Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 26 Nov 2007
Conditions of Employment and Work Practices in the Early Years of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
Conditions of Employment and Work Practices in the Early Years of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
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Page Range: 197 – 223
This paper provides information about the conditions of employment and concomitant work practices of the early years of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. It is chiefly based on a series of pamphlets issued by the successive Survey Directors. These set down the conditions of employment for the organization's staff members, but they also provide insights into the day-to-day workings of the Survey, its gradual enlargement, and its modes of bureaucratic control. They also provide some insight into the ethos of the Survey, and the kind of career and the nature of the work that the organization could offer its staff. Evidence is put forward as to the reason why the series of printed regulations was initiated. The Survey provides a useful early example of the nature and practice of government science, organized according to bureaucratic principles.
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