Something to show for it: the place of mementoes in women’s oral histories of work

Wall, C. 2009. Something to show for it: the place of mementoes in women’s oral histories of work. International Labour Process Conference 2009. Edinburgh April 2009 Sage. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744935910370194

TitleSomething to show for it: the place of mementoes in women’s oral histories of work
AuthorsWall, C.
TypeConference paper
Abstract

Workplace memorabilia, regarded here as artifacts and mementoes kept from workplaces and stored in homes, is varied, including; tools of a trade, ephemeral leaflets and pamphlets, union mementoes, uniforms and badges, long service awards, gifts from colleagues, and photographs both formal and informal. These objects can symbolize many years of work-life history and the corollary of this, their absence, perhaps the need to forget the drudgery of ‘the daily grind’. The materiality of an object saved or taken from the workplace often prompts reminiscence (Bornat, 2001) but can also, in itself and its method of display, represent and express key identities, work processes and traditions. Using examples from a three year ESRC funded project on work and identity this paper focuses on the women who participated in the study and investigates what is kept or not, whether the ways in which work memorabilia is displayed or stored is gendered, and how this might illuminate gendered social relations in the workplace and gendered work identities.

YearApr 2009
ConferenceInternational Labour Process Conference 2009
PublisherSage
Publication dates
PublishedApr 2009
JournalManagement and Organizational History
Journal citation5 (3)
ISSN1744-9359
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/1744935910370194
Web address (URL) of conference proceedingshttp://www.ilpc.org.uk/PreviousConferences/ILPC2009/ILPC2009Papers.aspx

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