‘Land and empire: politics and the British aluminium company’ : Paper to the European Business Association Conference, Glasgow

For much of the twentieth-century, aluminium producers enjoyed a close relationship with national governments, not least as prominent players in military-industrial complexes (for example, Anderson 1951; Smith 1988; Grinberg and Hachez-Leroy 1997). This paper explores the ideological motivations and political activities of senior figures within Britain’s dominant native aluminium producer for much of the twentieth-century, the British Aluminium Company Ltd. (BACo), drawing on work by the author (Perchard 2007, 2010). As a company self-styled as ‘the Service’, support within BACo for imperial priorities and patrician values was sustained both by commercial imperatives as well as the social and cultural background of many of the directors (until the 1960s), amongst them hereditary landowners, retired senior military officers and latterly senior civil servants. This paper will examine the political activities of directors collectively and individually through their engagement with power elites (Mills 1956). In particular, it will focus upon the areas of imperial defence, and regional development in the Scottish Highlands (where BACo’s main smelters were based), to illustrate how their involvement in political activities and social networks was both self-serving and governed by instinctive values. In so doing it will also comment upon the ‘revolving door’ between public and private spheres. While calling into question the general application of the notion of a ‘gentlemanly capitalist’ order, this paper accords with Larry Butler’s view of imperial mining concerns and the British metropolitan government’s priorities during decolonization that: ‘it may, rather, be more accurate to speak of temporary convergences of interest’ (Butler 2007: 477; Cain and Hopkins 1987)

Workplace Cultures

In the song Factory, released as part of the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town album, Bruce Springsteen reflected the centrality of industrial work to many neighbourhoods, towns and cities across the United States at the time. One of Springsteen’s bleakest albums, Darkness was released against the backdrop of the loss of around 22.3m US jobs between 1969 and 1976, with the closure of some 100,000 manufacturing plants between 1963 and 1982. The Freehold, NJ, native drew heavily on the experiences of his family and hometown, which had experienced the closure of the A. & M. Karagheusian Company’s rug factory. Factory reflected the ambiguous nature of industrial work; it underpins both economic and social survival while threatening life and limb. Springsteen’s factory is also a highly gendered space; a masculine world of industrial labour. Springsteen’s factory presents the industrial worker, like those in Sherry Lee Linkon and John Russo’s memorable study of Youngstown, Steeltown USA, as both ‘powerful and powerless’. Above all, the workplace culture of the factory is situated at the heart of community and family

Managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry, 1947–1994

This article examines managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry. On nationalisation in 1947, the National Coal Board (NCB) – after 1987 the British Coal Corporation – became the largest socialised industry outside of the Communist bloc. Privatised in 1994, as part of liberal market reforms, the industry was a crucible for ideological clashes amongst managers. The article responds to interest in the impact of managerial ideologies and identities on organisations and in the search for illuminating historical case studies in different organisational settings. The authors position those ideological clashes, and distinctive managerial identities, within a moral economic framework

Managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry, 1947–1994

This article examines managerial ideology and identity in the nationalised British coal industry. On nationalisation in 1947, the National Coal Board (NCB) – after 1987 the British Coal Corporation – became the largest socialised industry outside of the Communist bloc. Privatised in 1994, as part of liberal market reforms, the industry was a crucible for ideological clashes amongst managers. The article responds to interest in the impact of managerial ideologies and identities on organisations and in the search for illuminating historical case studies in different organisational settings. The authors position those ideological clashes, and distinctive managerial identities, within a moral economic framework

Fighting for the soul of coal: Colliery closures and the moral economy of nationalization in Britain, 1947–1994

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2024.6In this article, we explore the impact of colliery closure programs across the nationalized British coal industry. We chart the regional disparities in these and the mobilization of community opposition to national protests, leading to the national miners’ strikes of 1972, 1974, and 1984–5. This article demonstrates how closures have changed the industrial politics of mining unions for miners, junior officials, and managers and have increasingly alienated NCB officials and mining communities. We demonstrate how this undermined the ideals of nationalization. This is examined through moral economic frameworks and within the context of changes to the UK’s energy mix, with implications for contemporary deliberations on public ownership, energy transitions, and regional development.The authors would like to thank the Arts and Humanities Research Council for their funding of the project, ‘On Behalf of the People: Work, Community and Class in the British Coal Industry, 1947–1994’ (AH/P007244/1) on which this article is based.Published onlin

