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Hoel, Helge. "Bullying at work in Great Britain." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.488169.
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Whitworth, Adam. "Work, care and social inclusion : lone motherhood under New Labour." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.670080.
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Larkan, David Anthony. "Retirement and the evolution of work." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/50082.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study seeks to re-conceptualise retirement in industrialised and post-industrialised countries, based on an empirical and theoretical exploration of the consequences of change in the 'working life' on retirement. The study found, within limitations, that work is transforming from a stable long-term form into a more flexible pattern, and retirement is tending to merge with work within a similar flexible framework. The hypothesis that people are engineering their own form of retirement was tested and found valid within the context of the study.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie herkonseptualiseer aftrede in industriële en post-industriële lande, gebaseer op empiriese en teoretiese ondersoek van die konsekwensies van verandering in die idee van 'werk' op aftrede. Die studie bevind dat die werksiewe tans getransformeer word van 'n oorwegend stabiele patroon na 'n meer plooibare patroon. Verder word bevind dat aftrede ewe eens geneig is om vervleg te raak met werksiewe in 'n meer plooibare patroon. Die hipotese dat mense hul eie vorms van aftrede ontwikkel, is getoets en binne die konteks van die studie, as geldig bevind.
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Campbell, James Dunbar. ""The army isn't all work" : physical culture in the evolution of the British army, 1860-1920 /." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2003. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/CampbellJD2003.pdf.
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Cox, David J. "A certain share of low cunning' an analysis of the work of Bow Street Principal Officers 1792-1839, with particular emphasis on their provincial duties /." [S.l.] : [S.n.], 2006. http://digitool.haifa.ac.il:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=551040&custom_att_2=simple_viewer.
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Bray, Thomas. "In the gaps and on the margins : social work in England, 1940-1970." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77675/.
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This thesis examines the role of social work within post-war England, particularly its place within the welfare state and wider society. The thesis focuses on social work’s ambiguous position ‘in the gaps’ and ‘on the margins’, where it operated between a variety of spheres, including other professions in the medical and social services, policy-makers, individual clients and communities, and social researchers. Within this position, social workers were commonly tasked with mediating between these different groups, and helping to interpret the various languages and expectations present in post-war English welfare and society. This meant that social workers aimed to make the provision and consumption of welfare more effective, both through working closely with individuals, families, and communities, and through promoting efficient coordination and cooperation between the welfare services. The thesis discusses the problems which this approach sought to address, and the issues which resulted. The study of social workers offers an insight into the negotiations and compromises implicit in post-war society, and also allows us to consider how issues of social change and the problems which emerged or persisted in post-war England were navigated. The thesis also considers the relationship of social work with the psychological and social sciences, and seeks to reconsider how concepts from those disciplines were utilised within welfare practice. This includes an emphasis on pragmatic practice, on the discretion of the individual worker, and on the attempts of social workers to generate knowledge about the field of their work and the efficacy of their intervention. Overall, the thesis shows how closer attention to social work can illuminate some of the tensions which arose in the post-war provision of medical and social services, in the everyday practice of welfare, and as a result of social, cultural, and demographic change.
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Stark, Shona Wilson. "Law reform ... now? : the work of the British Law Commissions." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709320.
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Kimball, Toshla (Toshla Rene). "Women, War, and Work: British Women in Industry 1914 to 1919." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1993. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc500947/.
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This thesis examines the entry of women, during World War I, into industrial employment that men had previously dominated. It attempts to determine if women's wartime activities significantly changed the roles women played in industry and society. Major sources consulted include microfilm of the British Cabinet Minutes and British Cabinet Papers; Parliamentary Debates; memoirs of contemporaries like David Lloyd George, Beatrice Webb, Sylvia Pankhurst, and Monica Cosens; and contemporary newspapers. The examination begins with the early debates concerning the pressing need for labor in war industries, women's recruitment into industry, women's work and plans, the government's arrangements for demobilization, and women's roles in postwar industry. The thesis concludes that women were treated as a transient commodity by the government and the trade unions.
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Bonsall, Penny. "The Somerset and Lothian miners, 1919-c.1947 : changing attitudes to pit work in the twentieth century." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1990. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/88058/.
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The somewhat neglected topic of attitudes to mining, as an influence on labour supply in the coal industry, is the subject of this thesis. By the 1940s antagonism to mining was a nationwide phenomenon, although the regional experiences of miners and their families varied considerably between the wars. The study therefore starts at regional level before moving on to consider from a broader perspective the topic of changing attitudes to pit work. The first part of the thesis comprises a comparative study of the Somerset and Lothian (Mid and East Lothian) coalfields, two districts which have attracted little attention from historians. An overview of the industry in both areas is given in the opening chapter, where the regional characteristics of ownership and management are also discussed. The following three chapters focus respectively on change and continuity in the work place; life in the mining communities; the relationship between the miners' unions and the wider labour movement. The perspective shifts to national level in chapter five but the theme of regional influence on attitudes to pit work is carried forward by extensive reference to a Social Survey inquiry carried out in Scottish mining communities (including those of Mid and East Lothian) in 1946. Finally, the impact of the Second World War and of nationalisation are considered, before a survey and commentary on general attitudes to mining and miners over time. The conclusion reached is that post-nationalisation labour-supply problems had their origins in the decades before the Second World War. As the social and psychological isolation of the mining communities broke down over the inter-war period, circumstances within the industry and wider socio-economic change combined to erode the tradition of occupational inheritance and to promote the growth of negative or hostile attitudes to mining as an occupation.
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Andrews, Amanda R., University of Western Sydney, of Arts Education and Social Sciences College, and School of Humanities. "The great ornamentals : new vice-regal women and their imperial work 1884-1914." THESIS_CAESS_HUM_Andrews_A.xml, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/487.
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This thesis traces the evolution and emergence of the new-vice regal woman during a high point of the British Empire. The social, political and economic forces of the age, which transformed British society, presented different challenges and responsibilities for all women, not least those of the upper-class. Aristocratic women responded to these challenges in a distinctive manner when accompanying their husbands to the colonies and dominions as vice-regal consorts. In the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign a unique link was established between the monarchy and her female representatives throughout the Empire. The concept of the new vice-regal woman during the period 1884-1914 was explored through three case studies. The imperial stores of Lady Hariot Dufferin (1843-1936), Lady Ishbel Aberdeen (1857-1939), and Lady Rachel Dudley (c.1867-1920), establishes both the existence and importance of a new breed of vice-regal woman, one who was a modern, dynamic and pro-active imperialist. From 1884-1914 these three new vice-regal women pushed established boundaries and broke new ground. As a result, during their vice-regal lives, Ladies Dufferin, Aberdeen and Dudley initiated far reaching organisations in India, Ireland, Canada andDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Devlin, Anne. "Nurses' constructions of learning in work : exploring the process and potential of work-based learning within an NHS 'Community of Practice'." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708810.
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Thomson, Christina. "Contextualising the continental : the work of German émigré architects in Britain, 1933-45." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1999. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/34756/.
