The factory in a garden : a history of corporate landscapes from the industrial to the digital age / Helena Chance.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chance, Helena, 1957- author.

Series:

Studies in design and material culture

Studies in design & material culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gardens--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Gardens.

Gardens--United States--History--19th century.

History.

Great Britain.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 265 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2017.

Summary:

When we think about Victorian factories, 'dark satanic mills' might spring to mind - images of blackened buildings and exhausted, exploited workers struggling in unhealthy and ungodly conditions. But for some employees this image was far from the truth, and this is the subject of The Factory in a Garden, which traces the history of a factory gardens movement from its late-eighteenth century beginnings in Britain to its twenty-first century equivalent in Google's vegetable gardens at their headquarters in California. The book is the first study of its kind examining the development of parks, gardens, and outdoor leisure facilities for factories in Britain and America as a model for the reshaping of the corporate environment in the twenty-first century. This is also the first book to give a comprehensive account of the contribution of gardens, gardening and recreation to the history of responsible capitalism and ethical working practices.

Contents:

1 'The pleasant manufactory' 14

2 From model factory to modern factory 38

3 'The Factory in a Garden'/'The Garden in a Factory' 64

4 'Happy healthy workers are the world's best': factory landscapes, leisure and the model employee 92

5 Designing the company Arcadia 119

6 'The Most Beautiful Factory in the World': the power of the garden image 142

7 Factory gardens and parks: profits or perks? 170

8 From factory gardens to 'connected gardens' 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-255) and index.

ISBN:

9781784993009

178499300X

OCLC:

952368694