Joe Chick
Joe is a Research Associate in Medieval History, currently contributing to the UKRI-funded ENDURE project. Their research focuses on the history of urban societies in small towns during the later medieval period, particularly examining how communities responded to crises and navigated periods of hardship. As part of ENDURE, Joe investigates resilience and endurance in urban communities, drawing on the records of the escheator, a royal official responsible for assessing and liquidating the goods and chattels of felons, outlaws, and fugitives which were forfeit to the Crown. These inventories offer valuable insights into the daily lives of non-elite individuals and the broader dynamics of medieval society.
Joe’s previous research spans medieval and early modern social history, with a particular interest in urban governance, social structures, and historical transitions. Their doctoral research examined urban society across the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, culminating in the publication of their first monograph, 'Urban Society and Monastic Lordship in Reading, 1350-1600' (2022). The book explores the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries on towns under monastic lordship, shedding light on how communities adapted to the sudden removal of dominant ecclesiastical manorial lords. Joe's work combines traditional archival methods with digital humanities approaches with its use of social network analysis to uncover connections within pre-modern societies.
Before joining the ENDURE team, Joe contributed to a range of interdisciplinary research projects. As a Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the UK’, they explored the evolution of employer-employee communication within large organisations since the nineteenth century. They were also a Research Assistant on the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Addressing Health’, which examined occupational health in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.
Joe holds an ESRC-funded PhD in Medieval History from the University of Warwick, supervised by Professor Beat Kümin. Prior to this, they completed an MRes in Medieval Studies at the University of Reading, with a dissertation on the 1381 revolt in western Suffolk. Joe’s studies began with a degree in Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Joe’s previous research spans medieval and early modern social history, with a particular interest in urban governance, social structures, and historical transitions. Their doctoral research examined urban society across the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, culminating in the publication of their first monograph, 'Urban Society and Monastic Lordship in Reading, 1350-1600' (2022). The book explores the impact of the dissolution of the monasteries on towns under monastic lordship, shedding light on how communities adapted to the sudden removal of dominant ecclesiastical manorial lords. Joe's work combines traditional archival methods with digital humanities approaches with its use of social network analysis to uncover connections within pre-modern societies.
Before joining the ENDURE team, Joe contributed to a range of interdisciplinary research projects. As a Research Fellow on the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the UK’, they explored the evolution of employer-employee communication within large organisations since the nineteenth century. They were also a Research Assistant on the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Addressing Health’, which examined occupational health in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain.
Joe holds an ESRC-funded PhD in Medieval History from the University of Warwick, supervised by Professor Beat Kümin. Prior to this, they completed an MRes in Medieval Studies at the University of Reading, with a dissertation on the 1381 revolt in western Suffolk. Joe’s studies began with a degree in Modern History at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
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This paper explores the strategic use of historical narratives in organizational communication, introducing the concept of ‘temporal narratives’. These narratives, focusing on historical events and milestones, employ nuanced language and varying temporal perspectives (past, present, future) to shape organizational identity and influence perceptions among employees. This paper explores the history of internal communication, which was a major organizational priority from the late nineteenth century. The research draws on archival sources, including anniversary-related materials and a sample of company magazines, along with oral history interviews. Integrating historical and retrospective methods, this paper analyses the deployment of history within internal communication.
The temporal narratives matrix presented in the paper exemplifies the ways in which the choice of temporal focus and theme in a narrative contributes to specific strategic goals. The model illustrates how some organizational narratives are tailored to focus on the past by marking historical time or on the present for making historical change. The narratives also vary between themes of tradition and ones of innovation. Organizations can use these two variables in shaping their narratives to serve goals of instilling trust, demonstrating relevance, or creating a sense of continuity of either strategy or values. The study engages with the historical turn in organizational studies, turning attention towards the use of rhetorical history in the past rather than the present day. It uses the concept of ‘past presents’, in which historical events are viewed from an earlier era's perspective. The temporal narratives matrix provides a framework for understanding how organizations and their employees align past events with present activities to influence the perceptions of others. The study reinforces the importance of audiences in shaping narratives, with examples of rhetorical history not only coming from employers but also employees.
The paper systematically explores four strategic approaches within the temporal narratives matrix. The first quadrant, marking historical time with a narrative of tradition, underlines the role of history in fostering trust among employees, emphasising continuity and the organization's commitment to values. The second quadrant, making historical change with a narrative of tradition, navigates the challenge of balancing tradition and change, crafting narratives that align new ventures with historical roots. The third quadrant involves marking historical time with a narrative of innovation, exemplifying how organizations demonstrate continued relevance and loyalty among employees by connecting historical trajectories with present values and innovative pursuits. The fourth quadrant explores making historical change with a narrative of innovation, where history is strategically employed to align new ventures with core values, portraying change as a thoughtful evolution rooted in organizational history. The analysis demonstrates how history can act as a both resource and a potential burden for organizations. The strategic use of historical narratives is a powerful tool for instilling trust, reinforcing relevance, and aligning organizational strategies with core values. Employees themselves play an active role in leveraging historical narratives for strategic purposes.
This paper will look at the use of the Modern Record Centre’s holdings for the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. In the later nineteenth century, organisations expanded both in terms of employees and geographical area. With this change, the need for effective internal communication became a priority. The earliest form was company magazines, which dominated until the 1970s when team meetings, referred to as 'briefing groups,' were heralded as a cutting-edge new way of communicating with your workforce. With the advent of the millennium, digital communication witnessed a surge in popularity.
