Michael Berenbaum
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195134681
- eISBN:
- 9780199848652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195134681.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
A review of the book, The Union Kommando in Auschwitz: The Auschwitz Munitions Factory through the Eyes of Its Former Slave Laborers (Studies in the Shoah, Vol. 13) by Lore Shelly (ed. and trans.) is ...
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A review of the book, The Union Kommando in Auschwitz: The Auschwitz Munitions Factory through the Eyes of Its Former Slave Laborers (Studies in the Shoah, Vol. 13) by Lore Shelly (ed. and trans.) is presented. Some historians are wont to proclaim that they do not rely upon oral history but rather on contemporaneous documentation. The recollections of survivors are seemingly unreliable: they are not the stuff of history, certainly not of serious historians. Lore Shelly's disciplined efforts to compile the testimonies of scores of workers who worked in the munitions factory at Auschwitz shows us the possibilities and the difficulties of oral history. Shelly also demonstrates how indispensable oral history is for understanding the Holocaust.Less
A review of the book, The Union Kommando in Auschwitz: The Auschwitz Munitions Factory through the Eyes of Its Former Slave Laborers (Studies in the Shoah, Vol. 13) by Lore Shelly (ed. and trans.) is presented. Some historians are wont to proclaim that they do not rely upon oral history but rather on contemporaneous documentation. The recollections of survivors are seemingly unreliable: they are not the stuff of history, certainly not of serious historians. Lore Shelly's disciplined efforts to compile the testimonies of scores of workers who worked in the munitions factory at Auschwitz shows us the possibilities and the difficulties of oral history. Shelly also demonstrates how indispensable oral history is for understanding the Holocaust.
Johzen Takeuchi
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198292746
- eISBN:
- 9780191603891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292740.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter deals with the manufacturing industry for Western products that emerged after the opening of the treaty ports. These goods include brushes, buttons, matches, knitted goods, soaps, and ...
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This chapter deals with the manufacturing industry for Western products that emerged after the opening of the treaty ports. These goods include brushes, buttons, matches, knitted goods, soaps, and bicycles. Although the modern factories that made these products played significant roles in the early stages of industrialization, they eventually went into decline. The combination of modern technology and traditional skills formed another route to industrialization in modern Japan.Less
This chapter deals with the manufacturing industry for Western products that emerged after the opening of the treaty ports. These goods include brushes, buttons, matches, knitted goods, soaps, and bicycles. Although the modern factories that made these products played significant roles in the early stages of industrialization, they eventually went into decline. The combination of modern technology and traditional skills formed another route to industrialization in modern Japan.
Satoshi Matsumura
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198292746
- eISBN:
- 9780191603891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292740.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter argues that there was a substantial diversity in the forms of production used in the silk-reeling industry in modern Japan. Although export growth led to the development of this ...
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This chapter argues that there was a substantial diversity in the forms of production used in the silk-reeling industry in modern Japan. Although export growth led to the development of this industry, the domestic market for raw silk also contributed to the increase in total demand after the first decade of the 20th century. The reason why domestically-oriented manufacturers did not adopt the factory system of production, but instead used various forms of production such as independent operation, subcontracting to small-scale factories, and putting-out was discussed.Less
This chapter argues that there was a substantial diversity in the forms of production used in the silk-reeling industry in modern Japan. Although export growth led to the development of this industry, the domestic market for raw silk also contributed to the increase in total demand after the first decade of the 20th century. The reason why domestically-oriented manufacturers did not adopt the factory system of production, but instead used various forms of production such as independent operation, subcontracting to small-scale factories, and putting-out was discussed.
Jun Sasaki
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198292746
- eISBN:
- 9780191603891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292740.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter looks into the working conditions in a rural weaving factory during the early 20th century. Based on the attendance books of workers, it is shown that the days and hours actually worked ...
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This chapter looks into the working conditions in a rural weaving factory during the early 20th century. Based on the attendance books of workers, it is shown that the days and hours actually worked by female workers in the factory were strongly influenced by the labour demand from agriculture, as well as the housework demands of their household. The introduction of machines into rural factories did not mark the major divide that is commonly assumed by economic historians.Less
This chapter looks into the working conditions in a rural weaving factory during the early 20th century. Based on the attendance books of workers, it is shown that the days and hours actually worked by female workers in the factory were strongly influenced by the labour demand from agriculture, as well as the housework demands of their household. The introduction of machines into rural factories did not mark the major divide that is commonly assumed by economic historians.
