Beer and Skittles? Workers and Culture in Early Twentieth‐Century Germany

This paper begins by examining the cultural practices of the large workers' leisure organisations associated with German Social Democracy and asks whether these merely reproduced 'high' or 'bourgeois' culture or whether they contributed to a distinct cultural identity for their members. It concludes that, although much of the culture of these organisations was borrowed, it was not necessarily understood in the same way by workers as by middle-class Germans. Moreover these organisations remained separate from those of the German bourgeoisie and possessed distinctive core values, in particular that of solidarity. This difference was reinforced by the housing conditions of German workers, which obviated the possibility of a privatised and domestic leisure. However, this 'labour movement culture' had to compete both with other organised working-class cultures (of Catholics, Poles and workers in company clubs), with a 'culture of poverty' on the part of those in irregular employment and on low incomes, and with an increasingly commercial leisure industry. This 'labour movement' culture was also predominantly male.     

An important failure: knowledge limits and the financial crisis

Abstract

This paper introduces a theme section on knowledge limits in and after the financial crisis. It explores how and why practitioners have generally responded less conservatively to crisis than academics, and argues that academics within a variety of problematics could do more by reflecting critically on the heroic ideas about the role of knowledge which were current across the social sciences in the decade before the crisis. It then turns to introduce the section's papers before finally raising the possibility of a more explicitly political approach to understanding finance.     

Hong Kong between East and West

The Hong Kong Basic Law: Blueprint for ‘Stability and Prosperity’ under Chinese Sovereignty, edited by Ming K. Chan and David J. Clark. (Hong Kong Becoming China Series) M. E. Sharpe, New York, 1991. xv + 311 pp. $45. ISBN 0–87332–835–3.

The China‐Hong Kong Connection: The Key to China's Open‐Door Policy, by Yun‐Wing Sung. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. xiv + 183 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0–521–38245–9.

The Making of Hong Kong Society: Three Studies of Class Formation in Early Hong Kong, by W. K. Chan. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. viii + 251 pp. £32.50. ISBN 0–19–827320–7.