The researchers have extensively used the holdings of the Modern Record Centre, focusing on magazines and documents from the Industrial Welfare Society and the Welfare Workers' Association (now known as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) in particular. The early days of internal communication was closely intertwined with worker welfare. In the early twentieth century, most notably after World War I, there was a movement advocating greater welfare in industry, with welfare workers assuming responsibility for communication between managers and employees. An example from the MRC’s records is a magazine story about ‘Welf’ the welfare worker that highlights the negative consequences of informal communication channels, emphasising the need for formal internal communication practices. The MRC’s holdings have also revealed concepts like ‘employee voice’ being discussed substantially earlier than has been acknowledged.
This paper presents the research aims and methodology of the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. The project focuses on internal communication’s (IC) emergence, institutionalisation, and evolution within British organizations. It applies institutional theory and historical institutionalism to study the reciprocal relationship between professional associations and organizations that practice IC. The research aims to analyze the diffusion, maintenance, and change of IC through the role of professional associations and organizations.
This paper will outline the research aims. The project will apply an institutional framework of emergence, diffusion, maintenance, deinstitutionalization, and reinstitutionalisation to internal communication institutions in the UK from the 1880s to the present. The paper will explain our combined archival and interview methodology, looking at both professional IC institutions and organizations that practise IC. The project aims to highlight the social, temporal, and linguistic aspects of IC and the importance of society and culture over the purely economic and functional. It will also emphasise the role of individuals, organizations, and associations in creating and managing institutions, rather than the converse.
This paper presents the research aims and methodology of the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. The project focuses on internal communication’s (IC) emergence, institutionalisation, and evolution within British organizations. It applies institutional theory and historical institutionalism to study the reciprocal relationship between professional associations and organizations that practice IC. The research aims to analyze the diffusion, maintenance, and change of IC through the role of professional associations and organizations.
This paper will outline the research aims. The project will apply an institutional framework of emergence, diffusion, maintenance, deinstitutionalization, and reinstitutionalisation to internal communication institutions in the UK from the 1880s to the present. The paper will explain our combined archival and interview methodology, looking at both professional IC institutions and organizations that practise IC. The project aims to highlight the social, temporal, and linguistic aspects of IC and the importance of society and culture over the purely economic and functional. It will also emphasise the role of individuals, organizations, and associations in creating and managing institutions, rather than the converse.
While very different occupations, Victorian and Edwardian postal work and policing shared some of the same physical and mental demands. London postal workers and Metropolitan policemen worked outdoors in all weather, breathing the capital’s air, and surrounded by its busy traffic. The duties were physically demanding and had long hours, often involving night work. During the nineteenth century, a pension scheme was introduced for both sectors, combined with medical examinations to judge eligibility for retirement with a pension. This paper uses these pensions records, alongside death certificates and the annual reports of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners and the Post Office’s Chief Medical Officer, to compare health and sickness trends between the two occupations.
Across the nineteenth century, increasing attention was paid to the impact of work on health. Professions that posed a significant risk of physical injury, such as mining and factory work, received particular attention. There were also comments by contemporaries on the health repercussions of more day‐to‐day activities, even if working conditions could be slow to respond to these concerns. Through an examination of pension records, it is possible to uncover the health conditions that led to early retirement among postal workers and policemen. Whereas much scholarship has explored causes of death, these records shed light on the less studied topic of lifetime health.
This paper looks at social mobility in terms of access to civic elites. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century urban politics is often discussed in terms of a rise of oligarchy and the notion of a cursus honorum. Existing studies overwhelmingly rely on evidence from major cities with high levels of political autonomy. This paper contrasts this by examining the medium-sized town of Reading which had minimal autonomy in the medieval era but gained a great deal a generation after the dissolution of its monastic lord in 1539. Following this event, the civic elite increasingly emphasised their elevated status to present an image of a legitimate body of government. This change in the political culture alone an impression of increased oligarchy and reduced social mobility.
Quantitative evidence paints a dramatically different portrait. This study differs from traditional scholarship in its use of social network analysis to explore oligarchy. Historians frequently refer to ‘networks’ but it is less common for these comments to be supported by the statistical tools that social scientists have created for analysing networks. Instead, the presence of elite individuals in one another’s wills is sometimes commented on to ‘show’ the existence of closely-knit oligarchies. In the absence of statistical procedures, the low-status individuals in the very same wills often go unnoticed.
Through the application of formal social network analysis calculations, this view of oligarchy can be challenged. This paper applies this method to two datasets from Reading in the years 1350-1600. The first consists of conveyancing and moneylending transactions, the second of the 293 surviving Reading wills from these years. A tool known as a Quadratic Assignment Procedure finds no tendency for individuals to be linked to others of the same social status. It indicates that the post-dissolution changes in Reading’s political culture did not translate into greater exclusion in other aspects of urban life. On the contrary, exclusionary practices in politics were practised alongside inclusionary ones in social life, with the networks indicating that top-level officeholders had not become distant figures.
Medieval parishes were more than just a venue for religion. They were also important social hubs for communities and, for many parishioners, socialising at religious feasts was as important a part of being a member of a parish as piety. Parishes marked various religious feasts across the year, each choosing to emphasise particular events rather than following a strict calendar imposed by the Church. The activities associated with religious festivals were an important means for raising money for the parish. The way in which they were marked could be lively and far from modern conceptions of piety. In this paper, I will explore the ‘ritual year’ followed in Coventry’s parishes.
