Assembling cultures Workplace activism, labour militancy and cultural change in Britain’s car factories, 1945–82
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Car workers, trade unions and public discourse
- 2 Organising the car factories, 1945–64
- 3 Decentralised direct democracy, 1964–68
- 4 Remaking workplace trade unionism, 1968–75
- 5 Towards ‘strike free’, 1975–82
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Car workers, trade unions and public discourse
- 2 Organising the car factories, 1945–64
- 3 Decentralised direct democracy, 1964–68
- 4 Remaking workplace trade unionism, 1968–75
- 5 Towards ‘strike free’, 1975–82
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The introduction explores the importance of car workers in popular memories of post-war Britain, particularly their status as disruptive militants in narratives of decline.It calls into question the superficial treatment that car workers’ union activism has been given in the existing historiography, making a case for a social and cultural history of the industry that restores the agency and subjectivity of its workforce.Drawing on Bourdieu and Godelier, the Introduction proposes to analyse the social practices and cultural norms that structured workplace activism as a way of understanding the possibilities and limits that shaped workers’ lives.
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- Assembling culturesWorkplace activism, labour militancy and cultural change in Britain’s car factories, 1945–82, pp. 1 - 24Publisher: Manchester University PressFirst published in: 2025
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