Cultural Enterprise: Science, Steam Intellect and Social Class in Rochdale circa 1833-1900

Abstract

The object of this paper is to uncover the changing relationships between scientific culture and social class in one British industrial town during the nineteenth century. Rather than concentrating upon one or two `significant' figures, the paper attempts to identify the social status and political affiliations of cultural institutions through detailed analysis of their membership. It is argued that until the 1840s the urban scientific culture was supported by a fairly ad hoc mixture of competing social groupings. During and after the 1840s, it becomes possible to interpret the further development of the local scientific enterprise in terms of class conflicts. Increasingly, institutions within which scientific and technical matters were researched, discussed or taught became exclusive to particular social classes, and did not exhibit that variety of occupations, incomes and educational backgrounds found in the well-known provincial and metropolitan forums of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It is suggested that the social generation of a scientific culture may have had important economic effects. Where relevant, comparative data are drawn from Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester.