Supervision and Authority in Industry

Western European Experiences, 1830-1939
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84545-600-9
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 15, 244 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 512 g

Reihe: International Studies in Social History

The number of studies discussing the labour relationship under industrial capitalism is overwhelming, but the literature on labour and its concrete, day-today shop-floor practices is much less abundant. How and by whom workers were supervised is one of the neglected aspects in the history of labour relations. After an insightful introductory chapter discussing the different forms of supervision in the United States, Britain, France and Germany before the First World War, the case studies in this volume focus on foremen: vital, but largely unstudied figures in the history of factory life, labour relations and management. Illustrating the multiple faces of the foreman, the contributors examine the artisanal sector, textiles, mining, printing, engineering, heavy manufacturing and car industries in Western Europe and show that the foreman was a multifaceted character who possessed technical expertise in addition to educational and organizational qualities. This comprehensive volume is further enhanced by comparisons with practices of supervision in Russia, Japan, China and India.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eeckhout, Patricia van den

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Gewerkschaften, Industrielle Beziehungen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Foremen in American and Western European Industry before the First World War

Patricia Van den Eeckhout

Chapter 2. Work Organisation and Supervision in the Textile Industry: The Case of La España Industrial, Barcelona (1849-1888)

Cristina Borderías

Chapter 3. Salaried Authority. The Versatile Fate of Contremaîtres in the Ghent Cotton Industry (1830-1914)

Peter Scholliers

Chapter 4. Secrets, Lies and Contracts: Conflicts between Employers and Their Foremen in Nineteenth-Century Ghent (1885-1913)

Patricia Van den Eeckhout

Chapter 5. ‘To Organise Liberty’: Foremen and the Effort Bargain during British Industrialisation

James A. Jaffe

Chapter 6. Wage Forms and Hierarchy in Late Nineteenth-Century French Industry

Jérôme Bourdieu and Gilles Postel-Vinay

Chapter 7. Leading Hands at Work: the Impact of Changes in Technology, Work Organisation and Payment Systems on Supervision in the British Engineering Industry (1870-1914)

Joseph Melling

Chapter 8. ‘Stealing the Souls of Men’: Employers, Supervisors and Work Organisation, c. 1890-1939

Richard Coopey and Alan McKinlay

Chapter 9. Porions and Conducteurs: Supervisory Functions in the Belgian Limburg Coal-Mining Industry (1917-1939)

Bart Delbroek

Postscript

Patricia Van den Eeckhout

Notes on Contributors

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Eeckhout, Patricia van den
Patricia Van den Eeckhout is Professor of History and Discourse Analysis at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussel. She has published on the historiography of social history and the history of social housing policy, working-class family income, consumption, advertising, leisure, social statistics and labor relations.