ABSTRACT
The question of temporal aspects of urban life has come to the forefront as a field for research and experimentation. From Italy, where it originated and where much work has been done under the generic heading of tempi della citta, this new concept has spread to Germany and is receiving increasing attention both in France and in other European countries. Policies for reorganising or reducing working hours, along with the logic of labour market equality are both powerful catalysts in France, as shown by the example of the actions of the municipal government of Rennes. In most European countries the issue of time in urban life has tended to be crystallised by changes in working time. In Rennes, the demand for equality was the forerunner and initiator of thinking about time. The issue was not one of including a gender-centred logic in a comprehensive debate on reforms of working time, but quite the opposite.
