The Decline of the Family Work Unit in Black Country Nailing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9969635 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eric Hopkins (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1977 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 184-197 |
| Publication date | 1977-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Review of Social History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020859000005496 |
| OpenAlex | W2163211261 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 4 |
In his study of the effect of technological change on families working in the Lancashire cotton industry in the first half of the nineteenth century, Smelser has argued that the family as a work unit was disrupted by the introduction of larger mules, which required more child assistants in the spinning mill than one family alone could provide. The result was the disruption of the family work unit, hitherto preserved in the earlier cotton mills, and the decline of the old apprentice-ship system based on kinship. 1 It should be instructive, therefore, to attempt a comparative investigation of conditions in the family work unit in Black Country nailing in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the trade faced increasing competition from factory-made nails and died a lingering death similar in some ways to that of handloom weaving. 2 For the purposes of this article, the family work team of the nailers of Stourbridge and district will be examined in the light of the quantitative evidence of the 1851 census returns, and then the decline and disintegration of the work unit will be discussed, with particular reference to changes in familial roles. Here of course it will be impossible to separate work roles from social roles within the family, since so much time was spent by all members within the nailshop, and the distinctive life-style of nailers was strongly conditioned by their mode of work. Lastly, some suggestions will be made as to the causes of decline, and the general significance of the changes which took place in the family
Archaeology · Census · Factory (object-oriented programming · Industrial Revolution · Kinship · Mill · Political science · Population · Sociology · Unit (ring theory · Work (physics · Demography · Engineering · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.07 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2021 (39) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |