8 - Spaces of work, study + learning Flashcards
Industrial Revolution - origin
- Began in Europe, 18th century - rest of the world over 200-300 years
- Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland led most of the innovation in Europe
- Culmination of centuries of global innovation in science and technology = particularly engineering
First impact - transformation of agriculture
* Mechanised forms of farming
* Mobilised a massive new workforce - structural change to employment patterns
Indstrial Revolution
Early urban growth
First phases of the industrial rev - urban growth occured outside of traditional major urban centres
To be built, factories needed:
* Cheap, flat land
* Water source (coal and steam-powered)
* Proximity to water transport (main form at time)
Spread of Industrial Revolution
19th century - spread to the rest of Europe
1770 -1800 Belgium, France + Switzerland
1840-1860 Germany, Austro-Hungarian empire, Spain, Italy, Russia, Sweden etc.
What enabled the Industrial Revolution ?
The ‘mobilisation’ of what was previously an agricultural workforce
- In reality, farmers lost their jobs and had nowhere to go but cities - making them very cheap labour for the new factories
Worker conditions - Industrial Rev
Pre-Industrial Rev
* Master/apprentice relationship - small-scale, personal + lifelong
* Worked less hours than an average employee today
* Had some rights - had common ground (to live + grow food)
Post-Industrial Rev
* large-scale, impersonal labour-management roles
* Conditions were really really bad; no laws or safety rules
* Children were the workforce of choice - because of size :)
* Workers had to live close to factories (no transport) - very noxious and polluting - smogs in London killed thousands of people due to combination with industrial waste
Migration of class - Industrial Revolution
- Previously, priviledge and class lived as centrally in London as possible
- The Industrial Revolution saw the wealthy move as far away from the city as possible
- Continued into the 1970-1980s when the wealthy moved back into the cities - when issues of congestion and pollution were largely solved
Three aspects of urban growth
- Increase in urban population
- Increase in the number of new urban places
- Expansion of very large cities - populations approaching 1M (largely unprecedented historically, excepting Rome and Tenochtitlan)
Problems/consequences of rapid urbanisation
- Overcrowding, sanitary conditions, pollution, rapid spread of disease
- Led to political ferment + unrest - revolutionary politics of all spectrums
Responses to problems of rapid urbanisation
- Bureauractic - regulation of building + sanitary conditions
- Built - re-development and expansion of urban infrastructures
- Relocation of factory workers to planned utopian communities
A lot of cities still rely on the infrastructure put in at this time
Utopia - definition and origin
- Ambigious - utopian can be an insult - can mean something idealistic and unachievable
- Term coined by Thomas More in the early 1500s - a book called De Optimo Republicae Statu deque Nova Insula Utopia - reffered to as Utopia
- Play on words - meaning technically ‘no-place’, but also rhyming with Greek eutopia, which means ‘good-place’
Robert Owen
- Quintessential production of industrial England
- Heavily influenced by Socialism, religious
- Part of a number of utopians that existed at this period
- Successful textile manufacturer - first-hand view of labour + housing practices
- Fundamentally believed that a person’s character was heavily influenced by their environment
- Bought a set of factories at New Lanark, Scotland
- Built first infant school in Britain - in 1816
- Forbid children under 10 from working, bought safer machinery, better housing, organised refuse collection, cheaper good-quality goods in local stores
The mills at New Lanark became a beacon of socially-reformed work - for politicians, utopians, religious leaders + the aristocracy
Nalanda - site and context
- Existed for about 800 years
- Located in what is the current State of Bihar,
- in India - originally a wealthy separate kingdom
- Historians describe it having two basic phases
- Part of a long tradition of formal education in India
- Core philosophy - Buddhist
- Believed that the site was a stopping point for Buddha and his disciples during the monsoon season
Nalanda - reputation
- Internationally recognised centre of learning
- Students came from places as far away as Mongolia, China + Persia
- International rulers would have parts of the university built for students
Five disciplines at Nalanda
- Grammar - taught in Sanskrit (common language and language of most texts)
- Logic
- Arts and crafts (pottery, painting, weaving)
- Medicine
- Philosphy (not exclusively Bhuddist, also taught the Vedas + Puranas
Education at Nalanda
- Traditionally, degree was 12 years long (starting 16-25 years old)
- Changed to 10 years, but with an added entrance exam that had a pass rate of 20-30%
- Students lived at Nalanda - study was free
- Women studied at Nalanda - separate accommodation
- Approx. 10K student, 1.5K teachers
- Classes of around seven students per teacher
- Oral instruction - with a focus on formalised debating + practical skills
- Massive library three-building library, with one part being nine-stories high