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Between 1933 and 1940 between sixty and ninety German architects arrived in Britain as émigrés fleeing from Nazi oppression. The Germany which they left had, until Hitler's intervention, been the centre of European architectural modernism. Making their passage into Britain, they encountered a country whose architectural climate was altogether more traditional. When the first German architects arrived in 1933, architectural modernism was only just taking root, but only a few years later Britain's architectural culture boasted a thriving modernist scene. This coincidence has led historians to draw a direct connection between the presence of German architects and the establishment of modernism in Britain. This thesis, however, advances the current historiography by showing that the role of German émigrés was, rather than to initiate British architectural modernism, to support a development which had taken root before their arrival. Through examination of a number of sources - including personal papers, drawings, photographs, archive material, buildings, and personal interviews - it explores processes of acculturation as evidenced by the work of the émigré architects. A number of in-depth case studies reveal that the new environment in Britain provoked a variety of responses among the German architects, whose work frequently digressed into the realms of British architectural traditions (taking particular inspiration from the architecture of the Georgian period). Looking beyond well-known figures such as Mendelsohn and Gropius, the thesis concludes that the story of architectural migration from Germany to Britain cannot be told in terms of modernism alone. It shows that responses to the émigré situation were highly dependent on the individual architect's background, his or her experience, age, standing and time of arrival, but reveals that, disregarding these differences, all émigré architects to some degree adapted to their new working environment, a tendency which has been described as New Contextualism. Although submitted in the field of History of Art, the scope of this thesis is methodologically and epistemologically wider than might usually be associated with this field. Despite being strongly visually based in its main analysis, the work is inter-disciplinary in approach, incorporating elements of biography, history, sociology, and exile studies, therefore expanding the boundaries of art historical study.
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Macleod, Catriona Macdonald. "Women, work and enterprise in Glasgow, c.1740-1830." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2015. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6744/.
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This study addresses the roles women played in Glasgow during a period of economic, demographic and cultural change. Glasgow in the eighteenth century was rapidly expanding and fast establishing itself as an international trading centre and an important industrial region. Despite the considerable interest that these developments have received, the gendering of Glasgow’s economy remains relatively unexplored. This research adds to the work of redressing that imbalance, by exploring the economic activities of women of middling social status in the urban economy, focusing on women’s enterprise and also financial management as a form of work.
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Pitcher, Jane. "Diversity in sexual labour : an occupational study of indoor sex work in Great Britain." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2014. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/16739.
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While there is a considerable body of academic literature on prostitution and sex work, there is relatively little research exploring the working conditions and occupational structures for men and women working in the indoor sex industry. There is a continuing tension between the theoretical position that considers prostitution as gendered exploitation and that which views commercial sex as work, although more recent studies have begun to explore different labour practices in some types of sex work. This thesis moves beyond previous analyses through framing the research theoretically as an occupational study, encompassing the experiences and transitions of female and male sex workers, as well as a small number of transgender participants, and setting these in the context of broader labour market theories and research. Using a qualitative approach, the study considers diverse labour processes and structures in indoor markets and adult sex workers perceptions of the terms and conditions of their work. The research develops an understanding of sex workers agency in relation to state structures, policy frameworks and varied working circumstances. It theorises the relationship of human agency to social stigma and recognition or denial of rights. It extends on existing classifications of pathways into and from sex work and develops typologies incorporating transitions between sub-sectors in the indoor sex industry, as well as temporary and longer-term sex working careers related to varied settings and individual aspirations. While the research identified gendered structures in indoor markets, which reflect those in the broader economy, the findings also contest gender-specific constructions of exploitation and agency through emphasising the diverse experiences of both male and female sex workers. I argue for development of a continuum of agency, which incorporates interlinking concepts such as respect, recognition and economic status and includes both commercial and private intimate relations. I contend that acknowledgement of sexual labour as work is a necessary precondition for recognising sex workers rights and reducing instances of physical and social disrespect. Nonetheless, this is not sufficient to counter social stigma, which is perpetuated by state discourses and policy campaigns which fail to recognise sex workers voices and, in doing so, create new forms of social injustice.
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Yoda, Otoe. "Human capital selectivity, human capital investment, and school to work transition of those from immigrant backgrounds." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.669814.
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Morrissey, Joseph J. "Gentry women and work and leisure 1770-1820." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2013. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/57587/.
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Recent scholarship in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century has explored the active roles of middling and genteel women in the home, redefining such ‘leisure’ activities as polite conversation, tea-making, and embroidery as ‘work’, thereby relocating women’s activities into broader webs of productive relations. The majority of this scholarship has remained largely historical in nature, and my thesis moves this field forward by examining these work/leisure activities in close relation to the developing novel form and its inherent narratological and ideological possibilities, in the period 1770-1820. I analyse the novel and the specific perspectives on work and leisure it generates in relation to narrative mimesis, and the works of Hannah Arendt, Karl Marx, and Arlie Hoschild. Using these diverse theories and theorists, I am able show the autonomy, relaxation, and pleasure women’s activity could potentially give in the period, and therefore show its leisure functions, whilst at the same demonstrate the importance of women’s activity in broad social structures, thereby emphasising their status as work. My first three chapters move through women’s engagement with needlework, musical accomplishment, and reading in that order. As such, I create a progression from needlework, understood as work as such; to musical accomplishment, which is more closely aligned with leisure but which nevertheless required patience and commitment; to the reading of novels, which was usually understood as a purely personal, introverted experience requiring no active effort. I therefore move from activity well understood as work through to activity understood as pure leisure, and gradually break down the work/leisure binary my showing both work and leisure functions within all three activities. My final two chapters extend this argument by considering the seemingly spontaneous acts of falling in love and feeling sympathy within a framework of work, thereby locating emotions within the context of my argument.
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Tarver, Anne. "The Consistory Court of the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry and its work, 1680-1830." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1998. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/34749/.
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This thesis examines the work of the bishop's consistory court of the Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry through the cause papers and administrative documents generated between 1680 and 1830. These courts were extensively used through the century, business peaking in the 1730s and 1780s at between 200 and 250 causes per year. The overall pattern of the work of the courts is established in relation to its constituent elements of defamation, tithes, matrimonial, testamentary and Office causes. The social and spatial provenance of the plaintiffs is considered. Almost all of the plaintiffs were of the 'middling sort' and lower social levels, and many were women. Comparative material from Birmingham in 1770 would suggest that the users of the courts mirrored the overall occupational structure of the period. A re-evaluation of the work of the ecclesiastical courts shows that the Lichfield courts represented a source of arbitration for intractable disputes of predominantly rural origin. Causes arose from within the community, rather than being imposed externally by the church authorities, and formed a channel for public censure of those who offended against local mores, regardless of sex or social standing. Judgements in the form of sentences were often invisible and the courts have been considered to have been useless. The fact that these courts could harm neither purse nor person was not a failing, but a strength in a 'face to face' society, where an individual insisting upon the incarceration or financial deprivation of another could seriously escalate conflicts within a community. The medieval function of these courts was merely to 'correct and punish the disobedient, the unquiet and the animous', and case studies from Lichfield demonstrate that this function continued into the nineteenth century.
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Annor, Francis. "Antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict : a comparison of Ghana and the United Kingdom." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708454.
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George, Thomas David. "Women's work in industry and agriculture in Wales during the First World War." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2015. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/74416/.
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During the First World War, thousands of Welsh women became involved in the production of munitions and food for the war effort. This thesis examines attitudes towards and experiences of women workers employed in munitions and agricultural production in Wales during the war. It explores the organisation and recruitment of women in these areas, the employment of women in both fields, the organisation of welfare and leisure within and outside the workplace, and women’s experiences of demobilisation. Throughout, it considers women’s motivations for undertaking war work, as well as their experiences, including their involvement in strike action and in sporting activities, and how these were affected by class, age, and locality. The thesis argues that while the war lasted, women gained greater self-confidence and started to forge a collective identity as workers, but their contribution to the labour market was always viewed as temporary and valued less than men’s work. After the Armistice, women were forced back to the home or to traditional ‘feminine’ occupations. This thesis therefore contributes to long-standing historiographical arguments about the extent to which the war brought about lasting social change for women. It makes a significant contribution to the under-researched field of Welsh women’s experiences in the First World War.
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Pieczka, Magda. "Promotional work : the case of public relations consultancy in the UK, 1995-2000." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/3245.
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This thesis is about public relations as an occupation and a business. The study is focused on investigating the nature of the expertise utilised in public relations, ways in which it is exploited commercially, and the consequences such practices have for the occupational group and its economic existence. The theoretical framework for this thesis combines insights from the sociology of the professions, studies of cultural/creative professions, Bourdieu's approach to the study of cultural practices, and critical examination of professional services, such as management consultancy. In empirical terms, the thesis combines a range of data and analytical approaches. The key part of the thesis is a model of public relations expertise derived from an analysis of participant observation of professional training. Its component parts are identified as: picture of the world; conceptual frame; and working knowledge, which in turn is composed of problems, tools and truths. The thesis also offers a narrative analysis of competition case studies, a particular genre of practitionars accounts of their own work, leading to the conclusion that their role is to show practitioners how to make sense of the immediate experience of work within a more abstract and ordered professional framework. A range of secondary data on the industry and the labour force are reanalysed to show how expertise is transformed into a commodity that can be priced and sold. The transformation involves an understanding of demand and supply dynamics for PR services. Finally, through the analysis of routine practices, the thesis draws attention to the occupation's "split personality" - two coexisting yet contradictory ways in which practitioners think about public relations - and pursues it at the level of the group's strategies designed to counteract the weaknessess resulting from this unsettled identity.
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Mohun, Arwen Palmer. "Women, work, and technology: The steam laundry industry in the United States and Great Britain, 1880-1920." Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK, 1992. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056135864.
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Weghmann, Vera. "Employability and the rise of the no-wage economy : resistance to unpaid work in the United Kingdom." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50869/.
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Employability has become a new buzzword of the 21st century. It advocates that to keep oneself attractive - through lifelong learning and the continuous acquisition of skills - protects oneself from the vulnerabilities of the labour market. The purpose of this PhD project is twofold: First, I investigate in what ways the employability agenda recreates neoliberal hegemony. Second, I analyse through what type of collective agency people contest the concept of employability. It is a comparative project of two main employability sectors, namely welfare to work programmes and higher education. In particular, I elaborate on the link between employability and the rise of unpaid labour in form of work-experiences. In line with neo-Gramscian theory and my critique of it this PhD research looks at the material structures, institutions and ideology which have shaped the political economy of employability through processes of class contestation. Participatory Action Research methodology is used to provide insights into the formations, dynamics, and outcomes of the main social forces resisting employability outside of established trade unions. This PhD, thereby, feeds into broader discussions on the decline and future of trade unionism and new ways of organising around work, which go beyond the workplace and might demand new workers institutions as well as a greater engagement with other actors in the community.
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Castrén, Anna. "National identity and attitudes towards immigrants in Finland, Great Britain and the USA." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-158519.
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This paper investigates the relationship between national identity and attitudes towards immigrants. It examines three countries with different history of nation building and immigration: Finland, Great Britain and the USA. It is assumed that the differences in nation building and immigration across the countries have led to a different understanding of national identity and attitudes towards immigrants. The hypothesis is that the relationship between national identity and attitudes towards immigrants is not consistent but is dependent on how belonging to the nation is defined. This paper uses eight different aspects to measure the understanding of national identity. Attitudes towards immigrants are explored on six dimensions: criminality, economy, labor market, society, culture and the number of immigrants. The paper uses the theory of ethnic and civic types of national identity as a basis for the analysis. The ethnic definition of national identity is assumed to be related to anti-immigrant attitudes while a more civic definition may even lead to more open attitudes towards immigrants. Ordinal logistic regression has been used to estimate these relationships. The data used comes from the International Social Survey Programme’s ‘National Identity’ module from 2013. The results show clear differences between the countries both in the general attitudes towards immigrants and the prominence of anti-immigrant attitudes. In all countries ethnic definition of national identity is connected to more negative attitudes towards immigrants. However, there are differences in how individual aspects of identity correlate with different dimensions of attitudes towards immigrants. The number of people viewing the ethnic aspects of national identity as important is larger in Great Britain and anti-immigrant attitudes generally more widespread than in Finland and the USA. Additionally, the results from ordinal logistic regressions show that while the majority of aspects of national identity correlated with anti-immigrant attitudes, some of the civic aspects were connected to more positive attitudes. The results differed between the countries suggesting that the relationship between national identity and attitudes towards immigrants is not consistent and that it does depend on the definition of national identity.
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Duignan, Elizabeth Mary Sibthorp. "'A major yet under-estimated task' : a Gadamerian study of Key Stage 3 schemes of work in history." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610088.
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Lauer, Laura Elizabeth. "Women in British Nonconformity, circa 1880-1920, with special reference to the Society of Friends, Baptist Union and Salvation Army." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ff846f2b-fe1f-4cb5-a38f-d0844d1b45df.
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The reclamation and analysis of women's experiences within three Nonconformist denominations is the focus of this thesis. The first chapter places each denomination in its social and theological context, and describes its governing structures. The bulk of the thesis is devoted to situating women within this context and examining the ways in which women sought representation within male-dominated governing structures. Chapter two examines the conflict between Friends' egalitarian theology and women's lack of governing power. Although women Friends gained access to the governing body of the Society, the issue of equality remained problematic. The chapter finishes with a discussion of the Society's split over women's suffrage. The Baptist Zenana Mission is the focus of the third chapter. Zenana missionaries claimed spiritual and imperial authority over "native" women and used the languages of separate spheres to carve out a vocation for single women in keeping with denominational norms. In so doing, they marginalised the work done by missionary wives. The fourth chapter begins with an examination of the life and theology of Catherine Booth, whose contribution to the Salvation Army is often neglected. Catherine advocated women's ministry in terms that validated both "women's work for women" and public preaching. This chapter looks at the appeal of officership for women, especially the empowering experiences of salvation and holiness, and charts the growth of the Women's Social Work. Despite the Army's egalitarian theology, conflict was felt by women officers who struggled to combine corps and family duties. The final chapter briefly examines idealised representations of women to conclude that their defining power, while significant, was by no means hegemonic.
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Wang, Yu-yu Nancy. "Promoting the right to work of disabled people? : a historical comparative analysis of Sweden, Great Britain and Taiwan." Thesis, University of Kent, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.342265.
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Laidlaw, Roger Scott. "Community, work and religion : mentalities in the villages of the North Wales coalfield, c.1930 - c.1960." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1995. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36323/.
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This study uses oral evidence in conjunction with other sources to attempt an empirical reconstruction of local social milieux but also considers the subjective dimensions of narratives and considers the extent to which respondents draw on a communal store of reminiscences. It considers that particular genres of narratives and other oral formats may have originated as social actors discussed contemporary events, may have been shaped by subsequent discussion, and may have functioned as integrative ideologies for local groups and communities. Oral evidence is used to gain access to the informal and undocumented aspects of local life but also investigates the potential of oral evidence as a means of gaining access to the social and oral culture of the communities under study. The study posits that if the mores of communities are socially constructed - are constructed as a by-product of routine social interaction - that this process should leave a discernable legacy in the oral culture of these communities. The study considers two mining villages in what was formerly East Deabighshire: Rhosllanerchrugog, an open village first settled by squatters in the late eighteenth century; and Llay, a village which began as a model housing estate constructed by a paternalist colliery company in the 1920s. The study considers three areas of local social life: the community, the workplace and local religious organisations. After attempting a general description of the social milieu to be found in each, the study presents a series of case studies. The chapter on the community considers the ways in which the different origins of the two communities have impacted on their respective social organisations, The chapter considers social and oral culture, and describes the decline of the Welsh speaking community as indices of changing patterns of social organisation. It also considers the ways in which local people have contributed to the construction of the self images of their respective communities. The chapter on religious life examines relations between the Nonconformist churches, which are widely imputed to have had a defining effect on Welsh society, and the local population. It describes a general reluctance to embrace the full implications of Nonconformist creeds and describes instances of resistance to Nonconformist asceticism. The first chapter on the workplace considers the impact of new extractive technology which shifted the frontier of control in favour of the colliery management. It describes attempts to reassert control made by the workmen and considers the development of a culture of informal pay bargaining in the conditions presented by cost push inflation and institutional sclerosis in the early years of the nationalized industry. The second chapter on the workplace considers workplace narratives and describes the lore about occupational beliefs as a consolatory folklore which helped workmen accommodate themselves to a harsh physical environment. The chapter also considers how the circulation of narratives about the conventions of oral culture were used to describe and articulate relations within the work group and enabled workmen to resist the demands of supervisors.
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Bertram, Christine. "Caught in the middle : how employment advisers mediate between user needs and managerial demands in UK services." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2723.
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Traditionally, employment advice and guidance services in the UK have occupied distinct realms despite government efforts to align and integrate the education and skills and welfare-to-work frameworks. Conceptually, studies of front-line service delivery have often adopted a street-level perspective. This study offers a governance approach that focuses on how adviser behaviour is steered through managerial methods and how advisers steer user behaviour through the use of discretion and trust. The study explored how advisers mediated the tensions between managerial concerns and user needs to achieve policy goals, among others to turn service users into more active citizens. Based on 38 semi-structured interviews with service managers and advisers in combination with service characteristics and policy aims, a service typology was developed which was then applied to eight case study services. The analysis showed that employment advisers in the different service types applied very diverse strategies to achieve an outcome for the service user, but that within service types the strategies were similar. Due to the different service structures and advisers’ varying ability to apply discretion, various kinds of trust could be established, which potentially allowed the advisers to influence a change of service user behaviour. This could range from highly coercive methods to empowering individuals. The findings showed that advisers were subject to similar pressures as they applied to service users when mediating managerial influences. There was evidence that ability to use discretion was a vital pivot point in how advisers mediated tension between the service demands and user needs. This in turn was related to the adviser’s ability to achieve sustainable outcomes for the service user.
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Holdorph, Anne Louise. "The real meaning of our work : religion in Jewish boys' and girls' clubs 1880-1939." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2014. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/377486/.
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In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, philanthropists in Britain created a large number of clubs for young people. Whilst many of these were connected with churches, British Jewry founded a number of their own clubs for young Jewish men and women. These clubs were run in the East End of London and other urban centres with high numbers of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe such as Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Liverpool. The club managers were established Jews who lived in wealthier areas of the cities who sought to pass on positive British attributes to the immigrant population. In addition to secular activities such as sports, the clubs used religion as a way to encourage young immigrants to adapt to religious life in England, a neglected aspect of their work. This thesis explores the inclusion of a religious element within these clubs, examining the period from the beginning of the clubs existence in the 1880s, responding to the influx of Eastern European immigrants arriving in the UK, until the outbreak of the Second World War when the focus of Anglo-Jewish philanthropy shifted from domestic concerns to those within Europe and on combating anti-Semitism. This thesis explores how religion promoted an ideal of national identity, specifically designed for working class immigrant Jews, as well as the ways in which religion promoted gender identities which were designed to aid integration into British society. The first two chapters analyse Orthodox Jewish boys’ and girls’ clubs. As the majority of clubs fall into these categories these chapters will look at these groups as providing normative experiences. The third chapter will look at uniformed groups and explore the extent to which these groups provided a ‘uniformed’ experience not only in relation to outward appearance but also in terms of gendered religion. The final chapter will examine Liberal Jewish clubs, the major alternative to the other organisations explored. These were attacked by those within the Orthodox mainstream due to their religious affiliation and this thesis will discuss the ways in which this criticism was heightened in response to deviations from gender norms. This thesis therefore demonstrates the centrality of gender norms in religious programming for young people.
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Dewhirst, Claire. "Thinking practice : CPD as ethical work." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/19766.
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This study draws upon a methodological approach based on the use of objects to explore the experiences of a group of teachers undertaking a Masters-level Continuing Professional Development programme. Eight Respondents were invited to bring three objects to their interview that represented significant aspects of their practice in relation to the course. These objects afforded an exploration of respondents’ views, experiences and consideration of the impact of the programme on their professional identities. In order to engage analytically with the data the work draws upon notions of spatiality as well as the later work of Foucault on truth and subject formation. The thesis considers the role of professional learning as shaped by the current policy process and, how professional learning is, in turn, shaped by the teachers undertaking the course. Such a consideration allows for a methodological take on the CPD process as one whereby people, as well as objects, such as ‘standards’, play equally important roles. In drawing upon the later work of Foucault (1984a, 1984b) analysis of the data considered the ways in which the practices of the course that the teachers engaged with (Askēsis) lead to a desire to speak their mind and express ideals of truth about educational practice (Parrhēsia). This means that in thinking about their practice through the activities and processes of the programme encourages the development of the ethical work of the teacher. In the light of such problematisation, this study encourages a rethinking of both policy and practice and argues for a change in the discourse of education from the concept of professional development to that of professional learning within a relational and ethical framing.
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St, John Ian. "A study of the problem of work effort in British industry, 1850 to 1920." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:72e07126-716e-47d1-9d97-04725e128098.
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The thesis investigates the factors determining the effort put forth by industrial workers in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth. Why was so much energy and of such kinds put into work, and neither more nor less? What was the contribution of culture and institutions? And in which ways, if any, did the conduct of labour change over time? Labour effort contributes significantly to productivity differentials, between factories and across nations, and its study thus sheds light on that slackening of Britain's economic performance which historians have detected in the late Victorian period. Yet it is, additionally, a subject of interest in its own right. Work was the preponderating element in a man's daily experience, and much of the wide range of factory life found reflection in the matter of how hard he laboured and in what way. Indeed it is the contention of this thesis that an explanation of the level and forms of effort in the late nineteenth century must make reference to the workshop environment and its associated customs and social relationships. These arguments are illustrated by detailed studies of the shoe and flint-glass trades. Despite obvious contrasts between these industries, important similarities are found to exist in the issues surrounding labour effort. In both industries operatives limited output; shoe and glass employers alike contributed to the failure to fully realise the productive potential of their establishments; the social equilibrium of both industries was subject to mounting competition from overseas - a challenge compounded in the shoe trade by rapid technical change; and in each case these disruptive tendencies eventuated in industrial confrontations which, however apparently successful for employers, left the fundamental characteristics of industrial organisation unchanged. These themes were common, not merely to glass and shoe manufacture, but to a range of major industries. The culture of output limitation was, we conclude, widespread in industry in this period, and emerged from similar reasons out of similar contexts.
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Coleman, Jonathan. "Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/history_etds/15.
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Rent: Same-Sex Prostitution in Modern Britain, 1885-1957 chronicles the concept of “rent boys” and the men who purchased their services. This dissertation demonstrates how queer identity in Britain, until contemporary times, was largely regulated by class, in which middle-and-upper-class queer men often perceived of working-class bodies as fetishized consumer goods. The “rent boy” was an upper-class queer fantasy, and working-class men sometimes used this fantasy for their own agenda while others intentionally dismantled the “rent boy” trope, refusing to submit to upper-class expectations. This work also explains how the “rent boy” fantasy was eventually relegated to the periphery of queer life during the mid-century movement for decriminalization. The movement was controlled by queer elites who ostracized economic-based and public forms of sex and emphasized the bourgeois sexual mores of their heterosexual counterparts. Sex between adult men in private was decriminalized, but working-class men selling sex suffered harsher laws and more strictly enforced penalties under this new, ostensibly “progressive” legislation.
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Ashfold, Thomas Edward. "Work, time and rhythm : investigating contemporary 'time squeeze'." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c5fc9e00-fc82-4574-9099-3eb9d4e56bdb.
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In contemporary capitalist economies such as the UK, it is commonly held that an increasing number of people and households experience anxiety over time and symptoms of 'time squeeze'. Existing accounts of the character and causes of this phenomenon are rather one-dimensional and lacking in nuance, however. In part, this is because they typically lack any substantial theoretical engagement with the concept of time itself. Accordingly, this research aims to provide a more complex and contextual account of experiences of working time (both paid and unpaid), and to investigate how and why experiences of time squeeze vary between individuals and social groups. This is achieved by calling upon an enriched understanding of time, and employing an instrumental case study built around a set of 50 semi-structured interviews with employees working in Oxford University's central IT department and four of its constituent colleges. The empirical findings reveal that the (quantitative) extent and (qualitative) nature of participants' temporal anxieties vary with occupation, social class, gender, age and family status, as well as the importance of institutional and local context. Furthermore, they demonstrate that contemporary time squeeze is generated by a variety of causal mechanisms relating to the duration, tempo and timing of both paid employment and unpaid reproductive work, and their intersections with the personal, natural, social, institutional and technological rhythms that variously constitute everyday life.
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Hoban, Sally. "The Birmingham Municipal School of Art and opportunities for women's paid work in the Art and Crafts Movement." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2014. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5124/.
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This thesis is the first to examine the lives and careers of professional women who were working within the thriving Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It utilises previously unresearched primary and secondary sources in art galleries, the Birmingham School of Art and local studies collections to present a series of case studies of professional women working in the fields of jewellery and metalware, stained glass, painting, book illustration, textiles and illumination. This thesis demonstrates that women made an important, although currently unacknowledged, professional contribution to the Arts and Crafts Movement in the region. It argues that the Executed Design training that the women received at the Birmingham Municipal School of Art (BMSA) was crucial to their success in obtaining highly-skilled paid employment or setting up and running their own business enterprises. The thesis makes an important new contribution to the historiography of The Arts and Crafts Movement; women's work in Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the history of education and the industrial and artistic history of Birmingham.
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Magor, Deborah A. "Working women in the news : a study of news media representations of women in the workforce." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/102.
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This study examines how working women are represented in the news media, and its main aim is to determine to what extent ‘social class’ figures in the representations of women in news content. Using language, visual and narrative analysis, the thesis comprises four case studies each focusing on portrayals of different women from different socio-economic backgrounds determined by their occupation. The first two case studies examine portrayals of low paid working women through coverage of the National Minimum Wage introduction into Britain in April 1999 and the Council Workers’ Strike in England and Wales in 2002. The latter two case studies focus on women in particular professions: elite businesswomen, military women and women war reporters. The study concludes by noting that multiple voices occur in news texts around the key contrasting themes of progress/stagnation and visibility/invisibility and which can give contradictory discourses on the intersection of gender and class. From the massification and silencing of working class women, to the celebrity and sexualisation of the business elite, and the professional competency news frames of middle class women, class was shown to be a determining factor in how women figure in news content. However, these class determinants combined with other news frames pertaining to gender, whereby powerful and established myths of femininity can come to the fore. These myths can be particularly powerful when women enter non-feminine work ‘spaces’ such as business and the military, and class, particularly in the latter case, can tend to slip out of view, as sexist coverage is commonplace and debates are formed about the right and wrong behaviour for women.
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Crossen-White, Holly. "Drug-related activity in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1900 and 1922 : what evidence can be found through systematic searches of the Times digital achive?" Thesis, Bournemouth University, 2012. http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/20685/.
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Much has been written about drug-taking during the nineteenth century, particularly in relation to opium. However, the early twentieth century has received considerably less attention, despite being a crucial period in the history of drug-taking within Britain. During 1916, the Defence of the Realm Act Regulation 40b made it an offence to supply or to possess particular drugs without authorisation. This was a fundamental shift in government thinking that presaged the modern era in which the legal status of particular drugs continues to be an issue of public debate. Previous research focused on changes in the law and analysed the relationships between key individuals and influential groups with an interest in drug control. In part, this reflects the significance of the decision to alter the law but also the lack of available evidence concerning drug-takers of the era. This study seeks to address this gap in understanding and develops a new perspective on drug-taking, that of the participants. The study developed an innovative and, at times, speculative approach to tracing drug-takers of that era. This led to the use of articles from The Times identified from systematic searches of The Times Digital Archive. These articles by their nature were mediated accounts of drug-related activity but no other source could offer such a range of drug-takers over the selected time period (1900-1922). Furthermore, the large number of articles identified meant that it was easier to detect press influences and take these into account when analysing their content. The wealth of information that emerged from the articles was beyond initial expectations and led to an additional piece of analysis concerning the geographical spread of drug-taking activity within the period. Although the evidence did not allow the development of many in-depth accounts as had been the intention at the outset, it did provide insight to particular aspects of drug-taking activity. For example, the collated information regarding female participants suggested specific behavioural traits that possibly made female consumers harder to detect compared to their male counterparts. Drug-taking among military personnel and the operation of supply networks were other aspects illuminated by the articles. An association emerged between military conflicts and increased drug-taking by military personnel. It indicated, too, that periods of conflict could have implications for domestic prevalence from the cessation of hostilities. Geographical analysis illuminated the supply networks both in terms of drug procurement and relationships between drug-takers within their areas of settlement. Furthermore, some of the areas associated with drug-taking during the early twentieth century remain linked to drugs in the present day raising questions about how and why specific areas might become drug hot-spots. Further research arising from this thesis would involve the replication of the method during the later period, 1923 to 1950. This period would allow the female narrative of drug-related activity begun by this thesis to be developed further and to establish whether the First World War was a unique period for female participation or whether their participation evolved. Similarly, considering the articles from this later period could help illuminate further the subsequent spread and operation of supply networks. Replicating the method would also test whether it is transferable to other periods or whether changes to reporting style made the method era specific.
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Loftus, Donna. "Social economy : cultures of work and community in mid-Victorian England." Thesis, University of Chichester, 1998. http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/804/.
