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In Our Time

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

In Our Time: Work in the 20th Century

26/11/1998

Work in the 20th Century

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Work in the 20th Century

Melvyn Bragg examines the changing ideas about the function of work in the 20th century.

Melvyn Bragg discusses the way attitudes to work and the work ethic itself have changed over the century. Has our understanding of the nature and function of work changed as radically as we imagine?

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the changing nature of work practices and the work ethic as it pertains at the end of the 20th century. Has our understanding of the nature and function of work really changed so radically since the beginning of the century?  How can the past inform the future in the rapidly changing work environment? Has technology usurped craftsmanship, or is this no more than a superficial reading of an increasingly complex scene?With Professor Richard Sennett, visiting professor, London School for Economics and author of The Corrosion of Character - the Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism; Theodore Zeldin, historian and Fellow of St Anthony’s College, Oxford; Melanie Phillips, columnist on The Sunday Times and currently working on a book about The Sex Change State.

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