Social and Labour History News

In recent years, scholars in historical and secular studies have become increasingly interested in communist attitudes towards religion, communist regimes’ efforts to uproot religion (Smolkin 2018), and interactions between Marxists and Christians (most recently Ramšak/Mithans/Režek 2023) (Burchardt/Wohlrab-Sahr/Middell 2015). Sponsored by the Explaining Atheism programme, this conference will explore transnational communist perspectives on atheism in the twentieth century and Marxist-inspired attempts to explain and influence the evolution of atheism. Building on work on “scientific atheism” (Thrower 1983, Kääriäinen 1989 and 1993, Guigo-Patzelt 2021), “atheist establishments” (Smolkin 2018) and “thought collectives” (Tesař 2019), the conference explores differences and commonalities within the Soviet bloc – within which scholarly debates on atheism took place in what might be called a limited international scientific community.

The conference explores three broad themes:

1. It examines actors’ diverse understandings of atheism and investigates how communists conceptualised different kinds of non-belief in general and Marxist-Leninist atheism in particular; how they sought to create and spread a “positive” atheist vision; and how they tried to explain atheism and its causes at individual and societal levels and in specific national and religious contexts.

2. While the efficacy of initiatives such as the Soviet League of the Militant Godless has been called into question (Peris 1998, Gleixner 2022), the conference addresses significant outstanding questions about the role of formal and organised initiatives in processes of atheisation in communist states, including the impact of antireligious education, atheist rituals, and mass media.

3. The conference will examine the effects of non-belief, atheism and agnosticism on individuals and societies under communist rule, to provide new insight into the history of these countries as well as general mechanisms of worldview change.

Philosophical questions about the place of atheism within Marxism, while interesting in themselves, are beyond the scope of this conference.

We welcome contributions on communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union as well as Africa, America and Asia during the 20th century. The scope can be extended to theoretical developments within communist movements outside communist ruled countries (Pettinaroli 2021).

Submission guidelines

The conference will take place in English. It is funded by the Explaining Atheism programme (www.explainingatheism.org), and travel costs and accommodation for speakers will be provided. Further details of an open-access publication being developed in relation to this conference will be shared at the meeting.

Please submit a paper title, an abstract of max. 400 words and a CV to Eva Guigo-Patzelt: eva.patzelt@sciencespo.fr

by 15 July 2023. Academic committee

• Pierre-Antoine Fabre, Directeur d’études at EHESS, Deputy Director of CéSor
• Eva Guigo-Patzelt, Associate member of CéSor
• Dr. Jonathan Lanman, Queen's University Belfast, Project Lead Explaining Atheism
• Lois Lee, Senior Lecturer at University of Kent

Organiser

• Eva Guigo-Patzelt, Associate member of CéSor (Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux, EHESS/CNRS, Paris)

Works cited

Burchardt, M., Wohlrab-Sahr, M., Middell, M. (ed) (2015). Multiple Secularities Beyond the West. Religion and Modernity in the Global Age. Boston/Berlin/Munich: De Gruyter

Gleixner, J. (2002). An atheist wall of separation? The Soviet state, the League of the Militant Godless and the complicated border between the political and the non-religious sphere, talk at the international conference “The Non-Religious and the State: Choices and Frameworks for Seculars from the Age of Revolution to the Current Day”, Brussels, 20-22 October 2022

Guigo-Patzelt, E. (2021). Du conflit au dialogue : L’athéisme scientifique en RDA (1963-1990). PhD thesis, Sorbonne University Paris

Kääriäinen, K. (1989). Discussion on Scientific Atheism as a Soviet science 1960-1985. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakateimia

— (1993). Atheism and Perestroika. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia

Peris, D. (1998). Storming the heavens. The Soviet League of the Militant Godless. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press

Pettinaroli, L. (2021). Sans Dieu ! Une histoire transnationale de la libre pensée prolétarienne entre Europe et URSS (années 1920-1930). Habilitation thesis, Institut d’études politiques de Paris

Ramšak, J., Mithans, G., Režek, M. (ed) (2023). Christian Modernity and Marxist Secularism in East Central Europe: Between Conflict and Cooperation. Zagreb: Srednja Europa

Smolkin, V. (2018). A Sacred Space Is Never Empty. A History of Soviet Atheism. Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press

Tesař, J. (2019). The History of Scientific Atheism. A Comparative Study of Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union (1954-1991). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht

Thrower, J. (1983). Marxist-Leninist “scientific atheism” and the study of religion and atheism in the UdSSR. Berlin/New York/Amsterdam: Mouton Publisher

On the Explaining Atheism Programme, see: https://www.explainingatheism.org/

Dossier spécial de la revue Lusotopie sur le Cinquantenaire du 25 avril 1974

Le 24 avril 1974 au soir, les désormais célèbres « capitaines d’avril » commencèrent leur coup d’État au nom d’un programme simple, celui des « trois D » : décoloniser, démocratiser, développer. Il s’agissait surtout de mettre fin à près de quatorze ans de guerre coloniale, une guerre qui ne pouvait pas être gagnée militairement, qui isolait le Portugal sur la scène internationale, brûlait près la moitié du budget de l’État et poussait la jeunesse à prendre le chemin de l’exil pour éviter de partir au combat. L’ancien régime tombait dès le lendemain dans la liesse populaire. Alors que les militaires appelaient au calme et si possible à rester à la maison, les manifestations monstres du 1er mai 1974 montrèrent que le coup d’État était devenu une révolution, d’abord sur des thèmes démocratiques mais rapidement sur des thèmes sociaux, voire socialistes.

Cinquante ans après le 25 avril 1974, Lusotopie publie un dossier spécial pour étudier les aspects de cette révolution qui pourraient avoir été sous-étudiés. La revue est par ailleurs associée au colloque qui se tiendra à l’université de Rennes 2 les 30-31 mai et 1er juin 2024. Lusotopie encourage les auteurs qui auront été présélectionnés pour le dossier à venir présenter leurs articles comme communications à ce colloque, qui sera ainsi une occasion de discuter publiquement de chaque texte.

La révolution des Œillets, une révolution portugaise

« O 25 de Abril » est polysémique questionnant l’histoire politique et l’histoire sociale, aussi bien que l’histoire culturelle, économique et des relations internationales. Pourtant, penser le 25 avril comme un fait national, comme une nation qui se parle à elle-même, est à la fois central et le plus souvent laissé de côté. La nation, largement identifiée au discours salazariste sur la « nation une, du Minho à Timor » et l’exaltation de la « portugalité », avait mauvaise presse au printemps 1974, discréditée par près d’un demi-siècle de dictature et les guerres coloniales.

L’Europe apparut alors rapidement comme un substitut commode, autour du slogan « L’empire est mort, vive l’Europe ! » La conjonction du sentiment national et de l’impératif social aurait pu donner une tout autre tonalité aux Œillets d’avril, à l’image de ces soldats de l’An II, évoqués par Victor Hugo, « qui se battaient en tant que révolutionnaires et patriotes ».

