I think one of the major methodological problems we are having is linking
workplace production to consumption. Producers won't make things they can't
sell for a profit but consumers can only buy what producers make available.
Consumption is currently very fashionable but needs to be understood
alongside the productive process. However, the study of the working place
has been strong on technology but very weak on economics/commerce (also
currently unfashionable) and sociology. As Marc Bloch pointed out in the
1930s in his study of medieval mills technology depends not just on
invention but on application.One of the problems we have had with the
Industrial Revolution in Britain is the over emphasis on those industries
(coal and cotton etc) which had macro-invention led revolutions connected to
steam power and other major technological jumps. A lot of other industries
changed in more subtle ways often commercially rather than technologically
driven.
----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 4:02 PM
Subject: Re: Industrial Archaeology of the Workplace
> I am suprised, actually, by your statement that most industrial
excavations
> focus on the worker. It was my impression that just the opposite is
> true--that the prevailing focus of industrial archaeologists has been on
the
> documentation of past industries, the recordation and preservation of
> structures and industrial technologies, and that rather few industrial
sites
> have been excavated with the role of the worker in mind. Studies such as
> those by David Landon in Michigan, the investigation of Lowell's
> boardinghouses under the direction of Mary Beaudry and Stephen Mrozowski,
> Paul Mullins's examination of potters in nineteenth-century Rockingham
> County, Virginia, and Paul Shackel's work at the armory in Harper's Ferry,
> VA, are still in the minority.
>
> The reference made by Mark Walker to scientific management and Taylorism
> calls to mind a study by T. E. Leary (1979) who proposed an industrial
> ecology of the workplace. While this seems like an excellent basis for an
> integrated study of the workplace, combining both its technological and
> social aspects, it is nonetheless only a partial window on the industrial
> past if we do not also consider worker behavior outside the workplace--in
the
> boardinghouse, the brothel, or the bar. Leary's particular interest is
with
> the material environment of production--the effects of machinery and the
> internal arrangements of the workplace upon working conditions. This is
> easily expanded to include studies of labor and management relations. But
it
> is my feeling that while an industrial ecology of the workplace can be an
> integral part of the study of the industrial landscape, it provides at
best
> only a limited perspective on working-class behavior, since it is not
> representative of the full spectrum of relationships in which workers
> participated daily.
>
> It seems to me that whatever the industry, an understanding of management
and
> labor and the industrial process within the workplace is not and cannot be
> complete without an equal consideration of worker behavior outside of the
work
> place--indeed, that this is the context for understanding worker behavior
in
> an industrial setting. For this reason, I think it all the more important
> that we encourage studies such as those produced under the America's
> Industrial Heritage Project--surveys on industrial sites, company towns,
and
> worker housing, both private and corporate. Mulrooney's survey of company
> towns, and of living conditions for bituminous coal miners and their
families
> in southwestern PA, is an excellent example and provides a solid base for
any
> study of the 'workplace', be it underground in the mines, a study of coke
> ovens, or the transportation of finished products to consumers.
>
> Karen Metheny
>
>
>
> In a message dated 1/19/01 10:48:37 AM, you wrote:
>
> << Today industrial archaeology is in the same position and those of us
>
> > interested
>
> > in it are ready for another paradigm shift. Most excavations of
>
> > industrial sites
>
> > key on the workers. Often the excavations of company towns are confined
>
> > to the
>
> > boarding houses, brothels, and bars. But, it is time for the
>
> > archaeological
>
> > community to realize that there is tremendous value in excavating the
>
> > industrial
>
> > portions.
>
> >>
>
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