Event Details

An invitation to a conversation with Mickey Down and Konrad Kay co-authors and co-creators of the BBC and HBO television drama series 'Industry'.

When the BBC premiered a new drama series entitled Industry (available here in full), it became immediately apparent that, for the first time, television was treating contemporary corporate cultures with a seriousness, sensibility and insight without precedent.

Our guests created the story from their own experience of hyper-performative graduate work and with a remarkable grasp of the multiple nuances and forms of cultural pressure marking the lives of those who experience it today. Their way of telling the story of such lives is rather different from what the social sciences tend to see (whether management and organisation studies, sociology, psychology or mental health). The characters of Industry, their lives within and outside institutional systems and social circles, as well as the institutions themselves, are all immersed in a rich interpretation of formal and informal processes of work. Industry’s narrative reveals the totalising nature of this world, whose power reaches the interior sense of self of all those involved. Through its honesty and realism, the drama sheds critical light on how work itself has become the centre from which questions of truth and meaning in life come to be decided (and, at times, death).

This seminar will be a dialogue with the authors of Industry meant for all who wish to learn more about the series, explore how cultures of performance and performativity have come to dominate so many contemporary organizations, and consider how rich artistic portrayals of work and workers shed a unique light on our understanding of work in the 21st Century.

The conversation and Q&A will be facilitated and moderated by Dr Peter Watt (for more information, contact Peter -peter.watt@lancaster.ac.uk ).

All interested staff and students from all faculties are welcome.

No need to register – just join the Teams meeting here.