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The Forum: Material World: Making the Modern Factory

Discussion & Talk

Rawfords Mill near Huddersfield, Yorkshire, circa 1810. Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

12/05/2018 GMT

Material World: Making the Modern Factory

BBC World Service - The Forum, Material World: Making the Modern Factory

Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the story of the factory around the world.

Bridget Kendall and guests discuss the key components of the global story of the factory, tracing its development from eighteenth century Britain to twenty-first century China and beyond. Exploring how the factory came to shape not just the material world but entire social worlds too, they share their expert knowledge on topics such as the lives of factory workers, the capitalist and communist factory, and the changing face of manufacturing in an age of robots and smart technology.

Bridget is joined by Joshua B. Freeman, Martin Krzywdzinski, Alessandra Mezzadri and Nina Rappaport. The sociologist Ching Kwan Lee also shares her insights into factory life in Shenzhen as it transformed in the late twentieth century.

Image: Illustration of an old 18th century factory. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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