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We invite contributions for a session on “Time and Work” at the 2nd European Labor History Network (ELHN) Conference that will take place from November 2–4, 2017 in Paris. Following years of virtual neglect in academia and beyond, the length of the workday has resurfaced as one of the burning issue for European labor. From the bitter strikes in crisis-ridden Greece to the French labor law protests of 2016, struggles against the extension of working hours feature prominently in present-day mobilization. At the same time, persistent trends in production (automation, digitalization, acceleration, etc.) and welfare-state policy (employment, retirement, working-time accounts, etc.) brought working hours back to the forefront of public debate. Against this backdrop, labor historians have recently begun to revisit earlier historiography on working time. In so doing, they launched new innovative research projects and established new institutional centers for the study of working time.
This ELHN session aims at providing a forum for these fresh yet hitherto mostly unconnected approaches. We invite papers that study the shifting realities of working and non-working time from the pre-industrial to the post-industrial era. Rather than collecting national accounts of numerical change, the session hopes to explore economic, social, political, and cultural aspects of working hours across time and space. The session is particularly interested in comparative contributions.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
Comparisons of working time in pre-/post-industrial vs. industrial settings; working time in different sectors (agriculture, industries, services); working time in formal and informal labor
Demands for leisure and working-class notions of time
Long-term changes of working hours in comparative perspective
Working-time regimes from empire to colony
Working time in “free” and “un-free” labor systems
Working hours and productivity
Employers’ perspectives and new managerial approaches towards shorter hours
Gender aspects of working time
Working time of minorities
Changes of working time in the life-course
The deadline for abstracts (c. 300 words) is May 21, 2017. Decisions will be made and communicated until the end of May. Final papers for distribution are due on October 1, 2017. Please send abstracts and inquiries to Philipp.Reick@mail.huji.ac.il.
Dr. Philipp Reick Hebrew University Martin Buber Society of Fellows Mandel Building, Room 334 Mount Scopus 91905 Jerusalem Israel Philipp.Reick@mail.huji.ac.il