Masaki Nakabayashi
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780198292746
- eISBN:
- 9780191603891
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198292740.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter analyzes the modernization of the silk-reeling industry, focusing on the most prosperous silk reeling district of Suwa. The rapid growth of silk reeling in Suwa is attributed to the ...
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This chapter analyzes the modernization of the silk-reeling industry, focusing on the most prosperous silk reeling district of Suwa. The rapid growth of silk reeling in Suwa is attributed to the establishment of an efficient factory system. Its capacity to supply large amounts of high quality raw silk matched the rising demand from the mechanized silk weaving industry in the United States, resulting in strong competitiveness in the export market.Less
This chapter analyzes the modernization of the silk-reeling industry, focusing on the most prosperous silk reeling district of Suwa. The rapid growth of silk reeling in Suwa is attributed to the establishment of an efficient factory system. Its capacity to supply large amounts of high quality raw silk matched the rising demand from the mechanized silk weaving industry in the United States, resulting in strong competitiveness in the export market.
Edward Brech, Andrew Thomson, and John F. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199541966
- eISBN:
- 9780191715433
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541966.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History, Strategy
This chapter starts with the state of the ‘management movement’ in Britain in the interwar period as a background context, but mainly deals with Urwick's early writings, starting with four books or ...
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This chapter starts with the state of the ‘management movement’ in Britain in the interwar period as a background context, but mainly deals with Urwick's early writings, starting with four books or contributions to books written when he was still at Rowntree's. One article in particular, on ‘The Principles of Direction and Control’ has been seen as a seminal synthesis of organizational ideas. While at the International Management Institute (IMI) he wrote ‘Management of Tomorrow’, his most comprehensive book, reflecting on four key dimensions of management at the time. Then in 1937, he was invited by Luther Gulick, the Director of the American Institute of Public Administration, to co‐edit what is recognized as one of the most important books of management thought of the 1930s, ‘Papers on the Science of Administration’.Less
This chapter starts with the state of the ‘management movement’ in Britain in the interwar period as a background context, but mainly deals with Urwick's early writings, starting with four books or contributions to books written when he was still at Rowntree's. One article in particular, on ‘The Principles of Direction and Control’ has been seen as a seminal synthesis of organizational ideas. While at the International Management Institute (IMI) he wrote ‘Management of Tomorrow’, his most comprehensive book, reflecting on four key dimensions of management at the time. Then in 1937, he was invited by Luther Gulick, the Director of the American Institute of Public Administration, to co‐edit what is recognized as one of the most important books of management thought of the 1930s, ‘Papers on the Science of Administration’.
Tony Elger and Chris Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199241514
- eISBN:
- 9780191714405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241514.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter compares two large assembly factories that implemented important elements of the Japanese production model and showed a continuing commitment to new products and investment by their ...
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This chapter compares two large assembly factories that implemented important elements of the Japanese production model and showed a continuing commitment to new products and investment by their parent companies. Nevertheless, day to day work within these workplaces differs markedly from idealized accounts of Japanese production methods, especially in regard to team-working and forms of worker involvement, and the evolution of employment relations reveals persistent sources of tension and uncertainty. This prompts a reappraisal of the limits of transfer and the extent of localization of production and employment practices at such subsidiaries, and analysis of what constitutes ‘good enough’ production when enterprise and sector norms of performance co-exist with intractable features of employment relations. Finally, the chapter addresses differences between the two factories in management alliances, employment relations and work organization, and relates such differences to the timing of investment, wider corporate orientations, sector recipes, and the exigencies of management-worker relations.Less
This chapter compares two large assembly factories that implemented important elements of the Japanese production model and showed a continuing commitment to new products and investment by their parent companies. Nevertheless, day to day work within these workplaces differs markedly from idealized accounts of Japanese production methods, especially in regard to team-working and forms of worker involvement, and the evolution of employment relations reveals persistent sources of tension and uncertainty. This prompts a reappraisal of the limits of transfer and the extent of localization of production and employment practices at such subsidiaries, and analysis of what constitutes ‘good enough’ production when enterprise and sector norms of performance co-exist with intractable features of employment relations. Finally, the chapter addresses differences between the two factories in management alliances, employment relations and work organization, and relates such differences to the timing of investment, wider corporate orientations, sector recipes, and the exigencies of management-worker relations.
Mari Sako
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199268160
- eISBN:
- 9780191708534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268160.003.0003
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter describes a broad trend in the transformation of the structure of companies and unions in Japan from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Four periods are identified: the ...