The Reformation had a dramatic impact on parish life. Parish activities began to disappear from the 1530s and were then formally prohibited under Edward VI. Mary’s reign offered an opportunity for a revival of these traditions and the level of enthusiasm for this brief opportunity varied between English parishes. With the Elizabethan Settlement, parishes had greater stability but had to reimagine their role in a world in which they were no longer the social hub of the community.
Medieval parishes were more than just a venue for religion. They were also important social hubs for communities and, for many parishioners, socialising at religious feasts was as important a part of being a member of a parish as piety. Parishes marked various religious feasts across the year, each choosing to emphasise particular events rather than following a strict calendar imposed by the Church. The activities associated with religious festivals were an important means for raising money for the parish. The way in which they were marked could be lively and far from modern conceptions of piety. In this paper, I will explore the ‘ritual year’ followed in Coventry’s parishes.
The Reformation had a dramatic impact on parish life. Parish activities began to disappear from the 1530s and were then formally prohibited under Edward VI. Mary’s reign offered an opportunity for a revival of these traditions and the level of enthusiasm for this brief opportunity varied between English parishes. With the Elizabethan Settlement, parishes had greater stability but had to reimagine their role in a world in which they were no longer the social hub of the community.
Traditional scholarship of the English Reformation often focuses on matters of central government religious policy. In the later twentieth century, a number of works began to contrast this with a bottom–up approach examining the local impact of these policies. Eamon Duffy’s pivotal work The Stripping of the Altars surveyed England as a whole, while subsequently the theme has increasingly been tackled through local case studies. This approach enables a deeper understanding of the community in question, providing a context for the manner in which the inhabitants received the Reformation. This paper explores its reception in the town of Reading, the entirety of which was held under the lordship of Reading Abbey, until the Dissolution initiated a period of royal lordship followed by self-government. It uses the wills of the inhabitants to explore trends within piety and charity over time. Beginning with an exploration of late medieval practices, responses to the various stages of the Reformation are then examined. What is seen in Reading, rather than a climate of fear, is a pragmatic adjustment of avoiding investment in long-term projects that might not be seen through.
The years c.1470-1510 were a period of political and economic transformation for Reading. The traditional balance of power between town and monastic lord became disrupted by a prosperous cloth industry and a new royal policy of collaboration with urban governments under Henry VII. Assertiveness from the merchant guild and reactionary measures from the abbot led to a standoff in the 1490s, in which the normal operation of civic government was suspended. While Reading Abbey continued to be the dominant authority, a settlement of 1510 saw concessions to town society that would have been unimaginable in the early fifteenth century.
This paper explores the positive changes that this disruptive period brought to the religious and cultural life of the town. The ways in which inhabitants could express their piety diversified as a result of socio-economic change. There was an increased presence of Londoners in the town and their involvement in urban life was not limited to trading, taking the form of substantial investment in the parish churches too. A growing number of prosperous inhabitants also led to more investment from Reading residents themselves. The later fifteenth century saw many projects relating to developments in the parish churches, the foundation of masses, and the building of almshouses. It was not just financial investment, but an assertive attitude that brought about change. During the 1490s political standoff between town and abbey, the burgesses maintained a convivial social life. They made demands for the foundation of a grammar school and, in contrast to the politics of the early fifteenth century, enjoyed swift success.
In 1539, Reading’s inhabitants watched their abbot, who had been an immensely powerful figure in the town, being hung, drawn, and quartered outside the abbey gateway. Most abbots were convinced to surrender their houses peacefully but three refused, resulting in a gruesome end for the abbots of Reading, Glastonbury, and Colchester. The Dissolution is famous as a major event in British religious history, but in Reading it was more than just a religious event. Reading was not just a town with an abbey in it: the abbey was lord of the whole town. The event had an effect on the whole politics, economy, and society of the town. This paper focuses on its impact on town politics.
Towns under monastic lordship have traditionally been characterised in terms of robust lordship and violent town–abbey relations. Exceptional control of the judiciary was a feature common to many of these monasteries, whose officials often presided over multiple courts. Town inhabitants may have included judicial power among their grievances, but they were not as helpless as the traditional characterisation implies. It was possible for town residents to gain a hearing in an external court and not all monastic towns completely excluded them from judicial power. This paper explores the issue of jurisdiction between monastic lords and their urban tenants across English monastic towns and its evolution across the medieval era.
The proposed paper makes use of a social network analysis dataset that is fully compiled of 298 surviving Reading wills from the period 1490-1589. These years were chosen because the dissolution of Reading Abbey, the manorial lord of the town, occurs at the midway point, allowing for a comparison of the pre- and post-dissolution data. The wills in question were registered with two different courts. Wealthier testators registered their wills with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, while less wealthy ones used the Berkshire Archdeaconry Court. The balance of wills between the two courts changes before and after the dissolution, which was one motivation for conducting a test of the extent to which source survival affects the robustness of the network analysis method. The material proposed is in a completed state and Cultural and Social History has approved an article for publication that uses this dataset to explore Robert Tittler’s claim of a post-dissolution rise in oligarchy. Rather than presenting the material from the article, this paper tests the robustness of the dataset.
