Course: The Global Shoemaking Empire: The story of the Bata Company

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Course title The Global Shoemaking Empire: The story of the Bata Company
Course code KHI/IDE
Organizational form of instruction Lecture + Seminar
Level of course Master
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter and summer
Number of ECTS credits 5
Language of instruction English
Status of course Compulsory-optional
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Course availability The course is available to visiting students
Lecturer(s)
  • Balaban Milan, Mgr. et Mgr. M.A., Ph.D.
  • Peřinová Markéta
Course content
Course description The Bata Company, which evolved from a small workshop in Zlin in Moravia, in today's Czech Republic, at the end of the 19th Century, became the most prominent shoe producer in the entire world in the second half of the last Century. This company became one of the few Central European companies and the only one from the Czech lands to achieve global status as a world-renowned firm in the period before the Second World War. The company was characterized not only by its unique organizational structure and technological innovations but also by significant investments in the social life of its employees, for whom factory towns, schools, sports, and social facilities were built. More than two dozen company towns were built with specific functionalist architecture, which even today fascinates the architects and urbanists in the world. After the Second World War, the assets of the Bata Company were nationalized in the newly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. However, the remaining factories and retail networks became the core of the new global shoemaking empire, which spread to more than 110 states on all inhabited continents. Effects of globalization and unsuccessful adaptation to the new international circumstances after the 1990s forced the company to close almost all of its factories and stores in Western Europe and North America and to focus on the emerging countries of Africa and Asia. Nevertheless, the story of its development from its origins in a Moravian provincial town to become the world's largest footwear producer within a single century, while transforming several times and finding a new identity, is one of remarkable success.

Learning activities and teaching methods
Lecture, Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming)
Learning outcomes
The purpose of this course is to present the historical, social, and economic perspective of the history of one genuinely global company in an increasingly globalized world of the 20th Century. The course will cover economic and business history aspects of the development of the Bata Company. It will also analyze and describe working and living conditions in the Bata enterprise, from working in the factories to living in the firm company towns, which were spread on every inhabited continent except Australia. Each week's work will examine a pivotal episode in the company's development through lectures, readings, and discussion of associated issues.
The purpose of this course is to present the historical, social, and economic perspective of the history of one genuinely global company in an increasingly globalized world of the 20th Century.
Prerequisites
- proficiency in English; - genuine interest in the subject.

Assessment methods and criteria
Written exam

The course has two formal requirements: active class participation and passing a final exam
Recommended literature
  • Balaban, M. et al. The early decades of the Bata Shoe Company in India: From establishment to economic and social integration. .
  • Balaban M. et al.:. The Social Welfare System in Bata Company Towns (1920s?1950s): Between Transnational Vision and Local Settings. .
  • Baros, J. The first decade of Batanagar. Batanagar. 1945.
  • Bata J. T - Sinclair, S. Bata: shoemaker to the world. Toronto. 1990.
  • Cekota, A. The stormy years of an extraordinary enterprise: Bata 1932-1945. Perth Amboy. 1985.
  • Dolezal, A. Z. In the kingdom of shoes: Bata, Zlín, globalization, 1894-1945. Toronto. 2021.
  • Pokluda, Z. -Herman, J. - Balaban, M. Bata across continents. Zlín. 2022.
  • Ševeček, O - Jemelka, M. Company towns of the Baťa concern: history - cases ? architecture. Stuttgart. 2013.


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA22) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA24) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): History (2019) Category: History courses - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): History (2019) Category: History courses - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA23) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA22) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA24) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): History (2019) Category: History courses - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Education Study plan (Version): Teaching History for Secondary Schools and Higher Primary Schools (NA23) Category: Pedagogy, teacher training and social care - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -