Richard Jobson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526113306
- eISBN:
- 9781526136039
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526113306.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it ...
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This book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. It outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle. This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this book offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain.Less
This book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. It outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle. This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this book offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain.
Vicky Long
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719097690
- eISBN:
- 9781526104465
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719097690.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter explores how the policy of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation transformed the nature and intended functions of employment for people with mental health problems in post-war Britain. It ...
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This chapter explores how the policy of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation transformed the nature and intended functions of employment for people with mental health problems in post-war Britain. It focuses on industrial therapy, which hospitals implemented as part of rehabilitation programmes designed to prepare long-stay patients for discharge. This involved patients undertaking industrial sub-contract work in spaces designed to resemble a factory environment. The chapter considers two earlier developments which informed the ethos of industrial therapy; the system of rehabilitation designed to meet the needs of disabled soldiers during the Second World War, and occupation and employment schemes developed for people with learning disabilities. It explores the operation of industrial therapy units, which had been established in most British psychiatric hospitals by the 1960s, and the creation of complementary extramural facilities. Finally, the chapter evaluates the tensions between individual therapeutic needs and labour market requirements which came to the fore in industrial therapy, before examining how the industrial therapy model came under pressure due to changing social and economic circumstances in the late twentieth century.Less
This chapter explores how the policy of psychiatric deinstitutionalisation transformed the nature and intended functions of employment for people with mental health problems in post-war Britain. It focuses on industrial therapy, which hospitals implemented as part of rehabilitation programmes designed to prepare long-stay patients for discharge. This involved patients undertaking industrial sub-contract work in spaces designed to resemble a factory environment. The chapter considers two earlier developments which informed the ethos of industrial therapy; the system of rehabilitation designed to meet the needs of disabled soldiers during the Second World War, and occupation and employment schemes developed for people with learning disabilities. It explores the operation of industrial therapy units, which had been established in most British psychiatric hospitals by the 1960s, and the creation of complementary extramural facilities. Finally, the chapter evaluates the tensions between individual therapeutic needs and labour market requirements which came to the fore in industrial therapy, before examining how the industrial therapy model came under pressure due to changing social and economic circumstances in the late twentieth century.
Helen Glew
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719090271
- eISBN:
- 9781526104458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719090271.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter delineates the process by which equal pay was achieved in the Civil Service and throughout the LCC, demonstrating the shifts and momentum changes after the Second World War. It therefore ...
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This chapter delineates the process by which equal pay was achieved in the Civil Service and throughout the LCC, demonstrating the shifts and momentum changes after the Second World War. It therefore offers a comprehensive account of the union and association campaigns, the involvement of successive governments and the growing pressure placed on the public service hierarchy and governments from elsewhere. The chapter also explores for the first time the interconnections between the granting of equal pay in the LCC in 1952 and the Civil Service in 1954.Less
This chapter delineates the process by which equal pay was achieved in the Civil Service and throughout the LCC, demonstrating the shifts and momentum changes after the Second World War. It therefore offers a comprehensive account of the union and association campaigns, the involvement of successive governments and the growing pressure placed on the public service hierarchy and governments from elsewhere. The chapter also explores for the first time the interconnections between the granting of equal pay in the LCC in 1952 and the Civil Service in 1954.
Jack Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526133397
- eISBN:
- 9781526146649
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526133403
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
Car workers’ union activism has long held a strong grip on popular memories of the post-war period. Working in the quintessential industry of modernity their labour militancy has been linked to ...
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Car workers’ union activism has long held a strong grip on popular memories of the post-war period. Working in the quintessential industry of modernity their labour militancy has been linked to narratives of economic decline and of rising working-class living standards.
Yet despite their centrality to understanding of this period, car workers’ capacity for collective action has often been taken for granted, with mobilisation attributed to uncomplicated economic motivations or the last gasps of a declining “traditional class consciousness”, and the effects of the post-war settlement.
This book looks at the changing forms of agency and subjectivity expressed by labour militancy, considering workplace activism in the motor industry as a specific historical creation of post-war Britain, rather than a reflection of “tradition”. It traces the origins of shop-floor organisations which first emerged in the 1950s, studying the processes by which workers built their union cultures, and exploring the capacity of car workers to generate new solidarities and collective values in this period. Focus then turns to the 1960s and 1970s and the social practices and cultural norms that resulted from this cultural assembling, looking to understand how worker activism shaped the agency of car workers in post-war Britain, influencing the forms that strike action took. Through a mixture of oral history interviews, letters, meeting minutes and periodicals, this book analyses the meanings workers attributed to industrial conflict, asking whether factory activism generated attitudes distinct from the dominant values of wider British society.Less
Car workers’ union activism has long held a strong grip on popular memories of the post-war period. Working in the quintessential industry of modernity their labour militancy has been linked to narratives of economic decline and of rising working-class living standards.
