Industrial citizenship: a re‐conceptualisation and case study of the UK

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critically examine and reformulate T.H. Marshall's concept of industrial citizenship, and apply the reformulated model to a case study of the UK.Design/methodology/approachMarshall's conceptualisation of industrial citizenship is criticised for neglecting the rights of unions as collective rights and for treating industrial citizenship as an aggregation of individual rights. Subsequent attempts to use the idea of industrial citizenship are similarly flawed. A case study of changes to industrial citizenship in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s is used to develop the new model and provide evidence in support of it.FindingsAn alternative conceptualisation of industrial citizenship is presented that outlines collective and individual powers, obligations, liberties, constraints, immunities and liabilities. This model is illustrated using examples from the Conservative governments' industrial relations legislation of the 1980s and 1990s.Originality/valueDiscussions and applications of T.H. Marshall's concept of industrial citizenship are few and far between. The paper proposes an original re‐conceptualisation specifying the collective rights of unions in the British regime of industrial citizenship. This new concept of industrial citizenship is then applied to the radical changes in industrial relations legislation in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s.