The Materiality of Health & Safety: The origins and symbolism of high-visibility work clothing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Archaeology
Abstract
This innovative PhD project will investigate the origins, development, and contemporary use of high-visibility work clothing (hi-vis) and other personal protective equipment (PPE) as both protective and symbolic material culture. Originally developed for Scottish railway workers in the 1960s, hi-vis has since gone through radical technological changes, been adopted by many sectors, and has acquired an extremely rich and varied range of symbolic meaning. This symbolic meaning can vary between sectors (railway workers wearing orange whilst construction crews wear yellow) and on multiple scales (colour of helmets signifying job rank on site), but has also been adopted beyond its initial use for health and safety by different social classes and as a form of solidarity in protests such as those in France and Hong Kong.
While we anticipate that the primary focus of the project will be on the origins, development and current application of PPE, the subject parameters can correspond to the successful candidate's existing expertise, so as they remain within the purview of collections at the National Railway Museum (NRM).
I will investigate questions such as:
1.What historical factors led to the development of high-visibility clothing? What considerations and restrictions have shaped this design? What innovations contributed to its current widespread use?
2. Which sectors have worn/are wearing hi-vis and, generally, how does it vary in terms of colour, form etc across these sectors?
3. How do questions of class, gender and race inform the deployment of hi-vis clothing, both from a health and safety perspective and in its symbolic usage?
4. What is the public perception of hi-vis clothing? What can we infer about social relationships from people's understanding of hi-vis?
5. What is the future of hi-vis clothing, in the public and private sectors? Does its growing ubiquity render people wearing hi-vis invisible?
There has been little direct work on the history of hi-vis equipment but I will be able to position myself within a number of exciting, emerging fields of research across several disciplines, including gender, class, and race in the contemporary workplace, the history of health and safety, and contemporary archaeology. This project is innovative in looking at contemporary material culture through an interdisciplinary lens, traversing approaches and evidence drawn from diverse disciplines such as history, science and technology studies, anthropology, material culture studies, contemporary archaeology, and museology. Through examining the archives and collections at the NRM I will trace the technological lineages and social implications of PPE. I will investigate multiple lines of evidence drawn from an existing assemblage of artefacts and examine them in the context of identity and current political movements.
While we anticipate that the primary focus of the project will be on the origins, development and current application of PPE, the subject parameters can correspond to the successful candidate's existing expertise, so as they remain within the purview of collections at the National Railway Museum (NRM).
I will investigate questions such as:
1.What historical factors led to the development of high-visibility clothing? What considerations and restrictions have shaped this design? What innovations contributed to its current widespread use?
2. Which sectors have worn/are wearing hi-vis and, generally, how does it vary in terms of colour, form etc across these sectors?
3. How do questions of class, gender and race inform the deployment of hi-vis clothing, both from a health and safety perspective and in its symbolic usage?
4. What is the public perception of hi-vis clothing? What can we infer about social relationships from people's understanding of hi-vis?
5. What is the future of hi-vis clothing, in the public and private sectors? Does its growing ubiquity render people wearing hi-vis invisible?
There has been little direct work on the history of hi-vis equipment but I will be able to position myself within a number of exciting, emerging fields of research across several disciplines, including gender, class, and race in the contemporary workplace, the history of health and safety, and contemporary archaeology. This project is innovative in looking at contemporary material culture through an interdisciplinary lens, traversing approaches and evidence drawn from diverse disciplines such as history, science and technology studies, anthropology, material culture studies, contemporary archaeology, and museology. Through examining the archives and collections at the NRM I will trace the technological lineages and social implications of PPE. I will investigate multiple lines of evidence drawn from an existing assemblage of artefacts and examine them in the context of identity and current political movements.
