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No abstract

The system of industrial relations operated by IBM at its main British manufacturing plant in the west of Scotland is designed to individualise workplace relationships whilst, at the same time, generating employee loyalty to a well-defined corporate culture. The major characteristics of the IBM system are examined, together with the attitudes of a sample of employees towards the company and a number of more general social issues. It is argued that, although most employees have a very positive attachment to the highly individualistic non-union ethos at IBM, this is not reflected either in a generalised hostility to trade unionism per se or by a sympathy toward individualsitic solutions to social problems similar to those espoused by the Thatcher administration of recent years. Although their current work environment seems to indicate little need for trade unions, and the perceptions of most IBM employees of trade union practice are negative, these workers should not be regarded as permanently lost to the trade union movement.

Nineteenth-century Ireland was colonized and strictly controlled from Britain. In this highly regulated society, reports of the Inspectorate of Lunacy in Ireland were used to express an official medical view on cirminal lunacy. This view was based on experiences gained in the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland, opened at Dundrum in 1820. This paper will examine some of the ideas expressed in these reports, including views on the treatment of criminal lunatics, on their potential for dangerous behaviour, and on emigration as a form of after-care.

This paper looks at the impact of psychiatric hospital treatment on the life of a man who spent almost forty years in a large mental hospital in Northern Ireland. Patient behaviour and staff experience of this behaviour are examined within the conceptual framework proposed by Erving Goffman. This man's story once again challenges the notion of the ail-pervading power of the institution, and affirms the ability of some individuals to maintain a strong personal identity in spite of being officially labelled as deviants and separated from society because of this label. It also challenges the assumption that institutional living in itself, stigmatises and therefore isolates an individual from normal social networks. It is argued that in order to predict the impact of voluntary or compulsory institutionalisation, not only must the identity-construct of the individual be considered, but also the social position of the institution within the community.