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This chapter describes a broad trend in the transformation of the structure of companies and unions in Japan from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Four periods are identified: the first decade after 1945 when many unions sprung up at the factory level; the 1950s and 1960s when corporate consolidation led to the unification of factory unions into enterprise unions; the 1970s and 1980s when the diffusion of corporate groupings led to the formation of roren (i.e., union federations organised along the lines of a corporate group); and the years since the recession of the 1990s when corporate spin-offs and rationalization were challenging unions to redefine their boundaries. For each period, the types of corporate boundary, hierarchical boundary, or workforce boundary that became topical and contentious are discussed.Less
This chapter describes a broad trend in the transformation of the structure of companies and unions in Japan from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Four periods are identified: the first decade after 1945 when many unions sprung up at the factory level; the 1950s and 1960s when corporate consolidation led to the unification of factory unions into enterprise unions; the 1970s and 1980s when the diffusion of corporate groupings led to the formation of roren (i.e., union federations organised along the lines of a corporate group); and the years since the recession of the 1990s when corporate spin-offs and rationalization were challenging unions to redefine their boundaries. For each period, the types of corporate boundary, hierarchical boundary, or workforce boundary that became topical and contentious are discussed.
Gerardo Patriotta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199275243
- eISBN:
- 9780191719684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275243.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter provides a brief outline of the Fiat Group's origins, business activities, and organizational model. Section 4.2 outlines a profile of the company by describing its main business ...
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This chapter provides a brief outline of the Fiat Group's origins, business activities, and organizational model. Section 4.2 outlines a profile of the company by describing its main business operations as well as by providing a series of significant performance indicators. Sections 4.3-4.5 analyse the distinctive chronological phases characterizing the development of the company. Finally, Section 4.6 presents the main structural principles underlying the organizational model currently adopted by Fiat at the plant level, and hence in the plants considered in this study.Less
This chapter provides a brief outline of the Fiat Group's origins, business activities, and organizational model. Section 4.2 outlines a profile of the company by describing its main business operations as well as by providing a series of significant performance indicators. Sections 4.3-4.5 analyse the distinctive chronological phases characterizing the development of the company. Finally, Section 4.6 presents the main structural principles underlying the organizational model currently adopted by Fiat at the plant level, and hence in the plants considered in this study.
Gerardo Patriotta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199275243
- eISBN:
- 9780191719684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275243.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter analyses the action-based processes of knowing and organizing surrounding the coming into existence of one of the most advanced car manufacturing plants in the world: Fiat's Melfi ...
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This chapter analyses the action-based processes of knowing and organizing surrounding the coming into existence of one of the most advanced car manufacturing plants in the world: Fiat's Melfi assembly plant. This new ‘green field’ factory features a lean production organization, work flow based on assembly lines and teams, advanced applications of IT to production management and control, and extensive reliance on total quality management. Beyond technical specifications, however, the most interesting feature of the plant is that it has been built with the active involvement of the workforce. Indeed, the Fiat management conceived the whole Melfi project as a learning experiment based on a greenfield strategy where the future workers would literally build the factory, including the place and the setting where they would be assembling cars. The experiment had no antecedents in Fiat's history and the whole project relied on a young and inexperienced workforce.Less
This chapter analyses the action-based processes of knowing and organizing surrounding the coming into existence of one of the most advanced car manufacturing plants in the world: Fiat's Melfi assembly plant. This new ‘green field’ factory features a lean production organization, work flow based on assembly lines and teams, advanced applications of IT to production management and control, and extensive reliance on total quality management. Beyond technical specifications, however, the most interesting feature of the plant is that it has been built with the active involvement of the workforce. Indeed, the Fiat management conceived the whole Melfi project as a learning experiment based on a greenfield strategy where the future workers would literally build the factory, including the place and the setting where they would be assembling cars. The experiment had no antecedents in Fiat's history and the whole project relied on a young and inexperienced workforce.
Gerardo Patriotta
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199275243
- eISBN:
- 9780191719684
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199275243.003.0006
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Strategy
This chapter assesses the process of institutionalization of knowledge within the Melfi factory now that the plant had reached its full production capacity. The case study presented attempts to test ...
