What is ' work'? And where do our ideas about work come from?
We're fascinated by the origins of how we think about work, because by understanding our history we can imagine and perhaps work towards new ways of working. Many of our ideas about work originate with the Victorians, and while there is a great deal of academic research on what 'work' is, there has been almost none on how our ideas about it were formulated and disseminated through the Victoria periodical press, the beginnings of mass media.
Today we watch stories based in the workplace, and those of us with jobs have manuals and guides to tell us how to do them. The Victorians had magazines to help them with their work - the Building World for builders, the Law Times for lawyers, the Meat Trades Journal for butchers, the Baker and Confectioner, and thousands more. Our BLT19 website features some of these Victorian magazines focused on work. They all in different ways ran stories that illustrated how we should behave at work whether we do it at home, in a factory, school, workshop or office.
We've found that students have powerful reactions to these magazines, as shown by the stories we received for our short-story competition last year, which you can read on our website.
About the competition
This year there are two ways for school aged pupils to enter the competition. Either write a short story or design a poster/collage in response to the magazines and materials on the BLT19.co.uk website.
- Two age categories: 12-15 years and 16-18 years
- Three prizes to be won, twelve prizes in total:
- 1st Prize: £100 in vouchers, 2nd Prize: £75 in vouchers and 3rd Prize: £50 in vouchers.
- An online award ceremony for winners, who will also be invited to work with an academic to perfect your stories.
- Winning stories and posters/collages will be published on the BLT19 website.
- For more details about the competition please see our website.
- Entries must be submitted online before midday on 9 July when the competition closes.
Please share details of this competition with your friends, family and with schools they attend. Thank you.