Yet despite their centrality to understanding of this period, car workers’ capacity for collective action has often been taken for granted, with mobilisation attributed to uncomplicated economic motivations or the last gasps of a declining “traditional class consciousness”, and the effects of the post-war settlement.
This book looks at the changing forms of agency and subjectivity expressed by labour militancy, considering workplace activism in the motor industry as a specific historical creation of post-war Britain, rather than a reflection of “tradition”. It traces the origins of shop-floor organisations which first emerged in the 1950s, studying the processes by which workers built their union cultures, and exploring the capacity of car workers to generate new solidarities and collective values in this period. Focus then turns to the 1960s and 1970s and the social practices and cultural norms that resulted from this cultural assembling, looking to understand how worker activism shaped the agency of car workers in post-war Britain, influencing the forms that strike action took. Through a mixture of oral history interviews, letters, meeting minutes and periodicals, this book analyses the meanings workers attributed to industrial conflict, asking whether factory activism generated attitudes distinct from the dominant values of wider British society.
James Boaden
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719096495
- eISBN:
- 9781526124135
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096495.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Social History
In 1951 the filmmaker and poet James Broughton moved to London from San Francisco. At that time he was beginning to garner a reputation for his short, whimsical, films, which often made use of ...
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In 1951 the filmmaker and poet James Broughton moved to London from San Francisco. At that time he was beginning to garner a reputation for his short, whimsical, films, which often made use of outmoded costumes and decaying public spaces. One important reason he gave for moving was the idea that Britain had a more open-minded society for queer artists like himself to work within, in contrast to the McCarthy-era USA. With the help of a number of figures from the British film establishment he managed to make a half-hour-long film The Pleasure Garden in London. The film is for the most part set among the ruins of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham and the surrounding park. Broughton’s film is an allegory of Britain as he found it in the summer of 1951, asserting its own vision of a post-war national identity in the Festival of Britain. This chapter examines the way in which the Festival of Britain revived certain ideas of national identity from the past, yet neglected others – and the way in which these ideas were doubled and questioned in Broughton’s film.Less
In 1951 the filmmaker and poet James Broughton moved to London from San Francisco. At that time he was beginning to garner a reputation for his short, whimsical, films, which often made use of outmoded costumes and decaying public spaces. One important reason he gave for moving was the idea that Britain had a more open-minded society for queer artists like himself to work within, in contrast to the McCarthy-era USA. With the help of a number of figures from the British film establishment he managed to make a half-hour-long film The Pleasure Garden in London. The film is for the most part set among the ruins of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham and the surrounding park. Broughton’s film is an allegory of Britain as he found it in the summer of 1951, asserting its own vision of a post-war national identity in the Festival of Britain. This chapter examines the way in which the Festival of Britain revived certain ideas of national identity from the past, yet neglected others – and the way in which these ideas were doubled and questioned in Broughton’s film.
Jack Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526133397
- eISBN:
- 9781526146649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526133403.00012
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
The conclusion will draw together the strands developed during the rest of the book. It will assert that historians of post-war Britain should pay closer attention to developments within the ...
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The conclusion will draw together the strands developed during the rest of the book. It will assert that historians of post-war Britain should pay closer attention to developments within the workplace and try to see events there as reflective of their own particular social and cultural logics rather than simply mirrors to wider changes in political culture. It will call for more acknowledgement of how what workers did within factories changed British life both at work and beyond. Rather than pathologising industrial relations in this period, we should instead look to understand workplace activism as something that represented a real attempt to assert agency within British life and, consequently, as something that shaped attitudes and behaviours.Less
The conclusion will draw together the strands developed during the rest of the book. It will assert that historians of post-war Britain should pay closer attention to developments within the workplace and try to see events there as reflective of their own particular social and cultural logics rather than simply mirrors to wider changes in political culture. It will call for more acknowledgement of how what workers did within factories changed British life both at work and beyond. Rather than pathologising industrial relations in this period, we should instead look to understand workplace activism as something that represented a real attempt to assert agency within British life and, consequently, as something that shaped attitudes and behaviours.