Centrality is one of the most commonly used statistical tools in network analysis, but researchers must choose between several different measures. Given virtually every medieval dataset is incomplete, having a measure that is not overly distorted by missing data is an important consideration for pre-modern historians. Costenbader and Valente test this through a study in which they randomly deleted data in eight fairly complete network datasets, mimicking the process of missing data, in order to investigate which measures of centrality were distorted the most. Yet their findings are not necessarily applicable for medieval sources. The absences in medieval datasets are often not random but the loss of entire collections of documents. For this paper, I conducted a similar test but, instead of deleting data randomly, I removed the entire collection of Berkshire Archdeaconry wills to reflect the situation that medievalists face. This collection was chosen because these testators tended to be of lower social status, representing the type of individual that is often missing in medieval sources more generally.
This paper explores the relative robustness of the different measures and makes a case for Eigenvector being a promising option. It also considers whether centrality more generally is a useful tool when based on incomplete datasets or whether all measures are too skewed by missing data to be meaningful. It finds that, even with large sections of data missing, centrality will rank people in a broadly meaningful position, but recommends certain caveats in how researchers should phrase their analysis. Namely, it is dangerous to hinge a historical argument on the centrality of a single actor. Rather, it is safer to analyse the average centrality of groups of actors who share an attribute, such as burgesses, officeholders, or members of a particular trade. It is also preferable to phrase analysis in terms of whether actors are towards the top, middle, or bottom of the hierarchy rather than citing the precise score that network software packages provide.
Towns held under monastic lordship have traditionally been characterised in terms of robust lordship and violent town–abbey relations. As such, the Reformation was more than just a religious event for the inhabitants. It also had major repercussions in the political, economic, and social life of these towns. St Albans, Reading, Bodmin, Faversham, and Abingdon were among the towns that saw a swift transition from closely controlled lordship to full self-government. In many cases, this involved a pre-existing guild being converted into a ‘corporation’, a body with governmental powers over the town. Yet incorporation was not guaranteed upon the removal of the monastic lord and these guilds had to demonstrate their ability to be entrusted with the government of the town. Fostering an appropriate image was a key aspect of this.
Civic ceremony was a visual means through which authority could be communicated to inhabitants and the wider realm. Barbara Hanawalt, David Harry, and Charles Phythian-Adams have done much work on the use of ceremony to maintain public order in the context of major cities, but less has been done on smaller towns. The monastic lords had fully recognised the importance of ceremony. It had been one of the areas of urban life which they had closely controlled. Where lords permitted guilds to be formed in their towns, they often included these secular bodies in important ceremonies in a capacity that emphasised their subordination. Equally, the guilds recognised the power such symbols conveyed. During the era of monastic lordship, guilds pushed for ceremonial symbols of their autonomy alongside demands for greater governmental power. The Dissolution provided an opportunity for guilds to reshape civic ceremonies as means to project their eliteness and to demonstrate to the Crown that they were fit to govern their town.
Medieval Reading was held under the closely-controlled lordship of Reading Abbey until 1539 when the dissolution suddenly removed their lord. As such, the reformation was more than just a religious event for the inhabitants: it was a political, economic, and social one. For a generation, the town went through a period of changing lordship before gaining self-government in 1560. This paper looks at the impact that the reformation had on town politics and society, comparing two periods. The first is the later medieval period when the merchant guild, the leading civic institution, practised an inclusionary form of politics. The second is the post-dissolution era, when the loss of the abbey led to dramatic change.
The town experienced contrasting trends in terms of political culture and everyday social life. In terms of the former, the impression is that the dissolution triggered a rise in oligarchy. The civic elite took measures to emphasise their elevated status in order to present themselves as a legitimate body of government rather than a fraternity of merchants. Yet the political culture did not translate into greater exclusion in other aspects of urban life. Social Network Analysis evidence gives an insight into the everyday social interactions of inhabitants and reveals that exclusionary practices in politics were practised alongside inclusionary ones in many aspects of everyday life.
The increase in poverty, and the social problems surrounding it, are a common theme of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century social history. In the late fifteenth century royal government introduced new measures to tackle the problem of poverty and begging. The issue continued to hold the attention of government and, from the mid sixteenth century, their measures began to use the parish as the administrative unit for managing central government poor relief policy. Marjorie McIntosh has written much on the changes in the formal role of parishes in poor relief in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Her approach considers poor relief largely as an institution-led movement.
This paper uses testamentary evidence from Reading to investigate how the grassroots participation of inhabitants adapted across time. The mid sixteenth century brought major changes to the pattern of piety, resulting not only from government policy on poor relief itself but from wider religious policy. The evidence reveals a number of features. Firstly, poor relief was practised by parishioners long before it became a statutory duty of parishes, taking a bottom-up form rather than an institution-led form. Secondly, as provision for intercession declined, that of poor relief increased. Thirdly, poor relief was not simply a case of the wealthiest in society supporting the poorest. In fact, where poverty was greatest in Reading, much support came from the less wealthy parishioners as well as the social elite.
The increase in poverty, and the social problems surrounding it, are a common theme of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century social history. In the late fifteenth century royal government introduced new measures to tackle the problem of poverty and begging. The issue continued to hold the attention of government and, from the mid sixteenth century, their measures began to use the parish as the administrative unit for managing central government poor relief policy. Marjorie McIntosh has written much on the changes in the formal role of parishes in poor relief in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Her approach considers poor relief largely as an institution-led movement.
