Made in Sheffield

Massimiliano Mollona has been Lecturer in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths College, London, since 2003. After an Italian Laurea in Economics, he received his Ph.D. and MSc in Anthropology from the London School of Economics. He is a co-editor of Critique of Anthropology and Reviews Editor of Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI). His recent publications include ‘Gifts of Labour. Steel Production and Technological Imagination in an Area of Urban Deprivation, Sheffield, UK’ in Critique of Anthropology, 25(2) and ‘Factory, Family and Neighbourhood. The Political Economy of Informal Labour in Sheffield, UK’ in JRAI. (N.S.) 11. He has published widely on labour issues and steel production.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionAnthropology of LabourBourgeoisie and ProletariansHistory and ClassTechnological FetishismClass and KinshipNotes on FieldworkPART I: ARTISANSChapter 1. Morris LtdThe Factory as Socio-technical SpaceThe Shop FloorThe MarketThe Formal OrganizationInformal OrganizationA Short Social History of the MachinesThe Social Distribution of Knowledge in MorrisDiscussion about Value in the Break-roomPolitical EconomyConclusionChapter 2. The ‘Return’ of the Informal Economy in EndcliffeThe Informal Economy Debate in AnthropologyInformal ProductionInformal ExchangesSex Market: the Elysium Khaled’sConclusionChapter 3. Working-class HomesWorking-class Families and PovertyThe ‘Post-kinship’ Turn GovernmentalFamilies and New Extended HouseholdsConclusionChapter 4. Welcome to Political LimboLocal History of Working-class PoliticsFolk Models of ClassFrom Steel Town to Leisure CentreCutlers versus DevelopersFish, Fishermen and SteelworkersReclaiming the Body: Sickness BenefitConclusionPART II: PROLETARIANSChapter 5. Unsor LtdThe PlaceThe Production Process and Formal OrganizationA Normal Day at the Smelting Shop‘Every Furnace is like a Good-looking Woman’Stories of ‘Gods’ and ‘Donkeys’ during Break-timesThe Rolling MillThe Grinding BayHealth and Safety Politics at Bay 2Farewell to Manual LabourConclusionChapter 6. A Divided ProletariatCharlie Moody: from Working-class to NursingThe Strange Disappearance of Charlie MoodyBeing Italian in Worksop: Antonio MassoPepperoni, Lampascioni and Vino Rosso: A Food Journey from the South of Italy to South YorkshireReturning ‘Home’EpilogueConclusionChapter 7. Community Unionism, Business Unionism – Two Strategies, the Same PhoenixTransmutations of Labour RepresentationThe Phoenix Flies on the ISTC Divisional OfficeThe ISTC in UNSORPolitical Meeting at the ISTC or Community Unionism in ActionThe Same Phoenix, Different TrajectoriesReorganizationThe AEU FactoryBranch BusinessUnionism in Times of ReorganizationConclusionConclusionFarewell to the Working Class?Labour and Alienation as Relational ValuesRelational Consciousness as the Basis for Class StruggleBibliographyIndex

“The tale that Mollona tells is not a pleasant one…However, it is an important tale, not least because it reminds us that anthropologists in Britain have a long history, now mostly lost to mind, of research in the heartlands of industrial capitalism. Mollona shows us, once more, that we have worthwhile things to say about the lives, work, and situation of the British working class, and through these the political-economic situation in which they find themselves. One can only hope that other anthropologists will follow his lead.”  ·  JRAI"His narrative of the embodied lives of the factory workers and their tools brings the theory of local and transnational networks of production to life. The book's real triumph lies in this subtle layering of experiential ethnographic narratives of production and economy. The political theory underpinning the account whilst challenging is, however, illuminating for a deeper reading of Mollona's argument. The reader's 'work' is rewarded by an argument which presents a valuable contribution to the field of political and industrial ethnography in contemporary neoliberal Europe."  ·  Durham Anthropology Journal