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SUMMARY:Schools of Industry and Habits of Industriousness: Making childhoo
 d pay in the early Nineteenth Century - David Filtness (University of Camb
 ridge)
DTSTART:20120227T124500Z
DTEND:20120227T140000Z
UID:TALK38846@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:25346
DESCRIPTION:Amid the wars and economic distress of the late Eighteenth and
 \nearly Nineteenth centuries\, an influential paradigm shift was occurring
 \nwhereby a governing ethic of paternalistic moral economy transitioned in
 to\none of political economy\, entailing a discursive re-imagining of the 
 poor\nas those who existed in a condition of poverty rather than as indivi
 duals\nwho were poor. This subtle recalibration of the terms of the poor-l
 aw\ndebate drew on recent trends casting the poor as the subject of statis
 tics\;\nconstituting a quantifiable and aggregated morass that could be ta
 med by\nthe application of macro-economic principles and the realisation o
 f\nself-responsibility on the part of the poor. Nowhere was this discourse
 \nmore evidenced or more influential than as it pertained to the experienc
 e\nof childhood and the agency of children. Particular emphasis was placed
  on\nthe economic contribution of youngsters when as children and as futur
 e\nadults\, with a raft of literature detailing policies and institutions 
 for\nputting them to work. Children should be bred up into habits of indus
 try'\nappropriate to their station\, placed into workhouses or 'schools of
 \nindustry' so as to contribute to their upkeep\, and at all times supervi
 sed\nand molded into 'useful' citizens. Impassioned rhetoric espousing the
 \neconomic exploitation of children was homologous to that exhorting that 
 the\npoor be put to work\; such discourse was obsessed with economy and\nc
 ost-effectiveness\, and there was no space for idle or relaxed youths in\n
 such a schema. By examining the school of industry movement and its\nconte
 xtualising literature we can understand better the social effects of\nindu
 strialisation and the Victorian moralities of self-help and charity\nthat 
 did so much to pattern subsequent notions of Britishness.\n\n
LOCATION:Room 101\, Sir William Hardy Building\, Downing Site
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