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This chapter assesses the process of institutionalization of knowledge within the Melfi factory now that the plant had reached its full production capacity. The case study presented attempts to test how the competencies acquired by workers and managers on the greenfield site are applied in the practical context of the production process. The learning dynamics observed on the shop floor highlight the distinctive features of Melfi's production system as opposed to the traditional Fordist model. This distinction is grounded on knowledge-based rather than technology-based factors.Less
This chapter assesses the process of institutionalization of knowledge within the Melfi factory now that the plant had reached its full production capacity. The case study presented attempts to test how the competencies acquired by workers and managers on the greenfield site are applied in the practical context of the production process. The learning dynamics observed on the shop floor highlight the distinctive features of Melfi's production system as opposed to the traditional Fordist model. This distinction is grounded on knowledge-based rather than technology-based factors.
W. Mark Fruin
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198288985
- eISBN:
- 9780191596285
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198288980.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter offers a detailed examination of the evolution of focal factories, drawing most of its empirical evidence from a close reading of the histories of several Toshiba factories. Looking at ...
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This chapter offers a detailed examination of the evolution of focal factories, drawing most of its empirical evidence from a close reading of the histories of several Toshiba factories. Looking at the changing organizational interface between focal factories and company‐wide structures offers a valuable examination of the introduction of the multidivisional model of company organization and its impact on factory and shop‐floor practices at Toshiba. The chapter starts by looking at the general institutional consequences of late development, and then, for Toshiba, examines its history and organizational patterns, organizational boundaries and the focal factory, pre‐war and post‐war organization, post‐war product diversity, factory organization and management, and corporate strategy and factory response.Less
This chapter offers a detailed examination of the evolution of focal factories, drawing most of its empirical evidence from a close reading of the histories of several Toshiba factories. Looking at the changing organizational interface between focal factories and company‐wide structures offers a valuable examination of the introduction of the multidivisional model of company organization and its impact on factory and shop‐floor practices at Toshiba. The chapter starts by looking at the general institutional consequences of late development, and then, for Toshiba, examines its history and organizational patterns, organizational boundaries and the focal factory, pre‐war and post‐war organization, post‐war product diversity, factory organization and management, and corporate strategy and factory response.
Ching Kwan Lee
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520211254
- eISBN:
- 9780520920040
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520211254.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Yuk-ling, a busy Hong Kong mother of two, and Chi-ying, a young single woman from a remote village in northern China, work in electronics factories owned by the same foreign corporation, ...
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Yuk-ling, a busy Hong Kong mother of two, and Chi-ying, a young single woman from a remote village in northern China, work in electronics factories owned by the same foreign corporation, manufacturing identical electronic components. After a decade of job growth and increasing foreign investment in Hong Kong and south China, both women are also participating in the spectacular economic transformation that has come to be called the South China miracle. Yet, as this book demonstrates in its unique and fascinating study of women workers on either side of the Chinese–Hong Kong border, the working lives and factory cultures of these women are vastly different. This comparative ethnography describes how two radically different factory cultures have emerged from a period of profound economic change. In Hong Kong, “matron workers” remain in factories for decades. In Guangdong, a seemingly endless number of young “maiden workers” travel to the south from northern provinces, following the promise of higher wages. Whereas the women in Hong Kong participate in a management system characterized by “familial hegemony,” the young women in Guangdong find an internal system of power based on regional politics and kin connections, or “localistic despotism.” The book concludes that it is primarily the differences in the gender politics of the two labor markets that determine the culture of each factory. It argues that gender plays a crucial role in the cultures and management strategies of factories that rely heavily on women workers.Less
Yuk-ling, a busy Hong Kong mother of two, and Chi-ying, a young single woman from a remote village in northern China, work in electronics factories owned by the same foreign corporation, manufacturing identical electronic components. After a decade of job growth and increasing foreign investment in Hong Kong and south China, both women are also participating in the spectacular economic transformation that has come to be called the South China miracle. Yet, as this book demonstrates in its unique and fascinating study of women workers on either side of the Chinese–Hong Kong border, the working lives and factory cultures of these women are vastly different. This comparative ethnography describes how two radically different factory cultures have emerged from a period of profound economic change. In Hong Kong, “matron workers” remain in factories for decades. In Guangdong, a seemingly endless number of young “maiden workers” travel to the south from northern provinces, following the promise of higher wages. Whereas the women in Hong Kong participate in a management system characterized by “familial hegemony,” the young women in Guangdong find an internal system of power based on regional politics and kin connections, or “localistic despotism.” The book concludes that it is primarily the differences in the gender politics of the two labor markets that determine the culture of each factory. It argues that gender plays a crucial role in the cultures and management strategies of factories that rely heavily on women workers.