Cinquante après, il s’agit ici de questionner les interactions entre le 25 avril et la nation portugaise, et de le faire notamment sous l’angle politique et idéologique, comme synonyme de la fin « d’une certaine idée du Portugal » séculaire et comme « moment historique où le peuple devient le Peuple », pour reprendre la définition de la nation proposée par Pascal Ory (Qu’est-ce qu’une nation ? Gallimard, 2020). La Révolution des Œillets a-t-elle changé profondément l’image que les Portugais – au moins ceux des nouvelles générations – se font de leur propre nation ? L’Europe a-t-elle effacé une certaine nostalgie de l’Empire ? Quels défis lance-t-elle, de par ses vastes dimensions et population, à un pays redevenu le « petit rectangle métropolitain » ? La modernisation extraordinaire du pays a-t-elle affaibli l’attachement à la patrie ?

Ces questions peuvent en entraîner d’autres, sans que l’objectif soit de faire un bilan : il s’agit plutôt de continuer l’histoire de la nation portugaise, par l’apport de plusieurs communications interrogeant le « fait de conscience » portugais en ce moment crucial.

La révolution des Œillets, une révolution mondiale

Dans sa genèse même, la révolution portugaise a été internationale, puisqu’elle est le produit combiné de la révolution anticoloniale africaine et d’une lassitude croissante des Portugais envers un régime qui ne faisait plus sens auprès des jeunes générations.

Mais outre le fait qu’elle eut un retentissement immense dans de nombreux pays – comme en France, où elle sembla d’une certaine manière compenser le drame du coup d’État de Pinochet au Chili juste sept mois auparavant (11 septembre 1973) –, outre le fait que se développa un « tourisme révolutionnaire » de jeunes occidentaux partant à Lisbonne pour « voir la révolution », elle eut aussi un retentissement auprès de communautés et d’États d’une manière ou d’une autre liés à l’histoire portugaise. On peut poser les questions suivantes :

• quel fut le retentissement, quels furent les effets de la Révolution des Œillets dans les communautés portugaises émigrées en Europe occidentale (France, Angleterre, Allemagne de l’Ouest, Suisse, etc.), au Canada, aux États-Unis, au Brésil, au Venezuela, etc. ?
• comment les « Pays de l’Est » ont-ils réagi au début du processus ?
• comment des pays qui s’étaient affrontés au Portugal (comme l’Inde en 1961 lors de la prise de Goa), ou qui soutenaient la résistance antifasciste et anticolonialiste portugaise (comme le Maroc et l’Algérie) ont-ils vécu le déclenchement et le développement de cette révolution ?
• comment des pays qui soutenaient l’effort colonial portugais ont-ils réagi au coup d’État (Afrique du Sud de l’Apartheid, Rhodésie du Sud, ou, d’une manière plus complexe, le Brésil des militaires, ou encore l’Espagne du franquisme finissant) ? Et ont réagi ceux qui poussaient aux négociations (comme le Sénégal de Senghor) ?

Modalités de contribution

Le numéro spécial de Lusotopie incluant le dossier du Cinquantenaire du 25 avril 1974 paraîtra en décembre 2024. Les résumés de propositions d’articles devront être soumis avant la fin septembre 2023. Les auteurs seront informés de l’acceptation ou non de leurs propositions au plus tard en novembre 2023. Ensuite, les articles devront être reçus au plus tard fin janvier 2024, pour être soumis à évaluation en double aveugle. Les auteurs dont les articles auront été acceptés (sans modification ou avec de légères modifications) ou acceptés sous condition (avec modifications substantielles) devront donner la version « pré-définitive » fin avril 2024. Ils seront encouragés à s’inscrire au Colloque du Cinquantenaire à l’Université de Rennes 2 (30-31 mai et 1er juin 2024) pour présenter leur travail et le discuter en ateliers. De ces discussions pourront aboutir encore quelques modifications aux articles. La version définitive des textes devra être reçue par Lusotopie fin juillet au plus tard. Les articles peuvent être rédigés en français, portugais ou anglais (pour d’autres langues, nous consulter).

La revue Lusotopie paraît depuis 1994, longtemps hébergée par Sciences Po Bordeaux et son Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire (1994-2009). Elle est aujourd’hui une revue électronique semestrielle en accès libre, publiée par l’Institut d’ethnologie méditerranéenne, européenne et comparative (Idemec, UMR n° 7307 Aix-Marseille Université et CNRS). Lusotopie se consacre à l’analyse du politique dans les espaces contemporains issus de l’histoire et de la colonisation portugaises. Son originalité est de travailler au sein d’un espace postcolonial et composite, présent sur quatre continents et dans de nombreuses diasporas.

Dates de préparation :

• publication de l’appel à communications : mars 2023
• date limite d’envoi des résumés : fin septembre 2023
• sélection des résumés : au plus tard fin novembre 2023
• date limite d’envois des articles : fin janvier 2024
• publication des résultats de l’évaluation en double-aveugle : fin avril 2024
• dates du colloque à l’université de Rennes 2 : 30-31 mai-1er juin 2024
• date-limite de réception de la version définitive des articles : fin juillet 2024
• publication du numéro spécial de Lusotopie : décembre 2024

Les correspondances, envois des résumés et des articles devront être envoyés simultanément aux adresses des coordinateurs du numéro : yves.leonard@sciencespo.fr et m.cahen@sciencespobordeaux.fr, ainsi qu’à l’adresse de la rédaction lusotopie@gmail.com.

Plus d’informations sur la revue Lusotopie. Pour le Colloque de Rennes, écrire à André Belo : andre.belo@univ-rennes2.fr

Coordination scientifique

Le dossier de Lusotopie sur le Cinquantenaire de la Révoluton des Œillets est coordonné par Yves Léonard (Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po Paris) et Michel Cahen (Laboratoire « Les Afriques dans le monde », Sciences Po Bordeaux/CNRS).

 

Special issue of Twentieth Century Communism: A Journal of International History

Well before the Comintern’s founding in 1919, travel had become an essential practice of Marxist revolutionaries who imagined a new egalitarian society that extended beyond national boundaries. Lenin’s train journey from Zurich to Petrograd in 1917 would become a monumental moment in the collective communist memory, inseparable from the successful outcome of the October Revolution.
The founding of the Comintern marked a new era in the internationalization of the Bolsheviks’ political views and practices, with its activists embarking on a nomadic existence as they travelled across the globe. At the same time, the new Soviet state urged communists and fellow travelers from all over the world to visit its territory, often within the framework of Soviet cultural diplomacy. During the interwar period, communist travels could also be imposed, as in the case of political exile. Travels also expressed revolutionary and/or anti-fascist solidarity as in the case of the Spanish Civil War.
After the end of the Second World War, communist travels took different forms and meanings in the context of a new world divided between the communist East and the capitalist West. In the second half of the twentieth century, the territories of the so-called Third World also attracted communists and leftists from different parts of the world.
The study of travels can be especially fruitful as it shines a light on both the circulation of individuals and ideas, as well as the development of political cultures. While there is a rich literature on many transnational aspects of 20th-century communism, there is a dearth of research that focuses on how travels became, at the same time, an experience, a political practice, and a tool of propaganda. This special issue aims at bringing together papers that are specifically engaged with the theme of communist travels undertaken by individuals and/or groups.

Questions of interest include:
- What structural features of travels and traveling played a role in the evolution of Communist activists, groups, and parties? To what extent did travels contribute to the shaping of communist identities?
- How did travels challenge official party policies and destabilize ideological certainties? To what extent did travels contribute to scissions and splits?
- How did Communist leaders and parties use travels as a political means and propaganda tool in different contexts?

