The Electrification of the Rural Irish Home: Housewives, Electrical Products and Domesticity in the 1950s and 1960s

第二次世界大战后，由于电力供应委员会(ESB)实施的农村电气化项目，国内电气产品才在爱尔兰广泛传播。这些产品在其他国家被视为现代化和解放的象征，但标准的提高实际上为家庭主妇创造了更多的工作，女性自我价值的想法变得与家务劳动捆绑在一起。该项目将使用口述历史、档案研究和实物分析来调查20世纪50年代和60年代这些进口电子产品在爱尔兰农村的意义，特别是与天主教对妇女和家务的主要态度有关的意义，强调妇女作为留在家里的唯一社会角色。该项目建立在20世纪20年代爱尔兰关于设计、电气技术和民族认同的PIS现有博士研究的基础上。该项目将与爱尔兰乡村生活国家博物馆(NMI)建立项目伙伴关系，NMI是爱尔兰农村物质文化的主要研究中心，并包括与爱尔兰乡村妇女协会(ICA)成员的代际口述历史项目。它将与传统上负责农村电气化的组织、ESB、老年人民间和第三部门组织以及拥有电子产品收藏的博物馆合作，以促进合作、知识交流和社区参与。现在进行口述历史研究是非常重要的，因为这一代妇女已经七八十岁了，现在记录她们的第一手证词至关重要。它还将产生创造性和学术成果，包括网站、社交媒体、展览和活动方案，这将使老年妇女的声音在公共论坛上得到倾听和重视，并为她们的福祉做出贡献。从学术的角度来看，这也是非常及时的，因为爱尔兰历史和地区研究对战后家庭生活的兴趣越来越大，基于对象的分析还没有得到很好的发展，该项目将突出设计历史方法在理解战后生活的重要性方面的作用。这项研究将直接关系到经营这类房屋的那一代女性，以及爱尔兰更广泛的公众和在这种内部环境中长大的爱尔兰侨民。最初的直接好处将是老年爱尔兰妇女通过为她们的福祉和社区价值感做出贡献而受益。与博物馆的研究合作也将使他们受益，帮助他们解释自己的藏品，并强调它们的当代相关性。其他受益者将是老年慈善机构和疗养院，因为口述历史研究稍后可能会被纳入回忆疗法，无论是在住宿护理中还是在社区中。就合作和领导活动而言，整个项目将与爱尔兰设计、技术和设计史、爱尔兰历史和爱尔兰研究领域的研究人员以及在其他国家(如英国、丹麦、美国等)从事家居工作的研究人员相关；也将涉及任何对电子产品的文化背景感兴趣的人，包括产品设计师、工程师和室内设计师。研究将定位于设计史，但受到技术史和社会史的影响，运用口述历史、档案研究和对象分析等方法。它还将特别有助于关于爱尔兰设计的全国讨论，使其能够参与到关于家庭生活以及妇女和技术的角色的问题中。这将是爱尔兰设计史上第一个如此规模的研究项目，通过扩大过去学术出版物的产出，将为爱尔兰设计史研究人员和从历史背景考虑实物的其他研究人员提供最佳实践的范例。

Domestic electric products only became widespread in Ireland after World War II as a result of the rural electrification project carried out by the Electricity Supply Board (ESB). These products were seen as symbols of modernity and liberation in other countries, but rising standards actually created more work for the housewife, with ideas of female self-worth becoming tied up in domestic labour. This project will use oral history, archival research and object analysis to investigate the meanings of these imported electrical products in rural Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in relation to dominant Catholic attitudes to women and domestic work, emphasising the sole social role of women as remaining in the home. This project builds on the PIs existing PhD research on design, electrical technology and national identity in 1920s Ireland.The project will engage in project partnership with the National Museum of Ireland Country Life (NMI), the main centre for research into the material culture of rural Ireland, and includes an intergenerational oral history project with members of the Irish Countrywomen's Association (ICA). It will work with the organisation historically responsible for rural electrification, the ESB, civic and third sector organisations for the elderly and museums with electrical product collections, in order to promote collaboration, knowledge exchange and community engagement. It is extremely important that this oral history research be carried out now, as this generation of women are in their 70s and 80s, and it is vital to record their first-hand testimony now. It will also produce creative and academic outputs, including a website, social media, exhibition and events programme, which will allow elderly women's voices to be heard and valued in a public forum and contribute to their wellbeing. It is also very timely from an academic point of view, due to the increasing interest in post-war domesticity in Irish history and area studies, where object-based analysis is not well developed, and the project will foreground the usefulness of design historical methods in understanding the materiality of post-war life. The research will be of direct interest to the generation of women who ran such homes, as well as a wider public in Ireland and the Irish diaspora who grew up in such interiors. The initial direct benefit would be to elderly Irish women by contributing to their wellbeing and sense of value in the community. The research collaborations with museums will also benefit them by aiding them in their interpretation of their collections and emphasising their contemporary relevance. Other beneficiaries would be age charities and nursing homes, as the oral history research could later be incorporated into reminiscence therapy, both in residential care and in the community. In terms of collaboration and leadership activities, the overall project would be relevant to researchers in the fields of Irish design, technology and design history, Irish history and Irish Studies, as well as researchers working on the home in other national contexts (e.g. UK, Denmark, USA, etc.); also anyone with an interest in the cultural context of electrical products, including product designers, engineers and interior designers. The study will be located within design history, but with influence from the history of technology and social history, making use of oral history, archival research and object analysis. It would also contribute specifically to the national discourse on Irish design, opening it up to an engagement with issues concerning domesticity and the role of women and technology. It would be the first research project of this scale on Irish design history, and by expanding the outputs past academic publication, would provide an example of best practice for researchers in both Irish design history and for other researchers considering material objects in a historical context.