Introduction
There has been a long tradition of interest by industrial relations (IR), and later employment relations (ER), scholars in history. This chapter examines what we mean by ‘history’ and aims to indicate why historical methods are important for academics researching ER. It looks at the early links between history and ER and concludes with a review of the extent of historical research being undertaken by ER scholars.
What is history?
When dealing with issues in the world of work, we bring together perspectives based on the past, present and future. There are three temporal frames of reference based on the past, present and future: historicism, ‘presentism’ and futurism. At its worse ...
Get The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