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to:
anastasia.koukouna@manchester.ac.uk by 30 June 2023.

Contact Info:
Special issue editor: Anastasia Koukouna, the University of Manchester
Contact Email:
anastasia.koukouna@manchester.ac.uk
URL:
https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc

The Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture is pleased to announce that it will host an international conference on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of April 2024 on the campus of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. The theme is “The Carnation Revolution: Global Perspectives”.

 

The year 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, a seminal event in Portuguese history. This conference seeks to explore the global cause and impact of the Carnation Revolution reflecting scholarship on the metropole, the empire and the diaspora. The goal of the conference is to bring together individuals from a variety of fields such as artists, writers, and academics to discuss the multifaceted aspects of the revolution throughout the lusophone world.

As such, the CPSC welcomes submissions for both panels and roundtable discussions. Each panel submission should include the panel title, names and affiliations of each panelist, the titles of the individual papers along with a 300 word abstract for each paper. Each roundtable submission should include the roundtable title, as well as the names and affiliations of each discussant along with a 300 word abstract for the roundtable discussion.

Panel/roundtable organizers should submit their proposals to Tina Clarke at tinaclarke3@umassd.edu. The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2023. Proposals will be selected and accepted panels/roundtables informed by 31 July 2023.

More information regarding conference accommodations and other details will follow on the CPSC website: https://www.umassd.edu/portuguese-studies-center

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture is a multidisciplinary international studies and outreach unit dedicated to the study of the language, literatures and cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world.

 

https://www.umassd.edu/portuguese-studies-center

European Labour History Network
Labour and Empire Working Group

Working-class Anti-Imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study

30 June, 2023
University of Bristol
Room G.H03, Arts Complex, 7 Woodland Road, BS8 1UJ,
Bristol, United Kingdom

9.00 Registration

9.15 Welcome

Panel 1 - Global Marxisms (9.30-10.50)

• Natalie Berhends (Harvard University): For Your Freedom and Ours: Diasporic Polish, Yiddish, and Ukrainian Anti-Imperial Socialism, 1870-1919
• Daria Dyakonova (International Institute, Geneva): “If you, working women, want to destroy slavery in colonial countries your place is in the ranks of the Communist International”: the International Communist Women’s Movement’s Anti-colonialism and Anti-imperialism in the 1920s
• Vanessa Corrado (independent scholar): De-institutionalizing politics: activists’ agency and activists’ work in a Marxist-Leninist movement of India (1967-1975)

10.50-11.10: Break

Panel 2 - Anti-colonialism and the African Left (11.10-12.30)

• Steven Parfitt (Independent scholar): White “Workers” on the South African Diamond Fields (1888-1893)
• Giulio Fugazzotto (University of Urbino), The ‘mission’ of Velio Spano in Egypt between anti-colonialism and antifascism (1935-1936)
• Fatima Chorfi (University Oran2, Mohamed Ben Ahmed, Algeria): The Role of the Trade Unions in the Decolonisation of Algeria

12.30-13.30: Lunch

Panel 3 – Projected Revolutions (13.30-14.50)

• Richard Cleminson (University of Leeds): Pan-Africanism, anarcho-syndicalism and the colonial question in Portugal (1910-1933)
• Joshua Newmark (University of Leeds): The Mexican Model: Spanish Anarchist Idealisation of Revolutionary Mexico, 1910-1939
• Fatma Çingi Kocadost (EHESS-Centre Maurice Halbwachs) and Camille Fauroux (Université Toulouse 2): Revolutionaries in Diaspora: Contributing to the anti-imperialist Struggle in Turkey and organising Migrant Workers in Europe

14.50-15.10: Break

Panel 4 - On the Global Waterfront (15.10-16.30)

• Peter Cole (Western Illinois University): Dockers, anti-imperialism, and left internationalism
• Justine Cousin (independent scholar): Lascar activism in Britain and international movements (1925-1944)
• Mae Miller-Likhethe (University of California at Berkeley): The International and the Waterfront: Revisiting Otto Huiswoud’s Political Work in Hamburg, Cape Town, and Antwerp

Wrap Up Session – The EHLN Labour and Empire Working Group: Current and Future Plans (16.30-17.30)

19.00: Dinner (location TBA)

We would like to thank the University of Bristol, Sorbonne Nouvelle and the Society for the Study of Labour History for the generous financial support.

For information, please get in touch with the conference organisers (Yann Béliard, Lorenzo Costaguta and Gareth Curless) at labourempire.elhn@gmail.com.

University of Fribourg, Switzerland

18-19 January 2024

Organisation: Jean-François Fayet, Marie-Luce Desgrandchamps, Marie Cugnet, Donia Hasler

Funding: Swiss National Science Foundation – University of Fribourg

 

Throughout the 20th century, humanitarianism and Communism developed complex relations made up of confrontations, challenges and (often frustrated) opportunities both at an ideological and practical level. This conference aims to explore the reciprocal interactions between the Red Cross Movement — the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the National Red Cross Societies (NRCS), the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (LRCS, now known as the Federation) – and Communist (or more generally of Marxist inspiration) regimes and organizations, between 1917 and 1991.

As both national and transnational phenomenon, revolutionary struggles involved actors and victims that were not covered by international humanitarian law. As early as 1917, humanitarians were confronted with the problem of the categorisation of civil wars, which complicated the establishment of who were responsible for applying the rules of war and defining the status of captured soldiers. Depending on the point of view of the belligerents, these soldiers were considered as political prisoners, criminals, or combatants. At the end of the Second World War, the emergence of People's Democracies and the reshaping of humanitarian law led to a significant shift, the USSR actively participating in the Movement. They even went as far as to claim paternity of the Red Cross. Despite significant tensions, the USSR and its allies became actively involved in the drafting of the Geneva conventions of 1949 and the Additional protocols of 1977. They also used the Movement to develop a common humanitarian diplomacy among the National Societies of the communist countries united in the "noble struggle for peace". Although communist regimes remained largely closed to humanitarian intervention on their own territories, they did not fail to use their National Societies to project themselves abroad and play on the rivalries between the ICRC and the League. During decolonization, some of the national liberation movements aligned with Marxism did not hesitate to use the Movement to obtain resources or forms of recognition on the international stage.

 

Despite the opening up of the archives following the disappearance of the Communist regimes on the European continent, as well as those of the Red Cross Movement, the relationship between Communism and the Red Cross has long remained overlooked by the historiography. This conference aims to examine this question as part of a global history of humanitarianism which has been significantly renewed over the last few years. The organizers of the conference propose to focus more particularly on the three following research themes:

- The first research theme explores questions of ideology and politics. How far did different concepts of solidarity, categories of armed conflicts and their victims, as well as understandings of international law, coexisted or clashed throughout the century? How did these tensions manifest themselves? How did different actors attempt to bypass these conflicts, or sometimes to exacerbate them? We invite papers considering both the anti-Communism of some Red Cross institutions and alternative humanitarian models proposed by Marxist actors.

