My current research interests are in the history of The Open University and in the development of fraternity, trust, loyalty and reciprocity. I have been the recipient of 13 grants from a variety of bodies including the British Academy and the Nuffield Foundation.
I am interested in supervising studies in local history charities, families and the history of organisations. For more information see http://open.academia.edu/DanielWeinbren or contact me on d.weinbren@open.ac.uk
1999 –
Founder and chair of the international Friendly Societies Research Group. This group has held annual conferences which have attracted speakers from the USA and France plus distinguished British academics and funding from a variety of sources. As chair I have facilitated the production of a bibliographic guide, a database of sources, a library of resources and a collaborative research culture encompassing students, independent scholars and university-based academics. I am general editor of a microfilm series associated with the group. The group is linked to the Mutuality Network based at the LSE’s Centre for Civil Society in the Department of Social Policy.
2002 – 2009
Management Committee of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry, The University of Sheffield.
1999 – 2001
Management Committee of the Pavis Centre for Social and Cultural Research, The Open University.
1998 –
Family and Community Historical Research Society Committee Member
1993 – 2003
Founder and chair of the Labour Oral History Project. This major national survey received funding from the British Library and produced over 200 audiotapes now stored in the National Sound Archive. My output includes a book and two refereed articles, an international multi-media conference, a museum exhibition and invitations to address the Royal Historical Society and major international conferences in Europe and the USA.
1992 –
Convenor of the London Labour History Workshop – a forum for academics and elected representatives from councils, Parliament and the European Parliament.
1992 – 2000
Member of the committee of the Oral History Society.
1992 – 1997
Member of the committee of Labour Heritage.
2009 –
Editorial Board member of Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism.
2003 –2009
Editorial Board member of The National Archives journal, Ancestors.
1998 –
Joint founding editor Family and Community History and now editorial associate.
1997 – 2000
Special editor Oral History Spring 1996 and Oral History editor.
1988 – 1989
Joint editor Red Letters – a journal of cultural politics.
Books
The Oddfellows. 200 years of making friends and helping people, Carnegie, Lancaster, 2010.
‘fills and important and neglected aspect of our social and economic life ... an invaluable source of information’ (Journal of Co-operative Studies). ‘A detailed and important history’ (Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism).
Hendon Labour Party 1924-1992, Microform Academic, Wakefield, 1998.
Analysis of politics at the level people lived their lives.
Generating Socialism: recollections of life in the Labour Party, Sutton, Stroud, 1997.
The New Statesman ‘book of the month’. ‘fresh and entertaining’ (The Times Higher) ‘a tremendously important piece of work both historically and politically’ (Professor Paul Thompson) ‘absolutely wonderful’ (Professor Jerry White).
A history of Thomas Morson & Son, Middlesex University Press, 1997.
A study of this family firm from the foundation in 1818 to the 1990s.
2nd edition, Remembering, BBC, London, 1997.
A single-authored complete course textbook.
Remembering, BBC, London, 1996.
Multi-media accredited distance-learning study materials.
A Short History of Royal Ordnance, Patricroft, Middlesex, London, 1995 (with T Putnam).
Analysis of a factory’s workforce and products from the foundation in 1836 until closure in 1989.
A Short History of the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield, Middlesex, London, 1992 (with T Putnam).
A study which draws upon oral testimony and archival sources, from the opening of this factory in 1811 until it closed in 1987.
Chapters in books
‘”Organisations for brotherly aid in misfortune”: Beveridge and the friendly societies’, in Melanie Oppenheimer and Nicholas Deakin (eds.), Rethinking Voluntary Action, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2010.
Assessment of Beveridge’s understanding of state and voluntary welfare
‘The social capital of female friendly societies’in Máire Cross (ed.), Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300-2000, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010.
A fresh analysis of gender and fraternity.
‘Seven hundred years of fraternal orders’ in Máire Cross (ed.), Gender and Fraternal Orders in Europe, 1300-2000, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2010.
A wide-ranging overview with a distinctive thesis.
‘Freemasonry and friendly societies’ in Henrik Bogdan and Jan Snoek, Handbook on contemporary freemasonry, Brill, Leiden, and Boston, 2010
Examination of the tensions and cross fertilisations within fraternal bodies.
Supporting self-help: charity, mutuality and reciprocity in nineteenth-century Britain’ in Bernard Harris and Paul Bridgen (eds.) Charity and mutual aid in Europe and North America since 1800, Routledge, London and New York, 2007.