David B. Audretsch
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183504
- eISBN:
- 9780199783885
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183504.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter explains the era and institutions of the managed economy. Emerging from the Second World War, the United States found itself almost alone with a relative abundance of the factor that ...
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This chapter explains the era and institutions of the managed economy. Emerging from the Second World War, the United States found itself almost alone with a relative abundance of the factor that mattered the most for growth, jobs, and prosperity — capital. During the era of the managed economy, it was first and foremost capital that mattered, and everything that helped it — machines, factories, and labour which would work it and organize it. With the dazzling unprecedented post-war prosperity pouring out of US factories and plants, transforming first a country overcome by economic depression following a country at war, there seemed to be plenty enough for every American to go around.Less
This chapter explains the era and institutions of the managed economy. Emerging from the Second World War, the United States found itself almost alone with a relative abundance of the factor that mattered the most for growth, jobs, and prosperity — capital. During the era of the managed economy, it was first and foremost capital that mattered, and everything that helped it — machines, factories, and labour which would work it and organize it. With the dazzling unprecedented post-war prosperity pouring out of US factories and plants, transforming first a country overcome by economic depression following a country at war, there seemed to be plenty enough for every American to go around.
Andrew Walder
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520064706
- eISBN:
- 9780520909007
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520064706.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Based on official Chinese sources as well as intensive interviews with Hong Kong residents formerly employed in mainland factories, this book's neo-traditional image of communist society in China ...
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Based on official Chinese sources as well as intensive interviews with Hong Kong residents formerly employed in mainland factories, this book's neo-traditional image of communist society in China covers topics with respect to China and other communist countries, but also industrial relations and comparative social science.Less
Based on official Chinese sources as well as intensive interviews with Hong Kong residents formerly employed in mainland factories, this book's neo-traditional image of communist society in China covers topics with respect to China and other communist countries, but also industrial relations and comparative social science.
Sylvia J Cook
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195327809
- eISBN:
- 9780199870547
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327809.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ...
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This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ways that their hopes for lives of full development were fulfilled, exploited, and often disappointed — a process repeated when immigrant women entered factories and sweatshops early in the 20th century. It investigates their literary productions, from the New England factory magazine, the Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of women operatives, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's novel of sweatshop workers, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. Working women's fascination with books and writing evolved in the context of an American romanticism that encouraged ideals of self-reliance, although not in factory “girls”. Their efforts to pursue a life of the mind while engaged in manual labor also coincided with the emergence of middle-class women writers from private lives into the literary marketplace. However, while middle-class women risked forfeiting their femininity by trying to earn money, factory women were accused of betraying their class by attempting to be literary. The book traces the romantic literariness of several generations of working-class women and the broader literary responses to them from male romantic authors, popular novelists, and union writers for the Knights of Labor. The most significant literary interaction, however, is with middle-class women writers, many of whom responded sympathetically to workers' economic and social inequities, but balked at promoting their artistic and intellectual equality.Less
This book explores the mental and literary awakening that many working-class women in the United States experienced when they left home to work in factories early in the 19th century. It examines the ways that their hopes for lives of full development were fulfilled, exploited, and often disappointed — a process repeated when immigrant women entered factories and sweatshops early in the 20th century. It investigates their literary productions, from the New England factory magazine, the Lowell Offering, to Emma Goldman's periodical, Mother Earth; from Lucy Larcom's epic poem of women operatives, An Idyl of Work, to Theresa Malkiel's novel of sweatshop workers, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker. Working women's fascination with books and writing evolved in the context of an American romanticism that encouraged ideals of self-reliance, although not in factory “girls”. Their efforts to pursue a life of the mind while engaged in manual labor also coincided with the emergence of middle-class women writers from private lives into the literary marketplace. However, while middle-class women risked forfeiting their femininity by trying to earn money, factory women were accused of betraying their class by attempting to be literary. The book traces the romantic literariness of several generations of working-class women and the broader literary responses to them from male romantic authors, popular novelists, and union writers for the Knights of Labor. The most significant literary interaction, however, is with middle-class women writers, many of whom responded sympathetically to workers' economic and social inequities, but balked at promoting their artistic and intellectual equality.
Marek Korczynski
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451546
- eISBN:
- 9780801454813
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451546.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Occupations, Professions, and Work
This book examines the role that popular music plays in workers' culture on the factory floor. It shows how workers make often grueling assembly-line work tolerable by permeating their workday with ...
