Newsround: BBC Archives update - Business History New Issue - Organizational history in the press - Upcoming events
Campaign News - Table of Contents - Management Today and Financial Times - Call for Papers
This week’s catch up features a campaign update regarding the campaign to ensure researcher access to the BBC Written Archives Centre (not looking too good), table of contents for the most recent issue of Business History, and some interesting journalistic takes on organizational history in Management Today and the Financial Times. We close with some forthcoming events and calls for contributions.
Contents
BBC Written Archives Centre Campaign Update
New issue of Business History out now: Volume 68, Issue 3
Historical topics in the press
Events and calls for papers
BBC Written Archives Centre Campaign Update
This is the latest update from the BBC Written Archives Centre Campaign.
We recently submitted evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. Our contribution is an abbreviated version of the previous submission to DCMS with minor updates. You can read it here and we understand it will be published by the Committee at a later stage. We hope that its message of strengthening the Charter and Framework Agreement will be reflected in their final report.
Our campaign is now focused on the Parliamentary process of the Charter Review, but we remain in conversation with the BBC. A number of users attended the newstyled ‘information sharing session’ on 20 March. BBC representatives trailed the April release of files, but due to their rather esoteric nature it seems the press office was less keen on promotion. As expected it is a smaller selection than December’s release - c.800 compared to c.50,000 - and is outlined here.
The BBC has now made clear they have no intention of publishing even a basic list of the 50,000 files released just before Christmas. This is a truly baffling position, especially when there must have been a list made in order to do the release in the first place.
The government has published a new strategic vision for archives, commissioned from the National Archives. It is a modest but welcome document, and John Wyver in a recent blog considers how the WAC measures up against this new yardstick. We were pleased to see the Royal Historical Society promote this blog to its followers on Bluesky.
We have had some coverage lately including Times Higher Education and its follow up in the Times newspaper itself. Even the local BBC service is getting in on the act.
As ever, we are happy to hear from you if you need advice on using WAC during these challenging times, or if you just have an idea about how to advance the campaign. Collaborations with concerned organisations are particularly welcome.
With best wishes
Ian Greaves, Dr Kate Murphy and Professor John Wyver
Business History, Volume 68, Issue 3
Research Articles
Management and social order in ancient India
Convenience store retailing – The embedding of a new approach in the British retail landscape
Eoin McLaughlin, Paul Sharp, Xanthi Tsoukli & Christian Vedel
Freedom of contract and company freedom. Corporate governance in Norway, 1890–1930
Knut Sogner & Victoria Ciobanu Austveg
An entrepreneurial turf war: Travel agencies, ICEM, and the migration industry since the 1950s
Colonial capitalisation and business investment in the Federated Malay States in the interwar years
Why are corporations terminated? A century of evidence from the Netherlands
Christopher L. Colvin, Abe de Jong, Philip T. Fliers & Florian Madertoner
Kneeling to violent men: Investors and insurrection in Imperial Russia
Book Review
Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India
Playing the Percentages: How Film Distribution Made the Hollywood Studio System
Small, medium, large: How government made the U.S. into a manufacturing powerhouse
Business Power and the State in the Central Andes: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru in Comparison
Management Today 60th Anniversary
Management Today publishes a piece on the history management featuring a veritable roll call of mostly UK-based business historians — check it out here.
In the FT, Soumaya Keynes explores whether economic history demonstrates that deeper economic links mean that war is less likely.
Upcoming events and call for papers
Workshop. “Mujeres en la Historia de la Economía y la Empresa” || “Women in the History of Economics and Business” Badajoz (Spain) (hybrid), 15 - 16 October 2026, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Extremadura. CFP deadline is May 30 2026.
Networks of Creative Persuasion in Advertising and Marketing — Conference at the Hagley Library, November 6, 2026. Submit proposals of no more than 500 words and a one-page C.V. to Carol Lockman at clockman@Hagley.org.