Projectors in Seventeenth Century England and Their Relevance to The
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PROJECTORS IN SEVENTEENTH- CENTURY ENGLAND AND THEIR RELEVANCE TO THE FIELD OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT KRISTINA ZEKONYTE A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2018 Abstract Key words: Project management, projectors, projects, historiography, history, seventeenth century. The current established historiography of the field of project management dates back to the 1950s and there is little known about the development of this field prior to the Second World War. Critical scholars within this field have challenged the timeline for project management. This historical research provides evidence of project practices prior to the twentieth century by introducing the activities of projectors, who are currently unacknowledged within the field of project management. The title of projector was assigned to initiators and/or promoters of the idiosyncratic activities that combined elements of public and private gain and were known in the period as projects. The research investigates the genesis of the ‘projector' name and maps out the activities of projectors and their involvement within English industrial and economic development. Projectors and their schemes are explored through three different foci. The first focus is archival, exploring a seventeenth-century project within the textiles industry carried out by the projector Walter Morrell. This analysis highlights a number of practices within Morrell's project similar to modern project management, and potentially informs the history of project management. The second focus is through the lens of the late seventeenth-century writer and projector Daniel Defoe, whose seminal publication on projects was reprinted multiple times and consequently shaped public opinion on projectors and the undertaking of projects, this focus was socio-historical. The third focus relates to public-private interest, which played an important role in projectors’ undertakings and strongly influenced the connotation of the title ‘projector’. This theme is examined through existing PhD theses of scholars who studied the activities of projectors in seventeenth-century England. These three foci inform the contribution this thesis makes to project management history. The originality of this work is in acknowledging the activities of projectors within seventeenth century England, which has implications for project management histories. 2 Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 2 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 7 List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................... 8 Acronyms and Definitions ................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 10 Declaration .......................................................................................................................... 11 Conventions ........................................................................................................................ 12 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 1. The established historiography of the field of project management .......... 17 1.1 Project management ................................................................................................ 17 1.1.1 ‘The management of projects’ by Morris (1997) ................................................ 18 1.1.2. ‘A Brief History of Project Management' by Morris (2011) ............................. 20 1.1.3. ‘A history of project management models: From pre-models to the standard models’ by Garel (2013) .............................................................................................. 22 1.2 International Journal of Project Management special issue ‘Making Project History: Revisiting the Past, Creating the Future’ (Söderlund and Lenfle, 2013) .. 24 1.3 Professionalization of project management ........................................................... 25 1.4 Summary ................................................................................................................... 27 1.5 Commentary ............................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 2. Research methodology .................................................................................... 31 2.1 Research aim and objectives ................................................................................... 31 2.2 Methodology and method ........................................................................................ 33 2.2.1 Approach ............................................................................................................. 34 2.2.2 Sample and sources ............................................................................................. 36 2.2.3 Data ..................................................................................................................... 36 2.2.4 Data analysis ....................................................................................................... 37 2.2.5 Scope ................................................................................................................... 38 2.2.6 Limitations .......................................................................................................... 39 2.2.7 Ethical Issues ....................................................................................................... 39 2.3 Pilot study ................................................................................................................. 40 2.4 Mapping of the fields of projectors’ activities ....................................................... 41 3 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................... 44 2.6 Commentary ............................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 3. A historical overview of the role of projectors in society ............................ 46 3.1 Genesis of the term ‘projector’ and other related definitions.............................. 46 3.2 Projectors in the sixteenth century ......................................................................... 49 3.2.1 Demand for projectors......................................................................................... 49 3.2.2 Patents and monopolies ....................................................................................... 50 3.2.3 Projects and projectors ........................................................................................ 52 3.3 Projectors in the seventeenth century .................................................................... 53 3.3.1 A new call for projectors ..................................................................................... 53 3.3.2 A new circle of patents and monopolies ............................................................. 56 3.3.3 The pejorative label ............................................................................................. 57 3.4 Projectors in the eighteenth century ...................................................................... 58 3.4.1 Progress, consumerism and science ten days ahead............................................ 58 3.4.2 Projectors and the South Sea Bubble .................................................................. 60 3.5 Projectors in satire across all centuries .................................................................. 61 3.6 Narratives and fields of operation of projector activities in the United Kingdom .......................................................................................................................... 64 3.6.1 Illustrations of projectors activities in the sixteenth century .............................. 64 3.6.2 Illustration of projectors activities in the seventeenth century ........................... 65 3.6.3 Illustration of projectors activities in the eighteenth century .............................. 69 3.7 Summary ................................................................................................................... 69 3.8 Commentary ............................................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4. Archival focus .................................................................................................. 72 4.1 The context ................................................................................................................ 75 4.1.1 The first book ...................................................................................................... 76 4.1.2 The second book ................................................................................................. 79 4.1.3 The third book ..................................................................................................... 81 4.1.4 Research on Morrell’s New Draperies Project by other scholars ....................... 82 4.2 Summary ..................................................................................................................