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The Victorians were obsessed with work. In the numerous mid-century inquiries into the workplace labour emerged as a moral, social, political, as well as an economic category. These issues were part of a broader strategy of understanding the meanings and motivations of markets and production in an industrial age. On to the processes of production, gendered and racially specific categories could be mapped and relations and duties could be ordered. This thesis attempts to examine work as a cultural category which was mobilised in the mid-century to negotiate the roles and responsibilities of various actors. The period between the factory acts of the 1840s and those of the 1870s is the focus of this enquiry. Despite its perception as an age of stability, cushioned between two periods of relative unrest, the mid-century is seen here to bear witness to a wide ranging debate on the respective duties of state, employer and worker. Drawing on competing notions of markets and communities the subsequent discourses are considered as expressions of claims to middle-class authority, marking struggles between employers and other professionals to represent industrial England. Within these identified debates, the cultural significance and location of work appears to shift. Where the debates of the late forties might refer to local and paternalist forms of production, by the 1870s a greater emphasis was placed on the contribution and impact of work on the national community. In a bid to chart some of these shifts this thesis explores the centrality of work to emerging definitions of society. It is argued that the workplace and the market were considered as important sites, negotiating the inclusion of a respectable working class into public life and helping to define a democratic political community. This thesis emphasises the limits of these discourses by considering how the mid-century experience of industrial democracy exposed the tensions in political economy and liberal consensus.
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Clifton, Naomi. "Women, work and family in England and France : a question of identity." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1999. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d39ca1d0-d8fc-4f54-aea3-fba3fd68e984.
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This thesis explores some of the individual attitudes and choices which may explain differing patterns in women's work in England and France. Women's work, however, cannot be considered outside the context of their family lives, and there exist important differences between England and France in terms of the structures in place to facilitate the combining of paid work and family commitments. It is proposed that these are related to broader social and economic structures which characterise the countries concerned, and the family and gender roles assumed by them. The question addressed, therefore, is the relationship between work identity and female identity. This is examined by comparing full-time working women, both single and with families, in the two countries. Since the question concerns meanings rather than frequencies, quantitative methods such as surveys are rejected in favour of a triangulated methodology combining repertory grid, Twenty Statements Test and in- depth interview. The results from each of these are reported separately. There is strong convergence within and clear differences between national groups, regardless of marital status. French and English groups are both committed to working, but this takes different forms in the two countries. The French women define themselves equally in terms of work, personal relationships and social lives, with relatively little conflict between them. For the English women, work identity comes first, there is more conflict between work and family roles and more tension in personal relationships. This may partly be accounted for by the English women's greater concern with career progression and personal advancement, which is more likely to conflict with family roles. The findings are related to broader issues of economic, social and family policy, historical factors, religious traditions and attitudes towards gender and equality. These themselves are seen as reflecting more general ideologies in the countries concerned. Finally, there is a consideration of questions raised by the study, and suggestions for further research.
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Dunnett, Susan. "The transformed consumer : collective practices and identity work in an emotional community." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2289.
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This interpretive consumer research study interrogates the idea that people turn to consumption as a means of self-determination. Proceeding from the understanding that the consumer enacts the development of their identity within the marketplace, it takes as its subject those in transition. Its context is a support group community of people brought together by an illness - multiple myeloma. Here, through a phenomenological approach designed to explore the lived experience of illness, the thesis discovers community to be the enabling context for the consumer’s negotiation of both selfhood and the market. Conclusions are drawn about the incremental, complex nature of identity work, and the collective practices that empower it. It is found that the marketplace requires significant mediation, but that the social resources of the community can equip the consumer to navigate its challenges. This transformation is manifested in the newly-diagnosed patient’s journey from dislocation and passivity to the empowered status of ‘skilled consumer’. The importance of the often-overlooked emotional texture of exchange within consumption communities is highlighted. In conclusion, it is offered that this study extends the concept of communities of practice into the field of consumption.
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Lega, Isabella. "Propaganda su cellulosa: i filmati del Piano Marshall. Proposta di sottotitolaggio dei documentari "Lou Mas Aimat" e "The Marshall Plan at Work in Great Britain"." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2017. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/12674/.
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Il Piano Marshall è stato oggetto di numerosi studi e ricerche, che si sono concentrati prevalentemente su aspetti economici e politici. Questo progetto di tesi riguarda un argomento meno presente nella storiografia tradizionale, ovvero il ruolo dei filmati propagandistici prodotti dagli Stati Uniti per informare dell’importanza del Piano sia i contribuenti americani sia le popolazioni dei paesi europei beneficiari. La ricerca ha inteso sottolineare la rilevanza dei documenti audiovisivi in quanto fonti primarie a disposizione degli storici, e si è concentrata sulle produzioni filmiche riguardanti la Francia e la Gran Bretagna. A tale scopo, sono stati tradotti e sottotitolati in italiano due brevi documentari propagandistici del 1950, uno dal francese e uno dall'inglese. Nella prima parte della tesi viene descritto il contesto storico in cui si inserisce il Piano Marshall, dando particolare rilievo alla sua applicazione in Francia e in Gran Bretagna. In secondo luogo, vengono illustrati gli aspetti ideologici del Piano, offrendo una panoramica della campagna informativa americana e ponendo l’accento sull'uso propagandistico dei film. In particolare, è stato realizzato un censimento dei filmati su Francia e Gran Bretagna, sintetizzando i dati disponibili in una tabella. La terza parte della tesi è invece dedicata al processo di sottotitolaggio. Dopo avere introdotto l’ambito della traduzione audiovisiva e dopo avere descritto le principali caratteristiche del genere documentario, sono stati analizzati i due filmati ("Lou Mas Aimat" e "The Marshall Plan at Work in Great Britain"), evidenziando i motivi per cui possono essere considerati due esempi significativi di documentari propagandistici. Infine, vengono descritte le strategie traduttive adottate e le principali difficoltà riscontrate durante la fase di sottotitolaggio.
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Monk, Robert Edward. "An investigation into the work of managers in Great Britain : with particular reference to the management of human resources, and the skills and knowledge used." Thesis, Middlesex University, 1994. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/6145/.
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The Study is in four parts. The first part provides a background to the original research through a short twentieth century history of management and synopses of the work of selected earlier writers and researchers. The second part provides the results of a new empirical study of managerial work in Great Britain in the early nineteen-nineties. This study follows the lead of earlier researchers such as Carlson, Stewart and Mintzberg and invstigates managerial work using three methodologies. A quantitative study through a questionnaire survey is complemented by a smaller diary study and thirty face to face interviews with a range of managers from widely differing organisations and jobs. A statistical analysis of the data provides a very detailed review of how managers spend their time, requirements for effective performance, how performance is measured, major changes which have affected them, and the skills and knowledge used. Analysis of the diary data provides a very detailed profile of managerial work. Factor analysis is used to identify a new managerial typology; and using data from the various elements of the study a series of detailed managerial models, identifying both similarities and differences, is provided for an average manager, a general manager, five types of functional manager and five hierarchical levels of manager. Using information from the interview case studies, together with the statistical analysis, the management of human resouces, or "getting things done through other people", is addressed and a range of abilities, skills and knowledge required for effective people management identified. This section, particularly, contributes to the field of knowledge and provides guidance for the development of management education and training. Part three provides a comparison of the present study with earlier researches and shows that whilst the fundamental nature of managerial work changes relatively. little, the environment within which it takes place is constantly changing. Recent changes identified include greater customer orientation and demands for quality, new legislation, "de-layering" and the very rapid development of new technologies within both offices and factories. The evidence suggests that the work of managers is becoming continually more demanding and increasingly difficult. Part four provides a range of very detailed appendices in support of the main text.
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Alshamsi, Ahmed. "Promoting the Right to Work of Disabled People in the United Arab Emirates : Lessons drawn from the Experiences of the US, Great Britain, Sweden and Belgium." Thesis, University of Essex, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.522074.
