The Second World War in Glasgow and Clydeside : men in reserved occupations 1939-1945
This thesis explores the masculine subjectivities of civilian men who worked in reserved occupations in the Clydeside region during the Second World War. It contributes important findings to existing historical discussions about whether the war represented a catalyst for social change in Britain, and also adds to the historiography on personal subjectivities, particularly masculinity. While previous studies of social change have generally had a wide geographical coverage, this research investigates a specific and arguably unique British region. The thesis primarily uses both archived and newly conducted oral history interviews as source materials, as well as engaging extensively with official and cultural sources, including newspapers, novels, posters and films. Using the terms 'lived' and 'imagined' to describe the plural, fluctuating and co-existing influences of socially constructed official and cultural discourses on the masculine subjectivities of male civilian workers as well as the contingencies, necessities and immediacies of everyday life, this work takes a post-modernist approach and understands subjectivity as a fluid, oscillating and ultimately continuous concept, retaining an inevitable sense
Chand, Alison
The Second World War in Glasgow and Clydeside : men in reserved occupations 1939-1945. This thesis explores the masculine subjectivities of civilian men who worked in reserved occupations in the Clydeside region during the Second World War. It contributes important findings to existing historical discussions about whether the war represented a catalyst for social change in Britain, and also adds to the historiography on personal subjectivities, particularly masculinity. While previous studies of social change have generally had a wide geographical coverage, this research investigates a specific and arguably unique British region. The thesis primarily uses both archived and newly conducted oral history interviews as source materials, as well as engaging extensively with official and cultural sources, including newspapers, novels, posters and films. Using the terms 'lived' and 'imagined' to describe the plural, fluctuating and co-existing influences of socially constructed official and cultural discourses on the masculine subjectivities of male civilian workers as well as the contingencies, necessities and immediacies of everyday life, this work takes a post-modernist approach and understands subjectivity as a fluid, oscillating and ultimately continuous concept, retaining an inevitable sense
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