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Occupational identity & railway work
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Conference announcement and call for papers
National Railway Museum, York, United Kingdom
15-16 September 1999
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Jointly organized by Oxford Brookes University / International Centre
for Labour Studies at the University of Manchester / Institute of
Railway Studies, York
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The railway industry around the world is undergoing momentous upheaval
and change. While the structural and business aspects of the industry
have, quite rightly, been reported and analysed in detail the
consequences for labour have received much less attention. Since the
publication during the 1970s of important studies seeking to address
this imbalance profound changes have taken place, and yet the
examination of railway labour has taken a more fragmented and lower
profile than it deserves. At the same time academic interest in the
question of identity has mushroomed and a variety of writers have been
attracted to the historical and contemporary study of the industry by
the rich veins of material potentially available to them.
Fundamental changes to the structure of the industry represent an
important new challenge to the study of labour history and
occupational identity. This conference will bring together academics
from a variety of disciplines and other interested parties who wish to
debate issues surrounding occupational identity within the railway
industry from international and comparative perspectives. The aim is
to provide an arena to discuss railway labour and identity within the
contemporary industry but also to facilitate an understanding of the
historical roots of such identification and draw international
cross-cultural comparisons and contrasts.
We therefore invite papers from any disciplinary perspective by
scholars interested in work identity and meaning within the railway
industry. Suggestions for panels of speakers are welcome. Abstracts
for papers of approximately 300 words should be sent to the conference
organizers at the following address by 30 March 1999.
Ralph Harrington, Institute of Railway Studies, Department of History,
University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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