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This book examines the role that popular music plays in workers' culture on the factory floor. It shows how workers make often grueling assembly-line work tolerable by permeating their workday with pop music on the radio. The first ethnographic study of musical culture in an industrial workplace, the book draws on socio-musicology, cultural studies, and sociology of work, combining theoretical development, methodological innovation, and a vitality that brings the musical culture of the factory workers to life. Music, the book argues, allows workers both to fulfill their social roles in a regimented industrial environment and to express a sense of resistance to this social order. The book highlights the extensive forms of informal collective resistance within this factory, and argues that the musically informed culture played a key role in sustaining these collective acts of resistance. As well as providing a rich picture of the musical culture and associated forms of resistance in the factory, the book also puts forward new theoretical concepts that have currency in other workplaces and in other rationalized spheres of society.Less
This book examines the role that popular music plays in workers' culture on the factory floor. It shows how workers make often grueling assembly-line work tolerable by permeating their workday with pop music on the radio. The first ethnographic study of musical culture in an industrial workplace, the book draws on socio-musicology, cultural studies, and sociology of work, combining theoretical development, methodological innovation, and a vitality that brings the musical culture of the factory workers to life. Music, the book argues, allows workers both to fulfill their social roles in a regimented industrial environment and to express a sense of resistance to this social order. The book highlights the extensive forms of informal collective resistance within this factory, and argues that the musically informed culture played a key role in sustaining these collective acts of resistance. As well as providing a rich picture of the musical culture and associated forms of resistance in the factory, the book also puts forward new theoretical concepts that have currency in other workplaces and in other rationalized spheres of society.
Quentin R. Walsh
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034799
- eISBN:
- 9780813039688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034799.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The general arrangement of the Ulysses was typical of any modern pelagic whaling factory. Their level of production, which also partly determined how personnel were paid, classed the ships. Modern ...
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The general arrangement of the Ulysses was typical of any modern pelagic whaling factory. Their level of production, which also partly determined how personnel were paid, classed the ships. Modern pelagic factory ships were generally divided into five classes according to their capacity to produce a certain amount of oil. The classification was determined and agreed upon by the owners of the ships and the Norwegian whaling unions. The classification of the factories was supposed to be as theoretically correct as it could possibly be, but this often did not work out in practice. Some of those divergences were so extensive that factors other than oil production were needed to be observed by the unions and the owners when the designation of a factory ship was considered.Less
The general arrangement of the Ulysses was typical of any modern pelagic whaling factory. Their level of production, which also partly determined how personnel were paid, classed the ships. Modern pelagic factory ships were generally divided into five classes according to their capacity to produce a certain amount of oil. The classification was determined and agreed upon by the owners of the ships and the Norwegian whaling unions. The classification of the factories was supposed to be as theoretically correct as it could possibly be, but this often did not work out in practice. Some of those divergences were so extensive that factors other than oil production were needed to be observed by the unions and the owners when the designation of a factory ship was considered.
Sarasij Majumder
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823282425
- eISBN:
- 9780823284849
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823282425.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This section tracks the present situation in the factory site.
This section tracks the present situation in the factory site.
MITROFF IAN I. and LINSTONE HAROLD A.
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195102888
- eISBN:
- 9780199854943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102888.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
Globalization of businesses is revising the principles for doing business today. Unlike the previous era, today's competition had become more intense and U.S. businesses have been challenged more ...
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Globalization of businesses is revising the principles for doing business today. Unlike the previous era, today's competition had become more intense and U.S. businesses have been challenged more seriously. This chapter argues that there is a need for a new knowledge or new thinking for the United States to regain its position in the business arena and better match the needs of today's world. The chapter begins with a description of the modern factory and business corporation as Idea Systems — that they serve as systems for the production and testing of ideas. It demonstrates how the emerging concept for the service factory denotes that a factory should be an unbounded, open system as a result of globalization. A brief summary of the U.S. industrial system between World War II and the present is outlined to understand why a radical and thorough redesign of American business is necessary.Less
Globalization of businesses is revising the principles for doing business today. Unlike the previous era, today's competition had become more intense and U.S. businesses have been challenged more seriously. This chapter argues that there is a need for a new knowledge or new thinking for the United States to regain its position in the business arena and better match the needs of today's world. The chapter begins with a description of the modern factory and business corporation as Idea Systems — that they serve as systems for the production and testing of ideas. It demonstrates how the emerging concept for the service factory denotes that a factory should be an unbounded, open system as a result of globalization. A brief summary of the U.S. industrial system between World War II and the present is outlined to understand why a radical and thorough redesign of American business is necessary.
