Material World: Making the Modern Factory
Bridget Kendall discusses the development and global impact of the factory with guests Joshua B Freeman, Martin Krzywdzinski, Alessandra Mezzadri and Nina Rappaport.
The invention of the factory created not only a place of work but also a whole social structure. Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the key components of the rise of the factory, tracing its development from eighteenth century Britain to twenty-first century China and beyond. The discussion spans the lives of factory workers, the capitalist and communist ideas of the factory, and the changing face of manufacturing in an age of robots and big data.
Bridget is joined by Joshua B Freeman, Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College and the Graduate Centre of City University, New York; Martin Krzywdzinski, Head of the Project Group 'Globalization, Work, and Production' at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Nina Rappaport, architectural critic, curator, educator, consultant and director of the think tank Vertical Urban Factory; and Alessandra Mezzadri, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Producer: Alice Bloch
Image: Illustration of an old 18th century factory. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images).
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Guests and further reading...
Joshua B Freeman is a Distinguished Professor of History
at Queens College and the Graduate Centre of City University New York
Martin Krzywdzinski is Head of the Project Group
βGlobalization, Work, and Productionβ at The WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
Nina Rappaport is an architectural critic, curator,
educator, and consultant. She is the director of the think tank, Vertical Urban
Factory, which includes a book, exhibition, research branch and consultancy for
spaces for manufacturers in cities.
Alessandra Mezzadri is a Senior Lecturer in Development
Studies at SOAS, University of London.
FURTHER READING:
Joshua Freeman (2018) Behemoth: A History of The Factory
and the Making of the Modern World. W. W. Norton & Company.
Ulrich JΓΌrgens & Martin KrzywdzinskiΒ (2016) New Worlds of Work. Varieties of Work
in Car Factories in the BRIC Countries. Oxford University Press.
Ching Kwan Lee (1998) Gender and the South China Miracle:
Two Worlds of Factory Women, University of California Press.
Alessandra Mezzadri (2017) The Sweatshop Regime:
Labouring Bodies, Exploitation and Garments Made in India. Cambridge University
Press.
Nina
Rappaport (2016) Vertical Urban Factory. Actar.
Broadcast
- Sat 11 Aug 2018 11:00ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 FM