Global Labour History

Question 1

What method is especially important in GLH?

Answer 1

Transnational comparison

Question 2

What are the 4 key features of GLH that are different/new from traditional Labour History?

Answer 2

1.** broad thematic scope:** intersectionality, formal and informal organizations, top-down + bottom-up, much broader global history
2. long term perspective: not fixed on Industrial Revolution
3. global method - comparative and transnational approach, spatial awareness
4. focus on multiplicity of labour relations that concur in the process of labour commodification

Question 3

Class

Answer 3

No predefined entity, nor the automatic reflection of a mode of production

The subjectivity of a class is a process within history

Question 4

Key issues in the contemporary debate on class

Answer 4

1. definition - „from the outside“ objective or „from the inside“ subjective
2. broad categories - designed to include multiplicity of work
3. definition of class** untied from work**
4. the boundaries of the class - is the class by definition global? Which goes beyond the nation state and eurocentrism?

Question 5

Contributions of GLH to contemporary debates on:

Answer 5

1. labour precariousness
2. migration
3. social inequalities

Question 6

How did Global Labour History develop?
And what is its relation to Global History?

Answer 6

Out of a crisis (1980s -2000) –> new approaches in Labour History (building a network )
The trajectory of GLH was independent form Global History but emerged from old labour history
BUT
- influenced by debates and methodologies in GH
- in the last 5-10 year attempts to reconnect GLH more systematically with GH

Question 7

What changed in the Periodization from traditional labour history to Global Labour History?

Answer 7

19th - 20th century (trad. Labour History) –> 16th - 20th century (Global Labour History) - not centered on industrial revolution, but on the process of labour commodification

Question 8

What are the key features, that are “new” in GLOBAL Labour History?

Answer 8

1. Broad thematic scope
2. Long-term Perspective
3. Global Methodology (transnational comparison)
4. Focus on the multiplicity of labour relations that were part of the process of labour commodification

Question 9

Rethinking the “Working Class”…
Questioning….
Deconstruct…

Answer 9

• beyond wage labour
• Questioning the clear distinction between free and unfree labour (coercion…)
• deconstruct the narrative of the connection between capitalism, proletarization and class