A new framing and repositioning of both charity and mutual aid which illuminates both sectors.
Sociable capital’ in Matthew Worley (ed.) Labour's grass roots: essays on the activities and experiences of local Labour parties and members, 1918-1945, Ashgate, 2005.
Consideration of the many villages and variations of the capital.
Local Labour politics ― roots or branches?’ in Colin Barker (ed.), Popular protests and alternative futures, Manchester, 1995.
Assessment of the relationship between national and local politics
Articles in journals
‘Beneath the all-seeing eye. Fraternal order and friendly societies’ banners’, Journal of Cultural History, 3, 2, 2006.
‘The Good Samaritan, friendly societies and the gift economy’, Social History, 31, 3, 2006.
‘Getting a grip ― the roles of friendly societies in Australia and the UK reappraised’ (with B James) Labour History, 89, 2005 [Australia].
‘Imagined families: research on friendly societies’ Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für die Geschichte der sozialen Bewegungen, 27, 2002 [Germany].
‘Relative value: the financing of families’, Family and Community History, 2, 1, 1999.
I was the theme editor of this issue of the journal.
‘“From gun carriage to railway carriage”: the fight for peace work at the Woolwich Arsenal 1919-22’, Labour History Review, 63, 3, 1998.
‘New Labour, New history?’ Labour History Review, 63, 2, 1998.
‘Building communities, constructing identities. The rise of the Labour Party in London’, London Journal, 23, 1, 1998.
‘The Royal Small Arms Factory and industrial Enfield 1855-1914’, (with T Putnam) London Journal, 21:1, 1996.
‘Labour’s roots and branches: the Labour Oral History Project’, Oral History Journal, 24:1, 1996.
I was special editor of this issue.
‘Labour representation in Woolwich’, Labour History Review, 59:3, 1994.
‘“Against all cruelty”, The Humanitarian League 1891-1919’, History Workshop Journal, 38, 1994.
Other formats
CDs: Reports in Family and Community History (editor, with L Faulkner and R Finnegan), 2001.
Reports in Family and Community History (editor, with L Faulkner and R Finnegan), 2000.
Indexed, searchable collections of several hundred studies of local British history.
Podcasts: I have contributed to four Open University/BBC podcasts ‘Things we forgot to remember’ about public and collective memories.
Film: Friendly Societies’ Records (series editor), Microform Academic, 2001
To date over 100 films have been sourced, edited, filmed and introduced by academic experts.
Popular articles
‘Norfolk’s Emigration Fever’, Norfolk Roots, Spring 2005
‘A Friend Indeed’, Norfolk Roots, Autumn 2004
‘Beneficial Mutuality’, Ancestors, June 2004
‘Investigating friendly societies’, Family History Monthly, May 2004
‘Millennial Histories’, Local History News, 46, 1998
I have written a monthly columns for Family History Monthly and for Ancestors, The National Archives’ publication.
Reviews
Over the last five years I have reviewed 26 books in six different academic journals including The London Journal, History, The Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism and Oral History Review. I have also had reviews published in popular history journals.
Conference papers
I have contributed 34 papers to a wide variety of academic conferences in the USA, Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden and Britain.
Refereeing
Referee of book proposals for Palgrave, Macmillan, Hodder, Arnold and Routledge.
Referee of articles for London Journal, Oral History, Politics, Labour History Review and History Workshop Journal and Social History.
Course materials
The roles of families’ in I. Donnachie (ed.), Themes in local and regional history, A825, 2010
‘Virtual heritage’ (with R. Ferguson & R Harrison) in Rodney Harrison (ed.), Understanding global heritage, AD281, Open University Press and Manchester University Press, 2009.
Environment: change, contest and response Understanding environmental issues U216 Study Guide coordinator (1st and 2nd editions, 2008 and 2009)
Environment: change, contest and response Changing environments U216 Study Guide coordinator(1st and 2nd editions, 2008 and 2009)
Environment: change, contest and response Contested environments U216 Study Guide coordinator (1st and 2nd editions, 2008 and 2009)
Environment: change, contest and response environmental responses U216 Study Guide coordinator (1st and 2nd editions, 2008 and 2009)
Country profiles, D833, Open University Press, 2002.
Family and Community History Internet Guide, DA301, Open University Press, 2000.
I have passed The Open University Business Management for Administrators course, acted as a stakeholder on the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, chaired the Central Academic Units Retention Team and been a member of the University-level Retention Next team.
A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.