- The second research theme examines the place of Communist regimes and Communist Red Cross societies within the Movement, both at an institutional and diplomatic level. The first aim is to explore the history of the Red Cross societies in Communist countries. What were the specific features of these national societies? To what extent did their alignment with the government spark debate within the Movement? What were the dynamics that existed between them and how did they collaborate with the rest of the Movement? The second aim is to analyse the role that they played at a diplomatic level, as well as their interactions with representatives of Communist states. To what extent did they try to influence the main decisions of the Movement during international conferences and to shape the codification of humanitarian law? How did they promote specific forms of humanitarian diplomacy within the Movement?

- A third research theme focuses on practices in the field, particularly in the context of revolutionary wars, uprisings or repression. What were the specific problems that humanitarian actors faced when they wished to obtain access to prisoners classified as political and, more generally, territories controlled by Communist authorities, in a context of conflict, or even of natural disaster? Conversely, how did revolutionaries mobilize the Red Cross Movement? To what extent did the involvement of the Red Cross Movement represent a threat, or on the contrary a resource? And how did these perceptions change over the course of the 20th century?

 

Proposals can be submitted in English or French (an abstract of max. 300 words and a short biography of max. 150 words) by 25 June 2023 to redcross-redstar@unifr.ch. The conference will be bilingual.

The conference organizers will provide accommodation and meals for participants during the event. Please let it be known if you need partial or full funding of your travel costs.

 

Appel à contribution

 

Revue Condition humaine / Conditions politiques (2024)
https://revues.mshparisnord.fr/chcp/

 

Date limite d'envoi : 21 juillet 2023

 

 

 

 

La revue Condition humaine / Conditions politiques lance un appel à contribution pour un numéro spécial portant sur l’anthropologie politique de David Graeber. Nous souhaitons orienter cet appel autour des différentes ontologies du « pouvoir » en anthropologie, en repartant des travaux de David Graeber sur ce sujet. Nous cherchons ainsi à questionner les façons dont la discipline se saisit aujourd’hui de cet enjeu, et ce dans une perspective réflexive et critique, en remettant au cœur du problème du « pouvoir » ses conceptualisations émiques. Comment ces dernières participent-elles du renforcement ou de la révision de nos appréhensions du « pouvoir », qui oscillent souvent entre simplification et complexification ? Nous cherchons à comprendre l’impact de ces transformations en les mettant en relation avec la place prépondérante prise par l’anthropologie du capitalisme ces dernières années. Ce courant de recherche fut largement irrigué par des formes de questionnement issues des alternatives politiques, dont David Graeber fut un représentant important au sein de la discipline. Comment de nouveaux modes de problématisation de « l’économie » et/ou du « politique » ont-ils affecté la discipline, dans ses manières d’appréhender l’objet « capitalisme » ? Quels sont les apports et les limites de ces modes de problématisation ? Comment l’anthropologie comprend-elle le développement de cette « alterpolitique », sans céder à l’enchantement et/ou au désenchantement radical dans ses enquêtes ? Telles sont les problématiques que nous souhaitons soumettre à nos futurs contributeurices.

 

 

Cet appel interroge la dimension prescriptive et épistémologique de la pratique ethnographique lorsqu’il y a anthropologie politique. La pratique ethnographique est bien souvent imbriquée dans des processus politiques de subjectivation auxquels ni l’anthropologue ni ses enquêté.es n’échappent. Il est impossible de comprendre l’intérêt montré par David Graeber pour l’effet des réformes structurelles politico-financières lors de son terrain dans la communauté villageoise de Betafo, par exemple, sans le replacer dans sa propre trajectoire d’activiste altermondialiste, partisan de « l’action directe » (Graeber, 2009). Ainsi la notion de « zone temporaire provisoire » entre-t-elle en discussion avec les théories de Hakim Bey sur les « zones d’autonomie temporaires ».

 

C’est par le processus d’induction et la réalité du terrain que certain.es chercheureuses ont repensé les catégories analytiques de construction identitaire, comme le genre (Rebucini, 2013) ou le travail (Monjaret, 2011 ; 2020). C’est aussi vrai pour les notions de politique, ou encore d’économie (Heintz, 2021). La trajectoire altermondialiste de David Graeber rejoint, par exemple, un renouveau de l’intérêt pour l’histoire du capitalisme, conçue dans une perspective globale, afin de jeter de nouvelles lumières sur notre présent – on en trouve un bon exemple dans son travail d’histoire et d’anthropologie de la dette, qui l’amène à redéfinir cette notion, dans le sillage de Marcel Mauss et en mobilisant notamment les apports contemporains de l’anthropologie économique, comme une relation entre égaux putatifs temporairement marquée par la création de formes de hiérarchie (Graeber, 2011). Du point de vue de Graeber, l’intérêt central de l’ethnographie est de favoriser un travail réflexif sur nos catégories et nos concepts (Graeber et Da Col, 2011).

 

Ce type de travail s’inscrit ainsi, pour l’enquêteurice dans un horizon de renouvellement du rapport au champ politique, comme du langage utilisé pour le décrire, dans lequel le/la chercheureuse se trouve, en quelque sorte, confiné.e – cherchant, peut-être, à s’en dégager. Cet horizon s’étend de l’alter-activisme (Pleyers, 2016a ; 2016b), dont relève la posture écologiste de cellui qui se préoccupe du réchauffement climatique en y résistant par des modes alternatifs de production et de consommation, aux alterpolitiques (Boni et Ciavolella, 2015), qui déconfinent les classiques de l’anthropologie politique en partant des subjectivités individuelles à l’œuvre dans les mouvements sociaux. Ces alterpolitiques ne sont pas sans susciter elles-mêmes du scepticisme et des controverses, relatives à leurs possibilités de réalisation, ou bien aux réalités qu’elles prétendent transformer, dont « l’altérité » présumée se voit réifiée par des porte-parole parfois contestables (et/ou contesté.es).

 

Sans doute « l’économie » et « le capitalisme » sont-ils devenus aujourd’hui – notamment du fait de l’importance prise par la recherche de formes de pensées alter – des concepts centraux à remettre au travail et en question pour les anthropologues, confronté.es à la multiplication des « crises » et des « catastrophes ». L’attribution des responsabilités et des finalités de tels événements devient un enjeu politique majeur (Roitman, 2014). L’anthropocène et/ou le capitalocène semblent ainsi des mots-valises renfermant toutes les causes des malheurs et des infortunes passés, présents et à venir des humains et des non-humains, pris dans les rets de la « politique de la survie » (Abélès, 2006). Ces transformations questionnent les formes selon lesquelles, au cours de nos enquêtes, se nouent les rapports de possession et de dépossession, de prise et de déprise, de pouvoir et d’impuissance dans la trame de l’espace et du temps – tant du point de vue de l’enquêteurice que de celleux auprès desquel.les nous menons l’enquête. À quel moment ces bouleversements, qui questionnent la nature des transitions/révolutions effectivement à l’œuvre, désaisissent-elles l’enquêteurice ? Des « alternatives ethnographiques » sont-elles nécessaires ?