This paper uses testamentary evidence from Reading to investigate how the grassroots participation of inhabitants adapted across time. The mid sixteenth century brought major changes to the pattern of piety, resulting not only from government policy on poor relief itself but from wider religious policy. The evidence reveals a number of features. Firstly, poor relief was practised by parishioners long before it became a statutory duty of parishes, taking a bottom-up form rather than an institution-led form. Secondly, as provision for intercession declined, that of poor relief increased. Thirdly, poor relief was not simply a case of the wealthiest in society supporting the poorest. In fact, where poverty was greatest in Reading, much support came from the less wealthy parishioners as well as the social elite.
This paper explores the strategic use of historical narratives in organizational communication, introducing the concept of ‘temporal narratives’. These narratives, focusing on historical events and milestones, employ nuanced language and varying temporal perspectives (past, present, future) to shape organizational identity and influence perceptions among employees. This paper explores the history of internal communication, which was a major organizational priority from the late nineteenth century. The research draws on archival sources, including anniversary-related materials and a sample of company magazines, along with oral history interviews. Integrating historical and retrospective methods, this paper analyses the deployment of history within internal communication.
The temporal narratives matrix presented in the paper exemplifies the ways in which the choice of temporal focus and theme in a narrative contributes to specific strategic goals. The model illustrates how some organizational narratives are tailored to focus on the past by marking historical time or on the present for making historical change. The narratives also vary between themes of tradition and ones of innovation. Organizations can use these two variables in shaping their narratives to serve goals of instilling trust, demonstrating relevance, or creating a sense of continuity of either strategy or values. The study engages with the historical turn in organizational studies, turning attention towards the use of rhetorical history in the past rather than the present day. It uses the concept of ‘past presents’, in which historical events are viewed from an earlier era's perspective. The temporal narratives matrix provides a framework for understanding how organizations and their employees align past events with present activities to influence the perceptions of others. The study reinforces the importance of audiences in shaping narratives, with examples of rhetorical history not only coming from employers but also employees.
The paper systematically explores four strategic approaches within the temporal narratives matrix. The first quadrant, marking historical time with a narrative of tradition, underlines the role of history in fostering trust among employees, emphasising continuity and the organization's commitment to values. The second quadrant, making historical change with a narrative of tradition, navigates the challenge of balancing tradition and change, crafting narratives that align new ventures with historical roots. The third quadrant involves marking historical time with a narrative of innovation, exemplifying how organizations demonstrate continued relevance and loyalty among employees by connecting historical trajectories with present values and innovative pursuits. The fourth quadrant explores making historical change with a narrative of innovation, where history is strategically employed to align new ventures with core values, portraying change as a thoughtful evolution rooted in organizational history. The analysis demonstrates how history can act as a both resource and a potential burden for organizations. The strategic use of historical narratives is a powerful tool for instilling trust, reinforcing relevance, and aligning organizational strategies with core values. Employees themselves play an active role in leveraging historical narratives for strategic purposes.
This paper will look at the use of the Modern Record Centre’s holdings for the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. In the later nineteenth century, organisations expanded both in terms of employees and geographical area. With this change, the need for effective internal communication became a priority. The earliest form was company magazines, which dominated until the 1970s when team meetings, referred to as 'briefing groups,' were heralded as a cutting-edge new way of communicating with your workforce. With the advent of the millennium, digital communication witnessed a surge in popularity.
The researchers have extensively used the holdings of the Modern Record Centre, focusing on magazines and documents from the Industrial Welfare Society and the Welfare Workers' Association (now known as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) in particular. The early days of internal communication was closely intertwined with worker welfare. In the early twentieth century, most notably after World War I, there was a movement advocating greater welfare in industry, with welfare workers assuming responsibility for communication between managers and employees. An example from the MRC’s records is a magazine story about ‘Welf’ the welfare worker that highlights the negative consequences of informal communication channels, emphasising the need for formal internal communication practices. The MRC’s holdings have also revealed concepts like ‘employee voice’ being discussed substantially earlier than has been acknowledged.
This paper presents the research aims and methodology of the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. The project focuses on internal communication’s (IC) emergence, institutionalisation, and evolution within British organizations. It applies institutional theory and historical institutionalism to study the reciprocal relationship between professional associations and organizations that practice IC. The research aims to analyze the diffusion, maintenance, and change of IC through the role of professional associations and organizations.
This paper will outline the research aims. The project will apply an institutional framework of emergence, diffusion, maintenance, deinstitutionalization, and reinstitutionalisation to internal communication institutions in the UK from the 1880s to the present. The paper will explain our combined archival and interview methodology, looking at both professional IC institutions and organizations that practise IC. The project aims to highlight the social, temporal, and linguistic aspects of IC and the importance of society and culture over the purely economic and functional. It will also emphasise the role of individuals, organizations, and associations in creating and managing institutions, rather than the converse.
This paper presents the research aims and methodology of the ESRC-funded project ‘An Institutional History of Internal Communication in the United Kingdom’. The project focuses on internal communication’s (IC) emergence, institutionalisation, and evolution within British organizations. It applies institutional theory and historical institutionalism to study the reciprocal relationship between professional associations and organizations that practice IC. The research aims to analyze the diffusion, maintenance, and change of IC through the role of professional associations and organizations.
This paper will outline the research aims. The project will apply an institutional framework of emergence, diffusion, maintenance, deinstitutionalization, and reinstitutionalisation to internal communication institutions in the UK from the 1880s to the present. The paper will explain our combined archival and interview methodology, looking at both professional IC institutions and organizations that practise IC. The project aims to highlight the social, temporal, and linguistic aspects of IC and the importance of society and culture over the purely economic and functional. It will also emphasise the role of individuals, organizations, and associations in creating and managing institutions, rather than the converse.
