Email: robin.mackie@open.ac.uk
I am a Staff Tutor and based in the East Midlands Region. I studied at Edinburgh University, completing a PhD on business in twentieth-century Scotland in 1995. I have worked for the Open University as an Associate Lecturer since 1993 and as a full-time member of staff since 1995. From 1995 to 2001 I was a Research Fellow in the Department of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, working with Dr Gerrylynn Roberts on a project entitled: ‘Studies of the British Chemical Community, 1881-1972: the Principal Institutions’. I started my present job in the OU’s Nottingham office in 2002 and took over as Head of the History Department at the beginning of 2012.
My main teaching interests are in nineteenth and twentieth British economic and social history. I have taught on a number of the Open University’s history modules, most recently on the History MA. I have contributed units to a number of Arts modules, including the second level History module, A200 Exploring History: Medieval to Modern, 1400-1900, two inter-disciplinary level one modules, AA100 The Arts Past and Present andA150 Voices and Texts, and a third-level History module, A326 Empire, 1492-1975. I was co-chair of the last named module during its production. I am at present working on our new level three module on twentieth century history, A327, Europe, 1914-1989: War, Peace, Modernity, which is due out in October 2013.
My research interests are also in nineteenth and twentieth century British economic and social history, and, in particular, business history and the relations between education, science and industry. Some of my publications are linked to the social history of chemistry project. Others are in business history, and in particular on the links between family and firms. I am also a member of the Open University’s British and Irish History Research Group.
I co-supervised a PhD, completed in 2009 by Stephen Swinfin entitled ‘The demand for chemists in the Manchester Area in 1900-1939 and how it was filled’.
‘Bearing ‘the burden and heat of the day’: the experience of business failure in Douglas and Grant Ltd.’ Business History (forthcoming, 2012)
‘“To provide for the settlement of my affairs”: inheritance and ownership in family firms during the transition to limited liability’, in R Hjerppe, E. Vaaro, A. Kuustera and S. Fellman (eds) Historical Perspectives on Corporate Governance: Reflections on Ownership, Participation and Different Modes of Organizing, Helsinki: 2008, Commentationes Scientiarum Socialium.
‘Chemical societies and the demarcation of the British chemical community, 1870-1914’, in Kildebaek Nielsen, A and Strbanova, S eds. Creating Networks in Chemistry. The Founding and Early History of Chemical Societies in Europe. Cambridge: 2008, Royal Society of Chemistry, pp. 140–161.
‘Counting chemists: the distribution of chemical expertise in Scotland in the first half of the twentieth century’. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, 2007, 27(1), pp. 48–74.
(with Gerrylynn K. Roberts), ‘Career patterns in the British chemical profession in the twentieth century’ in Mitch, David; Brown, John and Van Leeuwen, Marco H. D. eds. Origins of the modern career. Aldershot, UK: 2004, Ashgate, pp. 317–336
‘“Best for the family”: researching families and business’, Family and Community History, 2001, 4, 1 pp. 31-44
‘Family ownership and business survival, Kirkcaldy, 1870-1970’, Business History, 2001, 43, 3, pp. 1-32
‘Industry in Kirkcaldy: Mapping the Structure of Business in Twentieth-Century Scotland’, Scottish Economic and Social History, 1998, 18, pp. 61-84
See also Open Research Online for further details of Robin Mackie’s research publications.
