The Clerical Profession and the Administrative Revolution: the Rise of the Modern Workplace in Britain, 1919-1979.

One of the most dramatic changes to working lives in twentieth century Britain was the exponential growth of the non-manual labour force. Clerical-related work was one of the fastest growing categories in this sector. The growth of modern corporations necessitated a flood of paperwork and administrative systems. New technologies - such as adding machines, Xerography and electric typewriters - brought greater speed and legibility to the workplace whilst rationalized work procedures transformed offices into nerve centres of business. Yet we know surprising little about the impact this had on the working lives of clerks. This project provides a fresh perspective on clerical workers and establishes an enhanced understanding of a particularly rich yet under-researched aspect of recent British social, economic, gender and business history.

The period from 1919 to 1979 (when Thatcherism marked a new era of industrial relations and expansion of the service sector) witnessed the transformation of the office environment. It was increasingly identified as the location of the modern workplace. How did the relationship between clerical workers, their colleagues and the workplace change over time? How was this occupational group shaped by class, gender and new technologies? There was not uniformity in the nature of work or responsibilities among clerical occupations. To maximise status, financial remuneration, and to distance themselves from manual workers, an increasing number of clerks wished to redefine the professional boundaries of this occupation. However this 'professional' career was not open to a growing segment of the clerical workforce for whom an office career may have been viewed an appointment until marriage. How were tasks of clerical work divided between this routine work and a career that followed a professional or managerial route?

To answer these questions this project will be the first to examine clerical workers using multiple case studies from leading companies (Midland Bank, Prudential Assurance Company, London Transport and the Post Office) that cut across a range of industries (banking, insurance, transport and postal service). It will investigate recruitment and promotional opportunities, alongside provisions for training, in order to track career pathways. The restructuring and maintenance of a sexual division of labour will contribute to the growing scholarship on gendered occupational segregation. Technology was often identified with masculinity. However the relationship between technological change and office work was more complicated and a study of the clerical profession will provide a new frame of reference for understanding the social construction of gender and technology. By examining clerical staff associations and trade unions, we can focus on the workplace as an important site of activism. Considering ways clerical workers resisted, negotiated and shaped their working environments, the research will challenge academic debates focusing exclusively on the degradation of white-collar working conditions after the First World War.

The project builds on earlier part-funded research activity. A 2013 Economic History Society small research grant funded a successful pilot project on clerical activism. As Co-Investigator of the AHRC research network 'Tailored Trades: Clothes, Labour and Professional Communities', I developed research on the role of clothing in discourses of professional identity and female clerks.

By working in partnership with the Bishopsgate Institute and Working Class Movement Library, the project will benefit from engaging with external users and have a public impact. Both hold extensive collections relating to clerks. The collaboration will offer a rich insight into people's daily working lives, while also exploring new, innovative approaches to the creation and application of public history.

The economic downturn of 2008 has shifted our perceptions of work, career and job stability. These topics have particular resonance with a non-academic audience. Collaboration with two cultural heritage institutions, the Bishopsgate Institute (London) and the Working Class Movement Library (Salford), will enhance and extend the project's impact at both a local and national level. Partnership will impact on the way they deliver material to the public and help to promote public understanding of, and engagement with, a neglected aspect of Britain's social and economic history. The planned events will also benefit these two institutions and strengthen links between the academic and cultural heritage sectors; laying foundations - in turn - for future collaborative research around these topics.

Located within an area historically renowned for a high density of office workers, partnership with the Bishopsgate Institute (BI) is central to knowledge exchange and impact plans of the project. Firstly, focusing on the theme of 'Our Working Lives: exploring the archive', I will collaborate with BI staff to design and deliver a community learning workshop that will draw on its world-renowned collections thereby assisting in making these available to young people and adult learners. The BI has specific expertise in working with groups that might not otherwise have the opportunity to handle historic materials, and my research will impact on the way in which they deliver material to the public. The workshop will form part of the BI's community learning programme and will be publicised in its brochure, via its website and using social media.

Secondly, I will collaborate with archivists and curators at the BI to present and interpret works in their collection for a free public exhibition: 'Our Working Lives'. My research underpins this exhibition as, by using the methodologies and empirical data from my project, the curators and archivists will be able to demonstrate to their audiences that issues of job stability and career structure are just as relevant to modern audiences as they were during the interwar and postwar years. Themed photoboards and soundposts will utilise the rich, yet currently underused, material in the BI's collection enabling audiences to connect and interpret the archival material in a variety of creative ways. Via the BI's community learning programme, we will engage former clerical workers in the scoping of the exhibition and thus align personal narratives with those found in the BI's collection. To accompany the exhibition, I will collaborate with Professor Peter Scott (Professor of International business history at the University of Reading) to deliver two public lectures that contextualise the exhibition and promote discussion.

The project will have long-term impact through the creation of digital resources being made available on the BI's website. This will enhance the existing archive provision at the BI and will preserve these as a source for future schools and community learning groups, public users of the library and researchers. The public lectures will be available as podcasts on the BI's website, and strategic use of social media, including the BI's Blog and Twitter account, will assist in publicly sharing the project's research findings as well as showcasing archival provisions. They will also provide a further inactive element by capturing feedback on the events and as a forum for discussion.

I will also collaborate with the Working Class Movement Library (WCML), recognised internationally as one of Britain's most important collections on workers' activism. As part of the WCML's 2016 popular public events series, I will give a talk that will raise awareness of trade union activism among non-manual workers, often unrecorded in histories of the labour movement. Having previously contributed to the WCML's blog, I will contribute further to this and also to its magazine, Shelf Life.