In 2005 the Guinness Brewery at Park Royal, West London closed after seven decades of production. The author spent the last six months of the Brewery’s life working with a photographer to record in words and picture the site before closure. Subsequent research carried out over a twelve-year period revealed an incredibly rich story of corporate culture change, the transformation of work and the workplace as well as deindustrialisation. His research included working in archives in Dublin, Scotland and London as well as oral histories and an extensive range of visual methods. Drawing on material from his book based on the project, Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery, Oxford 2019, the author reflects on what that story tells us about work meaning, identity and organisations life in the second decade of the twenty-first century as well as much wider questions about deindustrialisation.
Tim Strangleman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology, in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, SSPSSR, University of Kent, Canterbury. He has researched and written widely on work identity, culture and meaning; traditional industries in decline and deindustrialisation. Tim is an historical sociologist who uses oral history and visual methods and approaches in his research. He has published articles in a range of journals including Sociology, IJURR, Sociological Review and ILWCH. He is the author of three books: (2008) Work and Society: Sociological Approaches, Themes and Methods, with Tracey Warren, Routledge; and (2004) Work Identity at the End of the Line? Privatisation and Culture Change in the UK Rail Industry, Palgrave. His latest monograph, Voices of Guinness: An Oral History of the Park Royal Brewery, was published by Oxford University Press in 2019. In 2021 he completed The Routledge International Handbook of Working-Class Studies with his co-editors Christie Launius and Michele Fazio. He is currently in the process of co-editing The Routledge International Handbook of Deindustrialisation Studies which will be published in 2024/5.
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
17.00 - 18.30
Maison des Sciences humaines, Black Box
11, Porte des Sciences
L-4466 Esch-sur-Alzette
and online.
The event is part of the lecture series "Confronting Decline: Challenges of Deindustrialisation in Western Societies since the 1970s".