While very different occupations, Victorian and Edwardian postal work and policing shared some of the same physical and mental demands. London postal workers and Metropolitan policemen worked outdoors in all weather, breathing the capital’s air, and surrounded by its busy traffic. The duties were physically demanding and had long hours, often involving night work. During the nineteenth century, a pension scheme was introduced for both sectors, combined with medical examinations to judge eligibility for retirement with a pension. This paper uses these pensions records, alongside death certificates and the annual reports of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners and the Post Office’s Chief Medical Officer, to compare health and sickness trends between the two occupations.
Across the nineteenth century, increasing attention was paid to the impact of work on health. Professions that posed a significant risk of physical injury, such as mining and factory work, received particular attention. There were also comments by contemporaries on the health repercussions of more day‐to‐day activities, even if working conditions could be slow to respond to these concerns. Through an examination of pension records, it is possible to uncover the health conditions that led to early retirement among postal workers and policemen. Whereas much scholarship has explored causes of death, these records shed light on the less studied topic of lifetime health.
This paper looks at social mobility in terms of access to civic elites. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century urban politics is often discussed in terms of a rise of oligarchy and the notion of a cursus honorum. Existing studies overwhelmingly rely on evidence from major cities with high levels of political autonomy. This paper contrasts this by examining the medium-sized town of Reading which had minimal autonomy in the medieval era but gained a great deal a generation after the dissolution of its monastic lord in 1539. Following this event, the civic elite increasingly emphasised their elevated status to present an image of a legitimate body of government. This change in the political culture alone an impression of increased oligarchy and reduced social mobility.
Quantitative evidence paints a dramatically different portrait. This study differs from traditional scholarship in its use of social network analysis to explore oligarchy. Historians frequently refer to ‘networks’ but it is less common for these comments to be supported by the statistical tools that social scientists have created for analysing networks. Instead, the presence of elite individuals in one another’s wills is sometimes commented on to ‘show’ the existence of closely-knit oligarchies. In the absence of statistical procedures, the low-status individuals in the very same wills often go unnoticed.
Through the application of formal social network analysis calculations, this view of oligarchy can be challenged. This paper applies this method to two datasets from Reading in the years 1350-1600. The first consists of conveyancing and moneylending transactions, the second of the 293 surviving Reading wills from these years. A tool known as a Quadratic Assignment Procedure finds no tendency for individuals to be linked to others of the same social status. It indicates that the post-dissolution changes in Reading’s political culture did not translate into greater exclusion in other aspects of urban life. On the contrary, exclusionary practices in politics were practised alongside inclusionary ones in social life, with the networks indicating that top-level officeholders had not become distant figures.
Medieval parishes were more than just a venue for religion. They were also important social hubs for communities and, for many parishioners, socialising at religious feasts was as important a part of being a member of a parish as piety. Parishes marked various religious feasts across the year, each choosing to emphasise particular events rather than following a strict calendar imposed by the Church. The activities associated with religious festivals were an important means for raising money for the parish. The way in which they were marked could be lively and far from modern conceptions of piety. In this paper, I will explore the ‘ritual year’ followed in Coventry’s parishes.
The Reformation had a dramatic impact on parish life. Parish activities began to disappear from the 1530s and were then formally prohibited under Edward VI. Mary’s reign offered an opportunity for a revival of these traditions and the level of enthusiasm for this brief opportunity varied between English parishes. With the Elizabethan Settlement, parishes had greater stability but had to reimagine their role in a world in which they were no longer the social hub of the community.
Medieval parishes were more than just a venue for religion. They were also important social hubs for communities and, for many parishioners, socialising at religious feasts was as important a part of being a member of a parish as piety. Parishes marked various religious feasts across the year, each choosing to emphasise particular events rather than following a strict calendar imposed by the Church. The activities associated with religious festivals were an important means for raising money for the parish. The way in which they were marked could be lively and far from modern conceptions of piety. In this paper, I will explore the ‘ritual year’ followed in Coventry’s parishes.
The Reformation had a dramatic impact on parish life. Parish activities began to disappear from the 1530s and were then formally prohibited under Edward VI. Mary’s reign offered an opportunity for a revival of these traditions and the level of enthusiasm for this brief opportunity varied between English parishes. With the Elizabethan Settlement, parishes had greater stability but had to reimagine their role in a world in which they were no longer the social hub of the community.
Traditional scholarship of the English Reformation often focuses on matters of central government religious policy. In the later twentieth century, a number of works began to contrast this with a bottom–up approach examining the local impact of these policies. Eamon Duffy’s pivotal work The Stripping of the Altars surveyed England as a whole, while subsequently the theme has increasingly been tackled through local case studies. This approach enables a deeper understanding of the community in question, providing a context for the manner in which the inhabitants received the Reformation. This paper explores its reception in the town of Reading, the entirety of which was held under the lordship of Reading Abbey, until the Dissolution initiated a period of royal lordship followed by self-government. It uses the wills of the inhabitants to explore trends within piety and charity over time. Beginning with an exploration of late medieval practices, responses to the various stages of the Reformation are then examined. What is seen in Reading, rather than a climate of fear, is a pragmatic adjustment of avoiding investment in long-term projects that might not be seen through.
