Work, Society and Politics: The Culture of the Factory in Later Victorian England. By Patrick Joyce (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1980. 356 pp. $25.00)
About: This article is published in Journal of Social History.The article was published on 1982-07-01. It has received 6 citations till now.
Citations
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01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The focus moved to the firm, its objec tives and its capabilities, and, as a result, business historians offered insight into the evolution of labor management.
Abstract: Perspectives on employer-employee relations have undergone significant changes, and business historians can claim a substantial contribution to the subject's development. What was once the study of trades unions and collec tive bargaining was transformed into an investigation of shop-floor organiza tion and the regulation of employment.The focus moved to the firm, its objec tives and its capabilities, and, as a result, business historians offered insight into the evolution of labor management. Just as technological progress altered pro duction systems and skill requirements, greater returns to scale influenced the size, capabilities and needs of firms.The adaptation of work relations on the fac tory-floor was partnered by modifications in employment relations, as big busi ness evolved status and benefit policies that might assist the procurement and maintenance of labor [Fitzgerald and Rowley, 1997, pp. ix-xxvi; Gospel, 1983, pp. 1-24; Jacoby, 1990, pp. 1-20]. Earlier interpretations ofTaylorism, deskilling, and their impact viewed employee motivation and loyalty to be a negligible consideration, yet later historical research at the level of the firm unearthed policies aimed at the integration of workforces [Edwards, 1979; Burgess, 1975; Fitzgerald, 1988; Gospel, 1992; Nelson, 1975; Lazonick, 1990; Brandes, 1976; Jacoby, 1997]. These organizational goals were increasingly characteristic of large British employers in the twentieth century, at least within certain sectors, and are rem iniscent of the so-called "white collarisation"or inclusiveness of Japanese indus try [Gordon, 1985; Sugayama, 1995] . The Japanese employment system has been linked with specific national and cultural traits, and the gradual system ization of workplace status and benefits within Britain also grew out of deeply embedded values and corporate traditions. In entrepreneurial or family busi nesses, ownership and practice were justified as mutually beneficial by appeals to ethical, usually Christian values and to the traditions of paternalism which infused social hierarchy [Roberts, 1979]. Classical political economy could not fully describe the realities of industrial employment. During the twentieth cen tury, the employment and corporate welfare schemes which replaced owner
30 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that such an engagement would not be helpful to business history in general, and would not address the specific issue of business history's isolation from management and organisation studies, and argue that it is necessary for business history to use a wider range of perspectives to become more theoretically informed.
Abstract: The article offers a defence of business history and responds to the suggestion from Taylor et al. (2009) that it should engage more with reflexive historiography and in particular with the work of the continental philosopher, Paul Ricoeur.We argue that such an engagement would not be helpful to business history in general, and would not address the specific issue of business history's isolation from management and organisation studies.To explain why, the article uses examples from literatures in business history, general history and historiography. It concludes that although business history's achievements are significant, they are predominantly empirical and to engage more with management and organization studies, it is necessary for business history to use a wider range of perspectives to become more theoretically informed.
28 citations
Cites background from "Work, Society and Politics: The Cul..."
...For example on employer paternalism in late Victorian England (Joyce 1980)....
[...]
TL;DR: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the reintegration of the estranged fields of American political and social history when focused on individual-level political information for whole communities of moderate size.
Abstract: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the reintegration of the estranged fields of American political and social history when focused on individual-level political and social information for whole communities of moderate size. This article illustrates these integrative possibilities through an exploration of political and social life in four 19th-century North American communities. Place of residence has been determined for approximately 80% of past inhabitants in each case study and spatial data serve as the link for all information. GIS provides a new variableâspatial relationshipsâof interest to both political and social historians. GIS employed in this type of ``total history'' adds value for its analytic capacities as well as its more familiar strengths in visualization. GIS in this way is returned to the narrative and placed at the center of the interests of both political and social history.
15 citations
Cites methods from "Work, Society and Politics: The Cul..."
...These are the same data sources which Joyce (1980), Nossiter (1975), and Moore (1976) used so effectively in their studies of the nature of deference societies in 19th-century England....
[...]
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The second chapter of The History Manifesto by Jo Guldi and David Armitage as mentioned in this paper is a critique of the shortage of long-term thinking that characterizes the social imagination of our time and the dominant mode of history writing.
Abstract: This is the Russian translation of the second chapter of The History Manifesto by Jo Guldi and David Armitage. The book’s main focus is a critique of the shortage of long-term thinking that, according to the authors, characterizes the social imagination of our time and the dominant mode of history writing. They propose a return to longue duree history as a tool of social analysis directed toward the future. In a crisis of short-termism, Guldi and Armitage claim, our world needs somewhere to turn for information about the relationship between past and future. History – as a discipline and a subject matter – is an ideal candidate for the job, just the arbiter we need at this critical time. In chapter 2 the authors review the temporary retreat of the historical profession from writing long-term historical narratives during the last decades of the twentieth century. This temporary “retreat of the longue duree ” was caused both by the changed political climate and the rise of new types of history-writing, such as microhistory.
13 citations
TL;DR: A study of one firm is used to argue that the stereotype conceals significant questions about firms, families and the relations between them, and some recent historical work on family firms is outlined.
Abstract: For most of us, the term ‘family firm’ summons images of an old-established and perhaps rather conservative business that has been passed down through the generations. This article starts by using a study of one firm to argue that the stereotype conceals significant questions about firms, families and the relations between them. It goes on to outline some recent historical work on family firms by looking, in turn, at research on the incidence and character of family business, on the strategies and performance of companies, and on the family dimension in enterprise. It stresses the importance of the small-scale and the local in this research and notes that historians are now using a range of sources familiar to local and community historians to develop this field.