Revisiting the history of the British coal industry: the politics of legacy, memory and heritage

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Waseda University Research Center for Humanities in Waseda Rilas Journal on 12 Oct 2020. The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published versionThis paper revisits the history of the British coal industry in the context of deindustrialisation, ruptures in electoral politics, and attempts by former miners to preserve a mining past. Methodologically it draws on an oral history project that involved over 100 participants in England, Scotland and Wales. The life stories conveyed by the former miners provide entry points to various aspects of the industrial, social and cultural life of coal communities. The specific focus here is on the ways in which the miners themselves are striving to create and curate their own stories and experiences through local heritage projects in the town of Leigh in north west England and the former mining villages of the north Wales coast. The interviews are indicative of the sense of the isolation they continue to experience in the contemporary economic context of deindustrialisation and challenges to their sense of class, community and nation. Tensions between former miners and the wider social and political culture of their communities hinge on narratives and histories of the 1984/5 miners’ strike. Heritage projects developed in both localities have become battlegrounds for what kind of history should be presented to the public, where memorials should be located, and which memories and experiences should be preserved. Miners who took part in the strike understandably want to centre their histories and narratives through the lens of 1984/5, while those who continued to work through the dispute argue that it should be given a more marginal position in commemoration and heritage. The interviews offer more complex readings of the social and cultural politics of the coal industry and challenge some of the prevailing orthodoxies in the historiograph

Unlocking dynamic capabilities in the Scotch whisky industry, 1945–present

In this article we examine the development of the Scotch whisky industry since 1945 through the lens of dynamic capabilities. We explain how sui generis acts—novel initiatives outwith the established repertoire of practices of a firm or industry—by external actors joining the industry helped unlock dynamic capabilities at the firm level in the industry which in turn drove change across the sector after a series of takeovers. We detail the key structural changes in the Scotch whisky industry and demonstrate how important external actors can be in effecting sector level change by extending and connecting our analysis to existing debates in business history and strategy research

Transgressing the moral economy: Wheelerism and management of the nationalised coal industry in Scotland

This article illuminates the links between managerial style and political economy in post-1945 Britain, and explores the origins of the 1984–1985 miners' strike, by examining in longer historical context the abrasive attitudes and policies of Albert Wheeler, Scottish Area Director of the National Coal Board (NCB). Wheeler built on an earlier emphasis on production and economic criteria, and his micro-management reflected pre-existing centralising tendencies in the industries. But he was innovative in one crucial aspect, transgressing the moral economy of the Scottish coalfield, which emphasised the value of economic security and changes by joint industrial agreement

Report on the Business Plan of Scottish Power Energy Networks for the RIIO-ED 2 Price Control

The Gas and Electricity Regulator, Ofgem, regulates the companies that own, maintain and operate the wires and other equipment that distribute electricity to our homes and businesses and Ofgem decides how much these Distribution Network Operators (DNO) can charge through regular ‘Price Controls’. These ‘Distribution Network’ charges are incorporated into the regular bills we receive from our electricity supplier. Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) is the DNO for Southern Scotland, North Wales and a large part of North West England around Merseyside and Cheshire and it has now produced its Business Plan for the next ED2 (Electricity Distribution 2) Price Control running from 2023 to 2028. The purpose of the Customer Engagement Group (CEG) is “to provide independent challenge to SPEN and views to Ofgem on whether SPEN’s Business Plan addresses the needs and preferences of it’s customers and other stakeholders”. Overall, the CEG believes that SPEN has produced a Final Business Plan that reflects the needs and preferences of consumers and other stakeholders as drawn from its re-search and addresses the expected challenges of net zero and vulnerable consumers. Moreover, SPEN’s plan has evolved to take account of both the feedback from engagement and challenges from the CEG and in our opinion meets and in many areas exceeds Ofgem’s baseline expectations