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Hodacs, Hanna. "Converging world views : the European expansion and early-nineteenth-century Anglo-Swedish contacts /." Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2003. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb399622233.
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Lewis, Bridget. "Charitable provision for the rural poor : a case study of policies and attitudes in Northamptonshire in the first half of the nineteenth century." Thesis, University of Northampton, 2003. http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/2796/.
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This thesis examines the role of private charity in the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ available to the rural poor in Northamptonshire in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is the first major study of this kind, as hitherto, historians of welfare have largely concentrated on the public charity of poor relief. It covers the basic needs of the poor, food, money, clothing, housing and access to land for fuel and cultivation and examines the various sources of private charity that addressed those needs. These were the endowed charities, the benevolence of individuals, mainly the major landowners and the clergy, and the establishment of the self-help charitable initiatives of allotment schemes, clothing societies and coal clubs. For each source, this thesis explores the key questions of how valuable the resource was to the poor, who were the main recipients and what factors affected the choice of recipients. Thus, it examines the gender, the stage in the life cycle and the respectability of the recipients. It also analyses the importance of residency in an ‘open’ or a ‘close’ parish in terms of the amount and quality of assistance given to the poor. This thesis also examines the extent of changes in national attitudes to private charitable provision with an emphasis on self-help and on more discrimination in the choice of recipients, mirroring the changes in poor relief in the period. Although these changes were in their infancy in the early decades of the nineteenth century, they became prominent in rural parishes in the second half. Thus this thesis shows that the years up to 1850 were critical in that the changes in charitable provision which arose out of the pressures encountered by rural society in that period came to be widely adopted by the end of the century
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Ellis, Vaughan. "From commitment to control : a labour process study of workers' experiences of the transition from clerical to call centre work at British Gas." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/369.
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Despite their continuing importance to the UK economy and their employment of significant numbers of workers from a range of professions, the utilities have received scant attention from critical scholars of work. This neglect represents a missed opportunity to examine the impact of nearly twenty years of privatisation and marketisation on workers, their jobs and their unions. This thesis aims to make a contribution to knowledge here by investigating, contextualising and explaining changes in the labour processes of a privatised utility in the United Kingdom. The research is informed by oral history methods and techniques, rarely adopted in industrial sociology, and here used alongside labour process theory to reconstruct past experiences of work. Drawing on qualitative data sets, from in-depth interviews with a cohort of employees who worked continuously over three decades at the research site, British Gas’s Granton House, and on extensive company and trade union documentary evidence the research demonstrates how British Gas responded to restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by transforming pre-existing forms of work organisation through introducing call centres. The call centre provided the opportunity for management to regain control over the labour process, intensify work and reduce costs. In doing so, the study identifies the principal drivers of organisational change, documents the process of change evaluates the impact on workers’ experience. Thus, as a corrective to much recent labour process theory the research offers both an ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ account of change over an extended time. The contrast between workers’ experience of working in the clerical departments and in the call centre could not be starker. Almost every element of work from which workers derived satisfaction and purpose was abruptly dismantled. In their place workers had to endure the restrictive and controlling nature of call centre work. The relative absence of resistance to such a transformation is shown to be a consequence of failures in collective organisation, rather than the totalisation of managerial control, as the postmodernists and Foucauldians would have it.
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Ben-Galim, Dalia. "Equality and diversity : the gender dimensions of work-life balance policies." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d078b9c7-ceab-454c-a1b6-09ebe88fb725.
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This thesis analyses the gender dimensions of work-life balance policies in the UK. It focuses on three related questions: firstly, to what extent are work-life balance policies framed by 'diversity'; secondly, how does this impact on the conceptualisation and implementation of work-life balance policies (in government and in organisations); and thirdly, what are the implications for gender equality? Through analysing published research, the UK Government's work-life balance agenda and data generated from three selected case study organisations, the prominent dimensions of diversity that shape the conceptualisation and implementation of work-life balance policies are presented. This thesis argues that the concept of diversity - as defined by the feminist literature - offers the potential to progress gender equality through overcoming the same-difference dichotomy, and by recognising multiple aspects of identity. However, this theoretical potential is not necessarily reflected in practice. With the emphasis on the individual worker and choice, diversity has been primarily defined as 'managing diversity', and has a significant affect on how work-life balance policies have been applied in both government policy and organisational practice. The UK Government states that work-life balance policies are meant to provide everyone with opportunities to balance work with other aspects of life. The current policy framework targets parents and in particular mothers, potentially limiting the choices that men and women have to 'work' and 'care'. Locating work-life balance policies within the context of 'managing diversity' supports and facilitates women's employment, but does not necessarily challenge fundamental gender disparities such as occupational segregation and gender pay gaps. Analysis of the UK Government's current agenda and organisational case studies show that despite progressive equality, diversity and worklife balance agendas, work-life balance policies are limited in challenging persistent structural gender inequalities.
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Sage, Daniel. "Working for welfare? : modifying the effects of unemployment through active labour market programmes." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/23033.
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In recent decades, research from across the social sciences has demonstrated a strong, consistent and causal link between unemployment and a wide range of negative outcomes. These outcomes go beyond economic problems, incorporating issues such as low well-being, poor health and weak social capital. During the same time, successive UK governments have expanded the use of active labour market programmes (ALMPs): a wide range of interventions that aim to move unemployed people closer to the labour market. ALMPs have been widely evaluated since becoming a central part of UK social policy, yet the majority of studies focus almost exclusively on economic outcomes, such as re-employment and wage levels. This is despite the weight of evidence suggesting unemployment is as much a social problem as an economic one. This discrepancy has led to a small but growing body of research suggesting that ALMPs might play a role in modifying some of the health and social costs of unemployment: beyond simply moving people closer to the labour market. Using a mixed methods research design, this study examines whether ALMPs achieve this by considering four key questions. First, are ALMPs associated with higher well-being, health and social capital compared to the alternative of 'open unemployment'? Second, if there is an association, how robust is this and is there any evidence of a causal function? Third, does the context of an ALMP - such as the specific type of scheme and the kind of participant - matter for understanding outcomes? And fourthly, how and why do people's experiences of unemployment and ALMPs shape their health and well-being? The findings presented in this thesis offer five original contributions to the study of the health and social effects of ALMPs. First, there is a dichotomy in the effects of ALMPs: participants have higher well-being than the openly unemployed but similar health and social capital levels. Second, ALMPs are most effective in changing how participants feel about and evaluate their lives but are largely unsuccessful in mitigating negative emotions like anxiety. These two findings are evident in both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, suggesting the possibility of a causal function of ALMPs. Together, the findings suggest that the positive well-being effects of ALMPs are not necessarily linked to improved health or social capital but because participants begin to think about their lives in a different, more positive way. Third, well-being gains are experienced by both short-term and long-term unemployed people but disappear upon re-employment. This finding has an important implication for policy, with ALMPs seemingly effective as a short-term protective well-being measure. Fourth, this is the first UK study to explore whether ALMPs work more effectively for different types of unemployed people. The findings presented in Chapter Seven show that work-oriented ALMPs are more successful than employment-assistance programmes, whilst men, younger people, those with fewer qualifications, lower occupational status and lower pre-programme well-being experience the largest benefits of participation. Fifth, the qualitative analysis presented in Chapter Eight argues that ALMPs worked best when schemes reversed the perceived ‘losses’ associated with unemployment. Three processes of loss were identified - agency loss, functional loss and status loss – which, it is contended, help explain both the observed effects of ALMPs and the broader experience of unemployment. The thesis concludes with policy suggestions for improving the capacity of ALMPs to mediate the experience of unemployment.
