The uses of film and visual sources in labour history

Autores

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-9222.2019.e69969

Resumo

As soon as film technology was invented in the late nineteenth century, it was used by European film-makers to record, document and represent local working lives. The films were typically short, silent and monochrome. They were made and funded by different people for different purposes, including by business owners to promote their enterprises, as well as by showmen who charged those depicted to pay to come and see the spectacle of themselves and their friends on screen. The films were shown in a variety of settings, including traditional fairs and early cinemas. This article analyses a selection of films featuring a range of early twentieth century British workers compiled as part of a recent British TV history series to which I contributed – Edwardian Britain in Colour (Channel 5). The original films have been restored and colourised in order to bring them to life for a new audience. The article explores the complexities of capturing workers and workplaces on film and suggests how labour historians in Britain, Brazil and beyond can use films like these and other visual materials as valuable sources. 

Biografia do Autor

Pamela Cox, University of Essex

Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK. Pamela Cox teaches and researches across history, sociology, criminology and gender studies at the University of Essex. She is chair of a prestigious national learned society, the Social History Society, founded by Asa Briggs and Harold Perkin in 1976, and chairs the editorial board of its journal, Cultural and Social History. She is also the director of a large doctoral training consortium, the South East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and spanning ten English universities. Pamela Cox has written and presented two BBC history series on women’s labour – Servants (2012) and Shopgirls (2014).

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Publicado

2019-11-18

Como Citar

COX, Pamela. The uses of film and visual sources in labour history. Revista Mundos do Trabalho, Florianópolis, v. 11, p. 1–12, 2019. DOI: 10.5007/1984-9222.2019.e69969. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/mundosdotrabalho/article/view/1984-9222.2019.e69969. Acesso em: 19 abr. 2024.

Edição

v. 11 (2019)

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Artigos

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