This contribution studies the processes and tensions involved in the introduction of management techniques, largely inspired by the Japanese example, into a non-Japanese manufacturing firm in the North East of England. In treating culture as something an organization <italic>has</italic> rather than something an...

Introduction: the imagined garden -- The machine in the garden -- Creating industrial citizens -- The garden in the machine -- Remembering the work of the long boom -- Change at work -- The ghost in the machine -- The ruined garden -- Conclusion: reimagining work

This essay is a response to the call for a discussion about future trends in sociology by focusing broadly on the sub-discipline of work and employment. In doing so the piece directly engages with earlier interventions made by John Scott (2005) and Gayle Letherby (2005) in Sociological Research...