Professor Karel Williams
Research interests
I originally published as a cultural historian of the nineteenth century with the book Pauperism to Poverty and afterwards diverted into team work on present day capitalism. Over the past 15 years I have led a permanent and productive research team which has developed a distinctive approach to business analysis. This work initially focused on manufacturing and specifically on car assembly including classic work on how Henry Ford built the Model T. After 2000, articles on shareholder value and on the new economy opened a new phase of work on financialization and on corporate governance. CRESC then provided the impetus for us to write a culturally informed book on giant firm strategy which proposed a narrative and numbers method which was articulated through historical case study of three giant firms (Ford, GE and Glaxo). The team has already begun to produce a complementary stream of work on financialization and the household.
Recent publications
- Williams, K. with Erturk, I., Froud, J., Leaver, A., Johal, S., (2008) Financialization at Work, London: Routledge
- Savage, M., Williams, K., (eds.) (2008) Remembering Elites, Sociological Review Monograph, Oxford: Oxford: Blackwell.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., Leaver, A., Tampubolon G., (2008) ‘Everything for sale: how non-executive directors make a difference’ in Savage, M., and Williams, K., (eds) Remembering Elites, Sociological Review Monograph, Oxford: Blackwell.
- Williams, K. with Folkman, P., Froud, J., Johal, S., (2007) ‘Working for themselves: capital market intermediaries and present day capitalism’ Business History, vol.49, no.4, pp 552-72.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., Leaver, A., (2007) ‘New actors in a financialised economy and the remaking of capitalism’ New Political Economy, vol.12, no.3, pp.339-47.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., (2007) ‘Private equity and the culture of value extraction’, New Political Economy, 12 (3) pp 405-420.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., Leaver, A., Johal, S., (2006) Financialization and Strategy Narrative and Numbers, London: Routledge.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., Leaver, A., and Zhang, W, (2006) ‘The quiet panic about financial illiteracy’, in Global Finance after Deregulation, L Assassi et al (eds.) London: Palgrave.
- Williams, K. with Froud, J., C. Haslam, S.Johal( 2005) ‘Shareholder Value and Financialization: Consultancy Promises, Management Moves’ in Clarke, T. (Ed) Corporate Governance Volume 2 Anglo American Corporate Governance, London: Routledge.
Contact Details
ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC)
178 Waterloo Place
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
UK
tel: +44 (0)161 275 8988
email: karel.williams@manchester.ac.uk