{"title":"'Bottom dog men': Disability, Social Welfare and Advocacy in the Scottish Coalfields in the Interwar Years, 1918-1939.","authors":"Angela Turner, Arthur McIvor","doi":"10.3366/shr.2017.0335","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article connects with and builds on recent research on workmen's compensation and disability focussing on the Scottish coalfields between the wars. It draws upon a range of primary sources including coal company accident books, court cases and trade union records to analyse efforts to define and redefine disability, examining the language deployed and the agency of workers and their advocates. It is argued here that the workmen's compensation system associated disability with restricted functionality relating to work tasks and work environments. Disability became more visible and more closely monitored and this was a notably contested and adversarial terrain in Scotland in the Depression, where employers, workers and their collective organisations increasingly deployed medical expertise to support their cases regarding working and disabled bodies. In Scotland, the miners' trade unions emerged as key advocates for the disabled.</p>","PeriodicalId":44628,"journal":{"name":"Scottish Historical Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2017-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5667650/pdf/","citationCount":"8","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scottish Historical Review","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.2017.0335","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 8
Abstract
This article connects with and builds on recent research on workmen's compensation and disability focussing on the Scottish coalfields between the wars. It draws upon a range of primary sources including coal company accident books, court cases and trade union records to analyse efforts to define and redefine disability, examining the language deployed and the agency of workers and their advocates. It is argued here that the workmen's compensation system associated disability with restricted functionality relating to work tasks and work environments. Disability became more visible and more closely monitored and this was a notably contested and adversarial terrain in Scotland in the Depression, where employers, workers and their collective organisations increasingly deployed medical expertise to support their cases regarding working and disabled bodies. In Scotland, the miners' trade unions emerged as key advocates for the disabled.
期刊介绍:
The Scottish Historical Review is the premier journal in the field of Scottish Historical Studies, covering all periods of Scottish history from the early to the modern, encouraging a variety of historical approaches. Contributors are regarded as authoritative in their subject area; the pages of the journal are regularly graced by leading Scottish historians. In addition to its extensive book reviews, the Scottish Historical Review also functions as a journal of record. It includes a comprehensive List of Articles in Scottish History and List of Essays on Scottish History in Books, which cover articles published in the preceding year.