the paid workforce, new patterns of mobility in urban regions, new ways of organising work, and technological advances. When one aspect of the social organisation of time changes, it affects all the factors in the personal organisation of time, and society's organisation of time as a whole, therefore, it is an issue which must be dealt with in a well-rounded manner.

Policies on the uses of time should keep in mind two fundamental issues.

• The harmonious use of time is fundamental for citizens's quality of life. The perception of a lack of time, of little or no possibility to rationally and harmoniously distribute one's time for various reasons clearly affects peoples' daily lives; providing means of alleviating this difficulty through time policies can contribute to improving the quality of peoples' lives.
  
  
• The use of time as a right of citizenship. Everyone has the right to choose how to handle and organise their time in a balanced way, according to their needs and their working, personal, and family circumstances, throughout the different periods of their lives. Reflection on the dimensions of the Uses of Time must allow us to raise social consciousness regarding the perception of time as a right of citizenship.

From the New Social Uses of Time program of the Barcelona City Hall, with the collaboration of the Department of Equality and Citizenship of the Diputació de Barcelona, we have organised the International conference, time, citizenship and city.

We would like this Conference to be a space for finding out about the different experiments being carried out in different countries, as well as the policies being developed in different cities and towns. We also hope to be able to analyse changes in the cultural value of the uses of time, as well as the challenges facing attempts to balance and diversify work timetables and services based on personal time as a right of citizenship and as a way to make society more egalitarian, with greater equality of opportunities, as well as achieving a better quality of life and greater wellbeing.

Knowing and rethinking good practices in the New Social Uses of Time is the first step in laying the groundwork for a Network of cities and towns sharing resources and working with the goal of helping the people who live there to balance the time for their personal, working, and family lives.