The years c.1470-1510 were a period of political and economic transformation for Reading. The traditional balance of power between town and monastic lord became disrupted by a prosperous cloth industry and a new royal policy of collaboration with urban governments under Henry VII. Assertiveness from the merchant guild and reactionary measures from the abbot led to a standoff in the 1490s, in which the normal operation of civic government was suspended. While Reading Abbey continued to be the dominant authority, a settlement of 1510 saw concessions to town society that would have been unimaginable in the early fifteenth century.
This paper explores the positive changes that this disruptive period brought to the religious and cultural life of the town. The ways in which inhabitants could express their piety diversified as a result of socio-economic change. There was an increased presence of Londoners in the town and their involvement in urban life was not limited to trading, taking the form of substantial investment in the parish churches too. A growing number of prosperous inhabitants also led to more investment from Reading residents themselves. The later fifteenth century saw many projects relating to developments in the parish churches, the foundation of masses, and the building of almshouses. It was not just financial investment, but an assertive attitude that brought about change. During the 1490s political standoff between town and abbey, the burgesses maintained a convivial social life. They made demands for the foundation of a grammar school and, in contrast to the politics of the early fifteenth century, enjoyed swift success.
In 1539, Reading’s inhabitants watched their abbot, who had been an immensely powerful figure in the town, being hung, drawn, and quartered outside the abbey gateway. Most abbots were convinced to surrender their houses peacefully but three refused, resulting in a gruesome end for the abbots of Reading, Glastonbury, and Colchester. The Dissolution is famous as a major event in British religious history, but in Reading it was more than just a religious event. Reading was not just a town with an abbey in it: the abbey was lord of the whole town. The event had an effect on the whole politics, economy, and society of the town. This paper focuses on its impact on town politics.
Towns under monastic lordship have traditionally been characterised in terms of robust lordship and violent town–abbey relations. Exceptional control of the judiciary was a feature common to many of these monasteries, whose officials often presided over multiple courts. Town inhabitants may have included judicial power among their grievances, but they were not as helpless as the traditional characterisation implies. It was possible for town residents to gain a hearing in an external court and not all monastic towns completely excluded them from judicial power. This paper explores the issue of jurisdiction between monastic lords and their urban tenants across English monastic towns and its evolution across the medieval era.
The proposed paper makes use of a social network analysis dataset that is fully compiled of 298 surviving Reading wills from the period 1490-1589. These years were chosen because the dissolution of Reading Abbey, the manorial lord of the town, occurs at the midway point, allowing for a comparison of the pre- and post-dissolution data. The wills in question were registered with two different courts. Wealthier testators registered their wills with the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, while less wealthy ones used the Berkshire Archdeaconry Court. The balance of wills between the two courts changes before and after the dissolution, which was one motivation for conducting a test of the extent to which source survival affects the robustness of the network analysis method. The material proposed is in a completed state and Cultural and Social History has approved an article for publication that uses this dataset to explore Robert Tittler’s claim of a post-dissolution rise in oligarchy. Rather than presenting the material from the article, this paper tests the robustness of the dataset.
Centrality is one of the most commonly used statistical tools in network analysis, but researchers must choose between several different measures. Given virtually every medieval dataset is incomplete, having a measure that is not overly distorted by missing data is an important consideration for pre-modern historians. Costenbader and Valente test this through a study in which they randomly deleted data in eight fairly complete network datasets, mimicking the process of missing data, in order to investigate which measures of centrality were distorted the most. Yet their findings are not necessarily applicable for medieval sources. The absences in medieval datasets are often not random but the loss of entire collections of documents. For this paper, I conducted a similar test but, instead of deleting data randomly, I removed the entire collection of Berkshire Archdeaconry wills to reflect the situation that medievalists face. This collection was chosen because these testators tended to be of lower social status, representing the type of individual that is often missing in medieval sources more generally.
This paper explores the relative robustness of the different measures and makes a case for Eigenvector being a promising option. It also considers whether centrality more generally is a useful tool when based on incomplete datasets or whether all measures are too skewed by missing data to be meaningful. It finds that, even with large sections of data missing, centrality will rank people in a broadly meaningful position, but recommends certain caveats in how researchers should phrase their analysis. Namely, it is dangerous to hinge a historical argument on the centrality of a single actor. Rather, it is safer to analyse the average centrality of groups of actors who share an attribute, such as burgesses, officeholders, or members of a particular trade. It is also preferable to phrase analysis in terms of whether actors are towards the top, middle, or bottom of the hierarchy rather than citing the precise score that network software packages provide.
Towns held under monastic lordship have traditionally been characterised in terms of robust lordship and violent town–abbey relations. As such, the Reformation was more than just a religious event for the inhabitants. It also had major repercussions in the political, economic, and social life of these towns. St Albans, Reading, Bodmin, Faversham, and Abingdon were among the towns that saw a swift transition from closely controlled lordship to full self-government. In many cases, this involved a pre-existing guild being converted into a ‘corporation’, a body with governmental powers over the town. Yet incorporation was not guaranteed upon the removal of the monastic lord and these guilds had to demonstrate their ability to be entrusted with the government of the town. Fostering an appropriate image was a key aspect of this.
Civic ceremony was a visual means through which authority could be communicated to inhabitants and the wider realm. Barbara Hanawalt, David Harry, and Charles Phythian-Adams have done much work on the use of ceremony to maintain public order in the context of major cities, but less has been done on smaller towns. The monastic lords had fully recognised the importance of ceremony. It had been one of the areas of urban life which they had closely controlled. Where lords permitted guilds to be formed in their towns, they often included these secular bodies in important ceremonies in a capacity that emphasised their subordination. Equally, the guilds recognised the power such symbols conveyed. During the era of monastic lordship, guilds pushed for ceremonial symbols of their autonomy alongside demands for greater governmental power. The Dissolution provided an opportunity for guilds to reshape civic ceremonies as means to project their eliteness and to demonstrate to the Crown that they were fit to govern their town.
Medieval Reading was held under the closely-controlled lordship of Reading Abbey until 1539 when the dissolution suddenly removed their lord. As such, the reformation was more than just a religious event for the inhabitants: it was a political, economic, and social one. For a generation, the town went through a period of changing lordship before gaining self-government in 1560. This paper looks at the impact that the reformation had on town politics and society, comparing two periods. The first is the later medieval period when the merchant guild, the leading civic institution, practised an inclusionary form of politics. The second is the post-dissolution era, when the loss of the abbey led to dramatic change.
The town experienced contrasting trends in terms of political culture and everyday social life. In terms of the former, the impression is that the dissolution triggered a rise in oligarchy. The civic elite took measures to emphasise their elevated status in order to present themselves as a legitimate body of government rather than a fraternity of merchants. Yet the political culture did not translate into greater exclusion in other aspects of urban life. Social Network Analysis evidence gives an insight into the everyday social interactions of inhabitants and reveals that exclusionary practices in politics were practised alongside inclusionary ones in many aspects of everyday life.
The increase in poverty, and the social problems surrounding it, are a common theme of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century social history. In the late fifteenth century royal government introduced new measures to tackle the problem of poverty and begging. The issue continued to hold the attention of government and, from the mid sixteenth century, their measures began to use the parish as the administrative unit for managing central government poor relief policy. Marjorie McIntosh has written much on the changes in the formal role of parishes in poor relief in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Her approach considers poor relief largely as an institution-led movement.
This paper uses testamentary evidence from Reading to investigate how the grassroots participation of inhabitants adapted across time. The mid sixteenth century brought major changes to the pattern of piety, resulting not only from government policy on poor relief itself but from wider religious policy. The evidence reveals a number of features. Firstly, poor relief was practised by parishioners long before it became a statutory duty of parishes, taking a bottom-up form rather than an institution-led form. Secondly, as provision for intercession declined, that of poor relief increased. Thirdly, poor relief was not simply a case of the wealthiest in society supporting the poorest. In fact, where poverty was greatest in Reading, much support came from the less wealthy parishioners as well as the social elite.
The increase in poverty, and the social problems surrounding it, are a common theme of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century social history. In the late fifteenth century royal government introduced new measures to tackle the problem of poverty and begging. The issue continued to hold the attention of government and, from the mid sixteenth century, their measures began to use the parish as the administrative unit for managing central government poor relief policy. Marjorie McIntosh has written much on the changes in the formal role of parishes in poor relief in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Her approach considers poor relief largely as an institution-led movement.
This paper uses testamentary evidence from Reading to investigate how the grassroots participation of inhabitants adapted across time. The mid sixteenth century brought major changes to the pattern of piety, resulting not only from government policy on poor relief itself but from wider religious policy. The evidence reveals a number of features. Firstly, poor relief was practised by parishioners long before it became a statutory duty of parishes, taking a bottom-up form rather than an institution-led form. Secondly, as provision for intercession declined, that of poor relief increased. Thirdly, poor relief was not simply a case of the wealthiest in society supporting the poorest. In fact, where poverty was greatest in Reading, much support came from the less wealthy parishioners as well as the social elite.
Traditional accounts of the Bury rising draw heavily upon Walsingham’s chronicle, a narrative which focuses on Wrawe more than the communities he visited. Despite its local origin, the record of John Gosford, almoner of the Abbey of St Edmunds, is referred to less often. It gives a very different impression of the town’s events, one in which key acts were carried out by groups from within the town’s own community rather than led by an outside individual. This article argues that the Bury rising signalled a fundamental change in the character of the Suffolk rebellion. Wrawe’s leadership, which had been powerful before reaching Bury, became eclipsed by that of leading townsmen. Rebel acts became more politically-motivated under these new leaders, opportunistically seeking to continue a long-standing dispute between the inhabitants of the town and their lord, the Abbey of St Edmunds.
This chapter explores the reception of the Reformation in the town of Reading, the entirety of which had been held under the lordship of Reading Abbey. It uses the wills of the inhabitants to examine how their pious and charitable activities adapted in the period. Beginning with an exploration of late medieval practices, responses to the various stages of the Reformation are then examined. Rather than creating a climate of fear, Henry VIII’s shift towards an increasingly reformist stance led to careful, pragmatic adjustments in response to royal policy by Reading’s parishioners. The chapter finds poor relief to have been different from other forms of piety and charity. Instead of reacting to religious policy, the parishes were proactive across the sixteenth century in shaping new practices.
This chapter explores the reception of the Reformation in the town of Reading, the entirety of which had been held under the lordship of Reading Abbey. It uses the wills of the inhabitants to examine how their pious and charitable activities adapted in the period. Beginning with an exploration of late medieval practices, responses to the various stages of the Reformation are then examined. Rather than creating a climate of fear, Henry VIII’s shift towards an increasingly reformist stance led to careful, pragmatic adjustments in response to royal policy by Reading’s parishioners. The chapter finds poor relief to have been different from other forms of piety and charity. Instead of reacting to religious policy, the parishes were proactive across the sixteenth century in shaping new practices.