9 citations
Cites background from "Work, Society and Politics: The Cul..."
...Family firms are often associated with paternalist relations, and historians have explored how employers attempted to use the values and rituals of the family to create a factory community (Joyce 1980; Mills 1998)....
[...]
References
More filters
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: The focus moved to the firm, its objec tives and its capabilities, and, as a result, business historians offered insight into the evolution of labor management.
Abstract: Perspectives on employer-employee relations have undergone significant changes, and business historians can claim a substantial contribution to the subject's development. What was once the study of trades unions and collec tive bargaining was transformed into an investigation of shop-floor organiza tion and the regulation of employment.The focus moved to the firm, its objec tives and its capabilities, and, as a result, business historians offered insight into the evolution of labor management. Just as technological progress altered pro duction systems and skill requirements, greater returns to scale influenced the size, capabilities and needs of firms.The adaptation of work relations on the fac tory-floor was partnered by modifications in employment relations, as big busi ness evolved status and benefit policies that might assist the procurement and maintenance of labor [Fitzgerald and Rowley, 1997, pp. ix-xxvi; Gospel, 1983, pp. 1-24; Jacoby, 1990, pp. 1-20]. Earlier interpretations ofTaylorism, deskilling, and their impact viewed employee motivation and loyalty to be a negligible consideration, yet later historical research at the level of the firm unearthed policies aimed at the integration of workforces [Edwards, 1979; Burgess, 1975; Fitzgerald, 1988; Gospel, 1992; Nelson, 1975; Lazonick, 1990; Brandes, 1976; Jacoby, 1997]. These organizational goals were increasingly characteristic of large British employers in the twentieth century, at least within certain sectors, and are rem iniscent of the so-called "white collarisation"or inclusiveness of Japanese indus try [Gordon, 1985; Sugayama, 1995] . The Japanese employment system has been linked with specific national and cultural traits, and the gradual system ization of workplace status and benefits within Britain also grew out of deeply embedded values and corporate traditions. In entrepreneurial or family busi nesses, ownership and practice were justified as mutually beneficial by appeals to ethical, usually Christian values and to the traditions of paternalism which infused social hierarchy [Roberts, 1979]. Classical political economy could not fully describe the realities of industrial employment. During the twentieth cen tury, the employment and corporate welfare schemes which replaced owner
30 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that such an engagement would not be helpful to business history in general, and would not address the specific issue of business history's isolation from management and organisation studies, and argue that it is necessary for business history to use a wider range of perspectives to become more theoretically informed.
Abstract: The article offers a defence of business history and responds to the suggestion from Taylor et al. (2009) that it should engage more with reflexive historiography and in particular with the work of the continental philosopher, Paul Ricoeur.We argue that such an engagement would not be helpful to business history in general, and would not address the specific issue of business history's isolation from management and organisation studies.To explain why, the article uses examples from literatures in business history, general history and historiography. It concludes that although business history's achievements are significant, they are predominantly empirical and to engage more with management and organization studies, it is necessary for business history to use a wider range of perspectives to become more theoretically informed.
28 citations
TL;DR: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the reintegration of the estranged fields of American political and social history when focused on individual-level political information for whole communities of moderate size.
Abstract: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can assist the reintegration of the estranged fields of American political and social history when focused on individual-level political and social information for whole communities of moderate size. This article illustrates these integrative possibilities through an exploration of political and social life in four 19th-century North American communities. Place of residence has been determined for approximately 80% of past inhabitants in each case study and spatial data serve as the link for all information. GIS provides a new variableâspatial relationshipsâof interest to both political and social historians. GIS employed in this type of ``total history'' adds value for its analytic capacities as well as its more familiar strengths in visualization. GIS in this way is returned to the narrative and placed at the center of the interests of both political and social history.
15 citations
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: The second chapter of The History Manifesto by Jo Guldi and David Armitage as mentioned in this paper is a critique of the shortage of long-term thinking that characterizes the social imagination of our time and the dominant mode of history writing.
Abstract: This is the Russian translation of the second chapter of The History Manifesto by Jo Guldi and David Armitage. The book’s main focus is a critique of the shortage of long-term thinking that, according to the authors, characterizes the social imagination of our time and the dominant mode of history writing. They propose a return to longue duree history as a tool of social analysis directed toward the future. In a crisis of short-termism, Guldi and Armitage claim, our world needs somewhere to turn for information about the relationship between past and future. History – as a discipline and a subject matter – is an ideal candidate for the job, just the arbiter we need at this critical time. In chapter 2 the authors review the temporary retreat of the historical profession from writing long-term historical narratives during the last decades of the twentieth century. This temporary “retreat of the longue duree ” was caused both by the changed political climate and the rise of new types of history-writing, such as microhistory.
13 citations
TL;DR: A study of one firm is used to argue that the stereotype conceals significant questions about firms, families and the relations between them, and some recent historical work on family firms is outlined.
Abstract: For most of us, the term ‘family firm’ summons images of an old-established and perhaps rather conservative business that has been passed down through the generations. This article starts by using a study of one firm to argue that the stereotype conceals significant questions about firms, families and the relations between them. It goes on to outline some recent historical work on family firms by looking, in turn, at research on the incidence and character of family business, on the strategies and performance of companies, and on the family dimension in enterprise. It stresses the importance of the small-scale and the local in this research and notes that historians are now using a range of sources familiar to local and community historians to develop this field.
9 citations