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Gilmour, Alison Julia. "Examining the 'hard-boiled bunch' : work culture and industrial relations at the Linwood car plant, c.1963-1981." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2010. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1830/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis investigates the nature of work culture and industrial relations at the Linwood car plant during the period 1963-1981. In Part One, Chapter One provides an overview of the historical debate over the use of oral testimony as well as introducing the methodology employed within the oral history project encompassed within the thesis. Chapter Two provides an analysis of the nature of work at the Linwood car plant and the ways in which this impacted on behaviour and attitudes in the workplace. This is further developed in Chapter Three where the focus is on organisational mischief, and consideration is given to the nature, consequences and explanations for this behaviour. The analysis developed in Part One, focuses on the dominant explanations for problematic industrial relations based on the notion of a ‘clash of work cultures’ due to an absence of intrinsic rewards in automated assembly-line work. Within the thesis such dominant narratives are not entirely supported by the Linwood sample, as a wide variety of attitudes towards work are exhibited, leading the thesis to question the validity of the categories of intrinsic and extrinsic reward. In Part Two of the thesis there is a shift in focus as the analysis concentrates on structures of authority at Linwood and the impact on industrial relations. Chapter Four gives consideration to the influence of historical contingency on management decision-making. Part of the 1976 government rescue package was a Planning Agreement incorporating employee participation in management decision-making that articulated with the Labour government’s manifesto commitment to industrial democracy. Yet throughout the different phases of ownership, interactions between management and workers at the Linwood plant explored in this thesis reveal a dichotomy between the rhetoric and reality of industrial democracy and worker participation. The final chapter of the thesis offers an exploration of shop floor industrial politics, and causes of strikes, to highlight the narratives of tension underpinning interactions at Linwood. The thesis provides a nuanced approach, highlighting variety of experience and importantly a complex interplay of interests shaping work culture and the nature of industrial relations in the car plant.
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Mancuso, Rebecca 1964. ""This is our work" : The Women's Division of the Canadian Department of Immigration and Colonization, 1919-1938." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36649.
Full textAbstract:
Anglophone women, working in a new capacity as federal civil servants, exercised a significant influence on Canadian immigration policy in the interwar years. This dissertation focuses on the women's division of the Canadian Department of Immigration and Colonization, an agency charged with recruiting British women for domestic service from 1919 to 1938. The division was a product of the women's wing of the social reform movement and prevailing theories of gender difference and anglo-superiority. Tracing its nearly twenty years of operations shows how the division, initially regarded as a source of imperial strength and a means of English Canada's cultural survival, came to symbolize the disadvantages of Canada's connection to Great Britain and supposed weaknesses inherent in the female character. This institutional study explores the real and imagined connections among gender, imperialism, and the changing socio-economic landscape of interwar Canada.
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Merlyn, Teri, and n/a. "Writing Revolution: The British Radical Literary Tradition as the Seminal Force in the Development of Adult Education, its Australian Context, and the Life and Work of Eric Lambert." Griffith University. School of Vocational, Technology and Arts Education, 2004. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040616.131738.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis tells the story of an historical tradition of radical literacy and literature that is defined as the British radical literary tradition. It takes the meaning of literature at its broadest understanding and identifies the literary and educational relations of what E.P. Thompson terms 'the making of the English working class' through its struggle for literacy and freedom. The study traces the developing dialectic of literary radicalism and the emergent hegemony of capitalism through the dissemination of radical ideas in literature and a groundswell of public literacy. The proposed radical tradition is defined by the oppositional stance of its participants, from the radical intellectual's critical texts to the striving for literacy and access to literature by working class people. This oppositional discourse emerged in the fourteenth century concomitant with nascent capitalism and has its literary origins in utopian vision. This nascent utopian imagination conceived a democratic socialism that underpinned the character of much of the following oppositional discourse. The thesis establishes the nexus of the oppositional discourse as a radical literary tradition and the earliest instances of adult education in autodidacticism and informal adult education. The ascent of middle class power through the industrial revolution is shadowed by the corresponding descent of the working class into poverty. Concomitant with this social polarisation is the phenomena of working class literary agency as the means to political and economic agency. While Protestant dissenting groups such as the Diggers and Levellers were revolutionary activists, it was Methodism that formed a bulwark against revolution. Yet it was their emphasis on self-improvement that contributed to an increasingly literate populace. Radical texts produced and disseminated by individuals and organisations and read by autodidactics and informal reading groups are seminal in the formation of a working class identity. Spearheaded by the Chartist movement, education became a central ethic of working class politics and the civil struggle for economic and political justice throughout the nineteenth and well into the twentieth centuries. The avant garde movements of the early twentieth century are analysed as a strand of this tradition. The narrative of the thesis then moves to the penal colony of Australia and explores the radical literary tradition's development there. Early colonial culture is seen as having a strong impetus towards a developing a native literary expression of the new land. Where conservative colonial literature struggled to differentiate itself from formal British literary models, the radical heritage and its utopian vision of a working man's paradise gave definitive expression to the Australian experience. This expression was strongly influenced by Chartist ideals. The British radical literary tradition is thus seen to have had a dominant influence in the development of a native radical literary tradition that strove to identify the national character. Socialist thought developed in Australia in concert with that in the parent culture, and anarchist and libertarian trends found a ready home amongst independent minded colonials. Yet, in preventing the formation of a native aristocracy the small radical population made a compromise with liberalism that saw a decidedly conservative streak develop in the early labour movement. There were little in the way of sophisticated radical literary offerings at first, but from the mid-nineteenth century a vanguard of radicals produced a thriving native press and other fugitive text forms. At the turn of the century the native radical literary tradition was vibrantly diverse, with a definitive style that claimed literary ownership of the Australian character. However, exhausted by the battles over WWI conscription and isolated by censorship, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was able to subsume the vanguard position from the socialists. The Party laid claim to the Australian radical literary tradition, at once both strengthening it with the discipline of a Marxist ideology and diminishing its independence and diversity. Party literary theory centred upon the issue of class, developing a doctrine of socialist realism that communist writers were expected to practice. How well a writer adhered to socialist realist principles became a measure of their class position and loyalty. Drawing more from primary sources, the thesis develops an analysis of the intellectual development of the Australian post-WWII writer Eric Lambert through his experience of class instability during Depression and war. The study examines Lambert's decision to join the Party and his literary response to his experiences of war, the Party, the turmoil of 1956 and life after the Party. Lambert's body of work is then analysed as the unintentional memoir of a writer working as an adult educator in the radical literary tradition. Lambert's struggles, for artistic independence within the narrow precepts of Party dogma and with class tensions, were common amongst intellectuals committed to the communist cause. Like many of his peers, Lambert resigned from the Party at the end of 1956 and suffered a period of ideological vacuum. However, he continued to write as a Marxian educator, seeking to reveal that which makes us human in the humanity of ordinary people. It is concluded that, while the Party did much to foster disciplined cohesion, the mutual distrust it generated amongst its intellectuals suppressed the independent thought that had kept the radical literary tradition alive. Although the Party developed an ideological strength within the radical literary tradition, its dominance over thirty years and subsequent fall from grace acted to fragment and discredit that centuries-old tradition which it subsumed. An argument is made for a reinvestment of the centrality of the radical literary tradition in the education of adults for the maintenance of social justice and the democratic project.