Historically, the working time policy has had a balancing role in the so called "Nordic model" of negotiations between employee and employers representatives. The outcome of these negotiations has, during a dominating part of the 20^th century, been a reduced working time to compensate workers due to social risks and intensified working pace. These working time reforms have established its legitimacy in state law. That solution is not on the political agenda anymore, even though a flexible and intense working life is of current interest and that problem of reconciling work and private life is one of the new social risk factors (Bonoli 2007).

     The aim of this article is to create an understanding of Swedish national working time regulations in proportion to individual strategies for work/life balance. It will be carried out with a document study of Swedish working time policy. The case is based on analyses of all official reports from 1919 to 2007. The 82 reports have been supplemented by propositions, department publications, parliamentary reports and Swedish statute books from the same period of time. The question is why work time regulations are no longer on the political agenda? What arguments for or against a general reduction in working time is presented in official reports and department publications?

     Preliminary results in short: (i) working time policy goals have changed, from being anchored in a social discourse to being rooted in an economic one. (ii) This changes the position of working time as an important instrument in the socio-political discourse, in favour for an economic one where working time becomes an instrument with different purposes. This is something that makes (iii) the reduced working time agenda fade in the light of economic goals as expansion, growth, balanced finances and low unemployment rates.

     This poses further questions about the economization of time and in what way time policies respond to new social risks and pressures (as well as opportunities) in the 21^st century.