Critical Management Studies Seminar w. Prof Sean Scalmer

Critical Management Studies Seminar, w. Prof Sean Scalmer
Monday 4 March, 4:15pm

Linkway, 4th floor John Medley Building (University of Melbourne, Parkville)

'Social Rights, Machines, and Care: Struggles over Working Time in Australia from the 19th Century to the 21st'

The time an employee devotes to work is a fundamental concern of management, a consistent stimulant of worker mobilisation, and an enduring object of industrial struggle. In this paper I consider long-term struggles over the length of the working day in Australia from the middle of the 19th century until the present. I argue that those struggles have been organised around three dominant frameworks: the social rights of labour; the interactions between employees and machines; and the necessity of care. I explore how those frameworks were established, sustained, and challenged. I analyse their implications for past struggles over the length of the working day. And I consider their relevance for the struggles of the present.

Sean Scalmer is a Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. He is currently at work on two projects: a history of the working day (as a Coral Thomas Fellow at the State Library of NSW, 2022-23) and a transnational history of direct action (funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, 2023-26).