Supervision and Authority in Industry: Western European Experiences, 1830-1939(15 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.

Table of Contents:
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

About the Author :
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.