Before the “fall”: Alan Fox's “intellectual crisis” and early pluralist history and sociology
| Date | 16 April 2024 |
| Pages | 1246-1258 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-10-2023-0525 |
| Published date | 16 April 2024 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Peter Ackers |
Before the “fall”: Alan Fox’s
“intellectual crisis”and early
pluralist history and sociology
Peter Ackers
Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper presents an historical reconstruction of the radicalisation of Alan Fox, the industrial
sociologist and a detailed analysis of his early historical and sociological writing in the classical pluralist phase.
Design/methodology/approach –An intellectual history, including detailed discussion of key Fox texts,
supported by interviews with Fox and other Biographical sources.
Findings –Fox’s radicalisation was incomplete, as he carried over from his industrial relations (IR) pluralist
mentors, Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg, a suspicion of political Marxism, a sense of historical contingency
and an awareness of the fragmented nature of industrial conflict.
Originality/value –Recent academic attention has centred on Fox’s later radical pluralism with its
“structural”approachto the employment relationship. This paper revisits his early, neglected classical pluralist
writing. It also illuminates his transition from institutional IR to a broader sociology of work, influenced by AH
Halsey, John Goldthorpe and others and the complex nature of his radicalisation.
Keywords Alan Fox, Industrial relations, Oxford industrial relations and sociology, Nuffield college,
Barnett house, Unitarist, Pluralist, Radical, Radical pluralist, History of the social sciences
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
A 1968 profile of the “new Oxford group”of industrial relations (IR), published in New Society,
included Alan Fox (age 48) amongst five members (Bugler, 1968).ThetwoleaderswereHugh
Clegg (47) and Allan Flanders (57), plus Bill McCarthy (42) and Arthur Marsh (45). “Now working
on book elucidating a conceptual framework for industrial sociology”,Foxwas“Of the group, the
only one not closely involved in official bodies.”This is worth stressing, since at this Donovan
moment reforming public policy was the principal obsession of Oxford IR, not developing any
social science “conceptual framework”. Despite teaching at the Oxford Centre for Management
Studies, Fox’s other-worldly academic character already set him apart, even before his 1970s
radical shift, discussed below. Clegg (1990) adds a sixth man, Otto Kahn-Freund, who sat with him
on the 1965–1968 Donovan Commission. Richard Hyman recalls an early 1970s British
Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) conference when Kahn-Freund “walked
out, muttering: ‘you’ve betrayed us’, or words to that effect”(Ackers interview). In his mind, social
science and social democratic public policy were intimately intertwined.
Fox was one key figure in the 1970s “sociological turn”of British academic IR (Ackers,
2011a). Hitherto hostile to sociology, much of the field would soon become immersed in
ethnographic workplace case studies. This said, he contributed little to empirical research,
where a later Oxford sociologist, Eric Batstone, became the leading transitional figure (see
Batstone et al., 1977,1978). Fox’s (1966a,b,c,1971) pioneering contribution was to the
theoretical framework of British industrial sociology, initially as a sociological restatement of
established pluralist IR arguments. However, radicalisation soon made him an apostate in the
tight-knit, post-war anti-Communist generation led by Clegg and Flanders. Hence my
provocative title, for at that time any taint of Marxism, remained suspect.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s, Hyman’s (1975) brand of IR radicalism was most influential
amongst the younger activist generation of left-wing academics. However, the Thatcher era
ER
46,6
1246
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 17 October 2023
Revised 31 January 2024
Accepted 5 March 2024
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 6, 2024
pp. 1246-1258
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-10-2023-0525
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