Dr Amy Edwards

Contact Details:

Office: Room 1.03, 71 Cotham Hill

Email: [email protected]

Research Interests:

I am a social and cultural historian of twentieth and twenty-first century Britain. My research focuses on cultures of capitalism, business, and finance and the ways that people experience largescale economic change at the level of the everyday. I am especially interested in the blurred boundaries between economic, political, social, and cultural life in contemporary societies. Most recently this has entailed studying the emotional, material and spatial aspects of financialization, and the working lives of self-employed people.

My first book, Are We Rich Yet? explores investment culture in late-twentieth century Britain. I utilise the concept of 'financial consumerism' to trace the intersections between post-war consumer society and the growth of the financial services sector. This research explores a history of financial reform in Britain which pushes beyond a framework dominated by Thatcherism and the Conservative Party. It asks how and why daily life in Britain became full of images of, and references to, the world of stocks and shares? 

For my new project I explore the history of enterprise culture in Britain. This involves a study of 'enterprise' and 'entrepreneurs' in culture, politics, industry, and education. I am currently working on the first stages of this project via an AHRC-funded Research, Development and Engagement Fellowship, 'The Secret of My Success: Women and Self-Employment in Britain, 1970-2000'. Through this project I aim to trace the history of Britain's small business owners, self-employed, and business franchisees. I am also interested in the history of Corporate Social Responsibility and social enterprises.

You can hear me talking about my projects here:

• The Bunker - From Del Boy to Dogecoin: How we all got hooked on getting rich quick
• Hagley History Hangout - 'The Only Way is Up: Self-Employment in Britain, 1950-2000'

Public Impact

I have used my research to contribute to wider political and public debates around the ways we earn, save, and spend money, including contributions to productions by the BBC, ARTE, and audible.com. As part of my current project I am also developing a short podcast series and documentary film about women's working lives.

Teaching

I teach at all levels of our undergraduate degree. My past and current teaching has included social activism in post-war Britain, humanitarianism and humanitarian non-governmental organisations, Britain's Cold War, British politics, culture and society in the 1980s and 1990s, Thatcherism, and enterprise culture in contemporary Britain and America.

Examples of previously supervised dissertation, MPhil, and PhD topics:

• Charitible giving in post war Britain
• Maculinities in British punk
• Thatcherism, entrepreneurialism and rave culture
• Fashion and the gendering of Margaret Thatcher
• The role of the media in the 1975 European referendum
• The NEDC and Conservative Party industrial planning
• Housing policy, the 'Right to Buy', and local politics in Sheffield
• Entrepreneurialism, masculinity and race in 1980s Britain
• Corporate Social Responsibility in the oil industry
• The Ideal Home Exhibition and cultures of consumption in 1950s Britain
• Political identity in Hong Kong
• Deindustrialisation and meanings of self, place and belonging in post-war Britain.
• The emergence of the insurance industry in early twentieth-century China.
• Systems of trust in the nineteenth-century Canton tea trade .

I am open to being contacted with regards to potential PhD projects in areas related to my research interests.