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In normal daily life individuals tend to alternate amongst a well-defined set of activities. These include sleep, commuting, work, eating (well known in French as the routine of 'boulot, metro, telelocke, dodo'). Each activity has well-established limits; the set being effectively governed by a somewhat flexible time-table, but with little scope for variations. The daily round is studied statistically by time-budget analysis.
Metaphor
This daily round is fundamental to the organization of society and determines the minimal shifts in attitude required to ensure its viability.
[Features]The relative rigidity of the pattern which may indeed amount to little more than a circular sequence ('round').
[Contrast]The rigidity of the daily round in industrialized societies may be contrasted with that in some rural societies in which alternation between the possible types of activity may occur at any time of the day and many times a day. This flexibility is a goal sought by many advocates of an 'alternative' society.
[Keys]Means of introducing flexibility into a time-table. Means of enriching such a daily round with variants and other categories of activity. Manner in which the different activities match with the fulfillment of basic human needs. Comparison with a religiously-oriented daily round of monastic life. The inter-activity hiatus.