 

 

Cet appel vise donc à analyser l’impact du renouveau de l’histoire et de l’anthropologie du capitalisme et de ses alternatives. Nous cherchons ici à susciter un espace de débats autour de l’importance de ce renouvellement des études du capitalisme, qui irriguent toutes les sciences sociales, et ce depuis leur fondation (Beaujard, Berger et Norel, 2009). L’anthropologie a-t-elle pour seule fonction d’ouvrir et d’enrichir le champ du possible ? Si c’est le cas, comment envisager l’étude de ces émergences in situ, sinon comme un travail d’enchantement et/ou de désenchantement radical ? « There is (no) alternative », pour pasticher Margaret Thatcher, est-ce cela le fin mot de l’anthropologie ? Le couplage crise/(no) alternative en vient-il à transformer les ontologies du « pouvoir » et de son envers, l’impuissance, du point de vue des personnes et des collectifs auprès desquels nous enquêtons ? Comment ces problématiques, et leurs dépassements, sont-ils affrontés par les chercheureuses qui participent de cette arène de recherche, et comment l’aborder dans une perspective réflexive ?

 

 

Calendrier

 

Les propositions de contribution en lien avec ces questions sont attendues sous la forme d’un résumé de 3 000 signes environ (document Word ou LibreOffice), assorti d’une courte bibliographie, pour le 21 juillet 2023.

 

Elles doivent comporter le nom de l’auteur.e, son affiliation professionnelle et son adresse mail, et être adressées à redaction.ch-cp@ehess.fr, aurelia.gualdo@gmail.com et olivier.coulaux@ehess.fr, avec la mention « CH/CP – L’enquête, David Graeber et nous » en objet du message. Elles recevront une réponse début octobre 2023.

 

Les articles complets (de 25 000 à 40 000 signes, notes et bibliographie comprises) devront être originaux et inédits, mis aux normes de la revue indiquées sur son site (https://revues.mshparisnord.fr/chcp/index.php?id=99) et accompagnés d’un résumé long (de 3 000 à 4 500 signes), en français et en anglais. Ils devront être remis le 15 janvier 2024 au plus tard.

Coordination scientifique : Olivier Coulaux (EHESS, LAP) et Aurélia Gualdo (EHESS, LAP)

 

Bibliographie indicative

ABÉLÈS Marc, Politique de la survie, Paris, Flammarion, 2006.

 

BEAUJARD Philippe, BERGER Laurent et NOREL Philippe (dir.), Histoire globale, mondialisations et capitalisme, Paris, La Découverte, 2009.

 

BONI Stefano et CIAVOLELLA Riccardo, « Aspiring to Alterpolitics. Anthropology, Radical Theory, and Social Movements », Focaal [En ligne], n° 72, 2015, « Theme Section: Inspiring Alterpolitics », URL : https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/focaal/2015/72/focaal720101.xml.

 

DA COL Giovanni et GRAEBER David, « The Return of Ethnographic Theory », HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory [En ligne], vol. 1, n° 1, 2011, p. vi-xxxv, URL : https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.14318/hau1.1.001.            

 

GRAEBER David, Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams, New York, Palgrave, 2001.

 

GRAEBER David, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, Chicago, Prickly Paradigm Press, 2004.

 

GRAEBER David, Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire, Oakland, Édimbourg, AK Press, 2007.

 

GRAEBER David, Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar, Bloomington, Indiana University Pres, 2007.

 

GRAEBER David, Direct Action: An Ethnography, Édimbourg, Oakland, AK Press, 2009.

 

GRAEBER David, Revolution in Reverse: Essays on Politics, Violence, Art and Imagination, Londres, New York, Port Watson, Minor Compositions, 2011.

 

GRAEBER David, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Brooklyn , Melville House, 2011.

 

GRAEBER David, « Dead Zones of the Imagination: On Violence, Bureaucracy, and Interpretive Labor. The Malinowski Memorial Lecture, 2006 », HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, vol. 2, n° 2, 2012, p. 105-128.

 

GRAEBER David, « Anthropology and the Rise of the Professional-Managerial Class », HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, vol. 4, n° 3, 2014, p. 73-74.

 

GRAEBER David, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, Brooklyn, Melville House, 2015.

 

GRAEBER David, La démocratie aux marges, Paris, Flammarion, 2018.

 

GRAEBER David, Bullshit Jobs, Paris, Les Liens qui libèrent, 2019.

 

GRAEBER David et SAHLINS Marshall David, On Kings, Chicago, Hau Books, 2017.

 

HEINTZ Monica, The Anthropology of Morality. A Dynamic and Interactionist Approach, Londres, New York, Routledge, 2021.

 

MONJARET Anne, « Du bleu de chauffe au jean : les jeux de l’apparence des “ouvriers” à l’hôpital, entre traditions corporatistes et normes institutionnelles renouvelées », Sociologie et sociétés, vol. 43, n° 1, 2011, « Pour une sociologie de la mode et du vêtement », p. 99-124.

 

MONJARET Anne, La pin-up à l’atelier. Ethnographie d’un rapport de genre, Ivry-sur-Seine, Creaphis, 2020.

 

PLEYERS Geoffrey, « Engagement et relation à soi chez les jeunes alteractivistes », Agora Débats/Jeunesses [En ligne], vol. 1, n° 72, 2016, p. 107-122, URL : https://www.cairn.info/revue-agora-debats-jeunesses-2016-1-page-107.htm.

 

PLEYERS Geoffrey, « De la subjectivation à l’action. Le cas des jeunes alter-activistes », in PLEYERS Geoffrey et CAPITAINE Brieg (dir.), Mouvements sociaux : quand le sujet devient acteur, Paris, Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, 2016, p. 27-47.

 

REBUCINI Gianfranco, « Masculinités hégémoniques et “sexualités” entre hommes au Maroc. Entre configurations locales et globalisation des catégories de genre et de sexualité », Cahiers d’Études africaines [En ligne], n° 209-210, 2013, p. 387-415, URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/17367.

 

ROITMAN Janet, Anti-crisis, Durham, Londres, Duke University Press, 2014.

The ITH is sad to announce the passing of Josef "Sepp" Ehmer, a highly esteemed colleague and friend who died unexpectedly on May 10, 2023 at the age of 74 in Vienna.

Sepp was born on November 7, 1948 in Gschwandt near Gmunden in Upper Austria. His parents were politically active as communists during the National Socialist period and he and his brother grew up in proletarian conditions after WWII. In 1968 he began studying History and German at the University of Vienna. In 1977 he completed his studies with a doctoral thesis on family structure and work organization in early industrial Vienna. In the late 1970s he became a university assistant and lecturer at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna. After completing his habilitation which dealt with marital behavior, social structure, and economic change, he became full professor of Modern History at the University of Salzburg. He held this position from 1993 until 2005 when he succeeded Michael Mitterauer as a professor for Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna, until his retirement in 2016.

Sepp had been affiliated with the ITH for many years. From 1993 to 2022 he was a member of the board and for decades, Sepp was a mainstay for the work of the ITH. He was always attentive, from the smallest detail to the biggest issues. He played a central role in the creation and discussion of calls for papers and programs, always with conceptually and practically well-thought-out proposals and ideas supported by his immense expertise. In the ITH, Sepp “pulled the strings” in many ways, and always in the spirit of collegiality and solidarity. Many of those who are close to the ITH find it difficult to imagine its work without Sepp. Most recently, in 2021, Sepp was part of the preparatory group for the 56th ITH Conference which dealt with the topic "Migration worldwide: Left-wing strategies, migrant actors, and capitalist interests from the 16th century to the present".

His main scientific interest were long-term socio-economic changes in modern Europe, but his research areas also included historical migration research, population history and historical demography. In the course of these projects, Josef Ehmer established many international contacts during his numerous research stays. For example, he worked as a researcher at the LMU Munich (1974-1975), at the University of Cambridge (1987-1989), at the Max Planck Institute for History in Göttingen (1984-1986), as a visiting professor at the Friedrich-Meinecke Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin (1990-1991), at the European University Institute in Florence (1997-1998 and 2002-2003), at the University of Cambridge (2008) and at the International Humanities College “Work and Life Course in Global History Perspective” re:work at the Humboldt University in Berlin (2010–2011) where he has also been associate fellow since 2011.

In his research, projects, lectures, and publications, he always sought to establish connections to present events and global developments. Interdisciplinarity and social relevance were never just words for him, but scholarly practice in his teaching and research. The promotion of young colleagues, for whom he opened up opportunities in the academic world, was a tremendously important concern for him. Sepp was a kind and conciliatory person whose commitment for scholarship and the persons and institutions behind it was full of passion.

As Sepp has passed away, we ask everyone who feels connected to him and wants to share memories to write short texts, which will be shown, on posters during this year’s conference in September. Please send the texts by July 15, 2023 to conference@ith.or.at.

Sincerely,

Therese Garstenauer (ITH President)
Susan Zimmermann (former ITH President)
Laurin Blecha (General Secretary)

Call for Proposals: Visual and Material Histories of Military Labour

The European Labour History Network’s (ELHN) Military Labour History Working Group is inviting chapter proposals for an edited volume on the Visual and Material Histories of Military Labour.

How do we write military history from labour perspectives? Or how do we write labour history with military sources? Labour historians have critically engaged with military sources by investigating them through feminist, anti-racist, and decolonized lenses, as well as by using new sources to document civilian experiences of war, military occupation, resistance to the military, and the militarization of everyday life. Expanding on these new directions, this edited volume seeks to create a new discussion on visual materials of military labour as sources of historiography and of new theoretical interventions.

We welcome any historical studies (the 1600/1700s onwards) that make innovative interpretations of such sources as paintings, drawings, photographs, posters, advertisements, cartoons, film, video, sculpture and architecture, as well as material objects, like memorabilia. We also welcome studies that critically engage with the ideas of visuality and provide new perspectives on visuality and materiality of military labour. Together, we aim to generate new theoretical and methodological discussions on visuality and materiality of military labour history across time and space. The edited volume is anticipated to be published with a Europe or North America-based academic press specializing in labour history.

We strive to make this project as collaborative as possible and, to that end, we will organize a series of online workshops where the contributors will share their work-in-progress and comment on the other papers. The workshops will serve as platforms to collectively develop the overarching theoretical framework of the volume, and expect them to be held between October 2023 and May 2024. Each workshop will be devoted to one section of the book (3-4 chapters) and the rest of the contributors will provide constructive feedback on the papers. Invited contributors are encouraged to attend as many workshops as possible, with consideration given to the different time zones. The final schedule for each workshop will be determined based on the locations and availability of the participants. A time commitment of 3-4 hours for the preparation for and attendance at each workshop is expected.

Topics might include, but are not limited to, visual/material analyses of military labour that focus on:

• Gender and sexuality/LGBTQIA in the military
• Femininities and masculinities
• Intimacy, family and domestic relationships
• Early modern military labour
• Military recruitment and resistance (including anti-war/peace movement/mutinies)
• Lived experience of military labour (e.g., soldiering as labour, transition from civilian to soldier or vice versa, free/unfree/coerced
• labour)
• Military labour and environmental changes
• Intersectionality of military labour (race, ethnicity, class, and gender among others)
• Civilians/civilian labour in the military
• New theoretical frameworks on visuality and visual/material history of military labour

Papers that address more than one of the above themes are also welcome.

How to submit: Please submit a 500-word abstract along with a short bio (150-200 words, please include your ORCID, institutional profile page or personal website if applicable) to militarylabourhistory@gmail.com by August 14, 2023. Please contact the editors with any inquiries at militarylabourhistory@gmail.com. The results will be notified in September 2023.

Expected Timeline (subject to change)

• Proposal deadline: August 14, 2023
• Notification of the results: by the end of September 2023
• Workshops (via Zoom): October 2023-May 2024
• Full manuscript: September 2024
• Publication: 2025

Editorial Team

• Bettina Blum, Paderborn University, Germany
• Jeongmin Kim, University of Manitoba, Canada
• Christine de Matos, The University of Notre Dame Australia
• Olli Siitonen, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Alexandros Touloumtzidis, University of Patras, Greece

 

KADOC, KU Leuven, Belgium

29 November – 1 December 2023. 

 

International and transnational organisations have been prominent actors in histories of the long 20th century, histories often marked by methodological innovations, which have generated new insights and reframed our understanding of, for instance, the Cold War, global civil society, and decolonisation. However, there has been little reflection on how historians can apply those same methodological perspectives to the use of these organisation’s archives. This workshop seeks to explore how different methodological approaches to international and transnational organisations can bring new histories into view. Rather than approaching international and transnational organisations from a strictly institutional point of view, we, instead, wonder how these organisations and their archives can become the basis for telling other, local, regional or international, stories that shift the focus to the broader context in which these organisations operated. By going beyond the institutional histories the workshop probes to re-evaluate the historiographical position of these organisations, while maintaining a clear view of the historian’s placement, challenges and limits.

 

In order to discuss such “de-centering” of the history of international and transnational organisations, this workshop focusses on methodological and epistemological reflections, and aims to bring together scholars working on all different strands of internationalism – from intergovernmental to non-governmental and civil society organisations, from religious internationals to trade union confederations and financial institutions. We welcome contributions that are based on a critical evaluation of experiences in the field, particularly in archives, that highlight how researchers have considered the methodological implications of de-centring their examination of these international organisations.

 

Some of the questions that might prompt contributions include:

 

·       How can the de-centering of international and transnational organisations and their archives engender new insights on a broad range of historical topics?

·       How has the recent emphasis in transnational history on disconnections informed methods and project design? What has the concept of disconnections brought to the previous emphasis on connections and flows? How have we managed the relationship between connections and disconnections?

·       The spatialization of transnational history: how can we write an international history from the local level? Conversely, how can we narrate local history by making use of international sources?

·       What new international organisations or networks are brought into view when our starting point is local contexts? How are understandings of what is an international organisation challenged by recent developments in the field?

·       Archiving and archival practices reflect certain internal visions and understandings of the international organisation, shaping the sources with which we can tell stories. How can we challenge and supplement these understandings through alternative source collections or archival projects, and what are the methodological implications of doing so?

·       What are the promises and perils of newer materials such as born-digital materials and what insights do they offer for understanding current forms of international organisation?

 

Please submit a max. 350-word proposal by 4 July 2023, via this webpage:

https://kadoc.kuleuven.be/english/3_research/31_ourresearch/workshops/2023/ws_international_organisations

 

Participants will be asked to submit a max. 4 page paper by 14 November, 2023. This paper should be a substantial outline of what a future full paper arising from your presentation will (or is envisaged to) look like. These will complement the 12-15 min oral presentations given during the workshop. They will also serve the basis for future collaborations, be it an edited collection/journal special editions or a collective research network grant. A particular aim of the workshop is to generate one or more ongoing collaborative projects, and time will be devoted to exploring these options. ​Funding is currently being sought to support early career and un/underwaged participants (including those with additional visa and currency regime costs). Please get in touch if you have any concerns about accessibility. 

Lorenzo Avellino, Frédéric Deshusses, Alfredo Mignini

With the development of 'platform capitalism', research on automation has made a strong comeback in the social sciences. The spectrum of positions on this matter is variegated, although it follows a classic pattern, ranging from optimism (Brynjolfsson and MacAfee, 2014) to forms of radical dismissal (Laïnae et Alep, 2020). Rejecting both positions, authors such as Aaron Benanav (2020) or Jason E. Smith (2022) relativise the impact of automation and technological innovations on employment and emphasise the importance of deindustrialisation processes due to the absence of productive investment in the age of neoliberalism. Antonio Casilli (2019) or again Roberto Ciccarelli (2018) draw attention to the 'mythological' character of digitisation, which hides human labour under a hyper-technological veneer.

Issue 65 of Zapruder (September-December 2024) would like to shed a new light on the properly historical nodes of the question of technical change as a driver of the conflicts between capital and labour. In particular, this call for papers wants to attract specific case studies and reflections that are inscribed in the long time of the industrialisation/deindustrialisation cycle. The issue will also be an opportunity to bring together Italian and French historiography.

The contributions, which can be proposed in Italian, English and French, should be articulated around the following thematic axes:

1. Rhythms of automation. The implementation of technical innovations can take on widely varying paces, depending on geographical contexts, work cultures or the investment potential of the players involved. Interesting examples in this direction could be the study of the persistence of certain technical configurations depending on labour supply; the analysis of the consequences of the coexistence of different production techniques; or above all, the investigation of how the various forms of conflict - whether or not related to the technical question - slow down or accelerate the implementation of the innovations themselves.

2. Failures and resistance to technical innovation. What are the consequences of the implementation of experimental technologies for the workers who have to use them? Are there any forms of conflict (strikes, rejection of certain production processes, slowdowns/sabotage of production, etc.) linked to technologies which are news or difficult to implement in practice? If so, with what outcomes? Who are the actors involved in these struggles and, in particular, how are middle managers involved in the implementation of these technical innovations?

3. Measurement and redistribution of technological gains. How are productivity gains linked to a technical innovation measured by those who can aspire to their redistribution? How do workers measure and perceive work intensification? What conflicts arise from these measurements, how are they characterised and how are they resolved?

4. Qualifications, training, skills. It is taken for granted to say that every technical innovation brings with it processes of de-skilling, still it would be a mistake to overlook the fact that innovations also brings the emergence of new forms of know-how which are sometimes extremely valuable and valued by the workers themselves, either as an element of distinction between generations, or as a positive evolution of the nature or symbolic value associated with a given task. What conflicts arises around these transformations of work?

This issue of Zapruder also wants to give an important place to the agricultural sector, since, despite having undergone accelerated technical modernisation, it is in many ways marginal in studies on these issues. Likewise, special attention will be paid to contributions that articulate technical change and reproductive work.

Article proposals (max. 3,000 characters including spaces) must be sent in Italian, French or English by 31 July 2023 to automaticzap@tarcab.net. Zapruder is characterised by its openness to a variety of article types, with a strong focus on visual elements (now also comics) and on unconventional methods of transmitting historical knowledge: we therefore invite you to consult the vademecum about journal’s different sections (in Italian) and to contact us for any requests for clarification. The results of the selection will be announced in September 2023 and the complete texts must be submitted no later than 7 January 2024. Authors are kindly requested to indicate in the proposal in which rubric they wish to write their contribution, taking into account editorial policy (i.e. 35.000 characters for «Zoom» rubric, 20.000 for «Schegge» and so on).

Bando per l’assegnazione del Premio di studio per tesi di dottorato “PIER PAOLO D’ATTORRE” Anno 2023

 

Il Comitato promotore formato da Comune di Ravenna, Famiglia D’Attorre, Istituzione Biblioteca Classense, Fondazione Casa di Oriani, Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, Università di Bologna, ha istituito un Premio di studio biennale per tesi di dottorato intitolato alla memoria di Pier Paolo D’Attorre (1951-1997), docente in Storia contemporanea all’Università di Bologna e Sindaco della città di Ravenna negli anni 1993-1997.

Il Premio, mantenendo viva la memoria della figura e dell’opera di Pier Paolo D’Attorre, intende valorizzare i giovani studiosi e dare risalto a studi e ricerche che, per le problematiche trattate, contribuiscano ad arricchire ambiti di ricerca che furono propri del lavoro di Pier Paolo D’Attorre.

 

Possono concorrere al bando coloro che non abbiano già conseguito riconoscimenti economici in premi di studio per la medesima tesi e abbiano discusso in Italia o all’estero una tesi di dottorato sui seguenti temi:

• Economia e territorio nell’Italia contemporanea;
• Ceti dirigenti, forme di rappresentanza in epoca contemporanea;
• Rapporti fra Europa e Usa;
• Dimensioni del rapporto pubblico-privato nella società di massa;
• Movimenti, partiti ed esperienze di governo della sinistra in Europa e nel mondo

 

La tesi di dottorato di ricerca, redatta in italiano o in inglese o in francese, dovrà essere stata discussa fra il luglio 2019 e il dicembre 2022

Il Premio, dell’importo di euro 4.000,00 (quattromila), sarà assegnato a insindacabile giudizio di una Commissione scientifica composta da studiosi degli ambiti disciplinari sopra indicati.

Le tesi di dottorato non saranno restituite, ma saranno conservate in fondi specifici della  Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna e della Biblioteca di storia contemporanea Alfredo Oriani di Ravenna, dove potranno essere consultate da parte degli utenti delle biblioteche nel rispetto delle norme di tutela dei diritti d’autore e del regolamento delle biblioteche stesse. La semplice partecipazione al concorso assicura l’accettazione di tale clausola da parte dell’aspirante senza ulteriori atti formali.

L’esito della procedura di selezione sarà reso pubblico entro il 15 novembre 2023 sul sito della Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna.

Il Premio sarà consegnato durante una cerimonia pubblica che si terrà a Bologna entro la fine del 2023.

 

 

Domanda

Modalità di presentazione

 

La domanda di partecipazione da redigere in carta libera dovrà essere compilata e inviata attraverso posta elettronica premiodattorre@iger.org entro il 10 luglio 2023.

Non saranno presi in considerazione documenti inviati dopo il termine utile per la presentazione delle domande di partecipazione del concorso. La documentazione presentata non sarà restituita.

I candidati sono ammessi con riserva al concorso. L’esclusione per mancato rispetto anche parziale delle condizioni previste dal bando è disposta dalla Commissione.

 

La domanda dovrà contenere:

• dati anagrafici con dati aggiornati e recapito e-mail, telefonico e postale al quale ricevere eventuali comunicazioni;
• curriculum vitae in forma sintetica;
• titolo della dissertazione dottorale, docente-tutor, ateneo, componenti della Commissione esaminatrice in sede di discussione accademica;
• certificato\attestato del conseguimento del titolo di dottorato di ricerca, con indicazione della data della discussione della tesi di dottorato;
• abstract della dissertazione dottorale presentata in non più di duemila parole;
• due copie su supporto cartaceo (da inviare a: Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, Via Mentana 2, 40126 – Bologna) ed una in formato elettronico (formato .pdf) da inviare all’indirizzo premiodattorre@iger.org della propria dissertazione dottorale munita di autocertificazione ai sensi del D.P.R n. 445/2000;
• il consenso al trattamento dei dati personali ai sensi del D. lgs. n. 196/2003.

 

Per informazioni e chiarimenti rivolgersi alla segreteria del Premio D’Attorre:
Telefono: 051231377; mail: premiodattorre@iger.org

 

 

Bologna, 20 maggio 2023

                                                        
Il Comitato Promotore

 

Scarica il bando qui

Attached is the CALL FOR PAPERS produced by the editorial board of the scientific magazine of the Institute "Italia contemporanea" and dedicated to "Cultures and practices of peace in Italy. From 1945 to today".

Abstract delivery:   June 30, 2023 

Paper delivery:   March 1, 2024

More info: https://www.uu.nl/organisatie/werken-bij-de-universiteit-utrecht/vacatu…

 

A growing body of scholarship in Queer Studies is returning to the archives of the European and North American gay and lesbian left of the 1970s and 1980s. Yet, the Dutch context is almost entirely absent from this scholarship. What is the history of the gay and lesbian left in the Netherlands? How did Dutch gay and lesbian activists operate within the heterogeneous political space of the left, and how did they articulate the connections between sexual politics and socialism?

The PhD candidate will reconstruct a cultural and intersectional history of the Dutch gay and lesbian left, focusing on: (a) the relationships between gay and lesbian activists and the organisations and movements of the left (e.g., left-wing political parties, trade unions, the anarchist movement, campaigns of internationalist solidarity); (b) the cultural, artistic, and media practices deployed by different groups and collectives (e.g., street theatre, radio, newsletters, zines); (c) the links between the gay and lesbian left and other movements for social justice, such as anticolonial, antiracist, and feminist movements.

The PhD candidate will conduct archival research across several relevant archives in the Netherlands and oral history interviews with people involved in the Dutch gay and lesbian left in the 1970s and 1980s.
Next to conducting the research, which will result in a PhD dissertation, the candidate, together with the supervisory team, will work closely with the archives involved in order to device ways of facilitating and increasing access to this history.  

This PhD position is part of the interdisciplinary UU PhD programme of the Faculty of Humanities, funded by the administrative agreement (‘bestuursakkoord’) between the Ministry of OCW and the universities.

 

The ideal candidate for this PhD position has:

• a Master’s degree in a relevant scientific discipline in the Humanities or Social Sciences, such as Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, or History;
• an excellent command of both the Dutch and English language;
• excellent academic writing skills;
• a strong interest in practices of public history and public engagement;
• preferably (but not necessarily), previous knowledge of the topic and experience in archival and oral history research.

   

For more information about this position, please contact Dr. Gianmaria Colpani (Assistant Professor) at g.colpani@uu.nl. 

Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH)

18th Biennial Conference

23-25 November 2023

Research School of Social Sciences Building (Building #146, Ellery Crescent), ANU, Canberra

 

Archives and collections provide individuals and communities, authors and historians, and unions and universities the opportunity to reflect on their pasts, recover lost voices, contextualise established ones, and check the facts.

The ASSLH (ACT) invites historians, activists and professionals in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sector to present papers on sources and archives, how they use them, the challenges they face, and the possibilities they see. Papers that reflect the presenter’s experience and practice with particular archives are welcome, as are papers on their discipline as a whole.

The conference theme ‘(Re)Sources: Historical Inquiry and Labour History Archives’ offers scope for papers on a range of subjects.

Presenters may consider reflections on:

• Competing voices in the archives

• Activist archives

• Resourcing, technology, and access to archives

• Collecting the Contemporary: benefits and limitations of digital archives

• The built and living environment and their part in labour history

• Union and business archives

• Small organisations and community record keeping

• Historical collections and emerging trends in inquiry

• The odds, ends, and ephemerals of Labour History

• Exploring the past through communities, collections, exhibitions, and local stories

Abstracts of approximately 150-200 words plus a short biography should be submitted by 31 May 2023 via https://www.labourhistory.org.au/asslh-2023-conference/cfp-resourceshis…

Send all enquiries to Dr Chris Monnox via asslh@labourhistorycanberra.org

 

 

Violence has been a pervasive feature of white supremacy throughout the history of racial politics in the United States. State repression, armed racist groups, and lynch mobs are just a few examples of the violent tactics employed by white supremacists. However, oppressed groups have never passively submitted to these offenses, often resorting to violent self-defense and mass mobilization, from slave uprisings to armed responses in the face of lynchings and pogroms. In the twentieth century, the crisis of the Jim Crow system gave rise to black militias and armed resistance, despite the frequent reduction of the Civil Right Movement to the tactics of non-violent organizations. The dichotomy between violent self-defense and non-violent actions, seen by many as both a pragmatic tool of dissent and moral urgency, sparked open discussions among activists, political organizations, and victims of racial oppression in the US far beyond the Civil Rights Movement's history and up to the present times. 

Given this context, we welcome publication proposals for contributions on a range of topics, including but not limited to:

- African American self-defense and police brutality

- The deep roots and influence of Black Nationalism and Black Power movements and groups

- The long history of mass urban upheaval, pogroms, and revolts, from the Cincinnati race riots in 1836 to Minneapolis in 2020

- The violent actions of Black women, who often framed armed defense as an act of selfdetermination, redefining a public image of self-reliant and independent Black Womanhood

- The dialectics of violent and nonviolent tactics in African American history.

 

Please send your proposal to the panel coordinators by the new May 19th deadline with an abstract of up to 200 words and a short bio. By May 24th coordinators will communicate acceptance by mail and will proceed to publication on the conference website.

Panel Coordinators: 

- Emanuele Nidi, enidi@unior.it 

- Bruno Walter Renato Toscano, bruno.toscano@phd.unipi.it

The panel will be part of the 27th AISNA (Italian Association for North-American Studies) Biennial Conference, that will take place on September 21-23 at the University of Perugia in Narni (Italy).

Here you can find the call for papers of the whole conference: https://www.aisna.net/call-for-papers-narni/#1679628767026-3e5b8a85-7be4

Call for Abstracts für die 3. Konferenz der GLHA

 

Drecksarbeit. Materialitäten, Semantiken und Praktiken von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart

 

Veranstaltungsort: Dortmund, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

Datum der Konferenz: 13.–15. November 2024

Deadline für die Einreichung von Abstracts: 23. Oktober 2023

Rückmeldungen zur Einreichung bis: Ende November 2023

 

Organisation: German Labour History Association (GLHA) in Kooperation mit dem Fritz-Hüser-Institut für Literatur und Kultur der Arbeitswelt, der FernUniversität in Hagen, der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung und dem Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte in Dortmund

Vorbereitungsteam: Iuditha Balint (Fritz-Hüser-Institut für Literatur und Kultur der Arbeitswelt, ibalint@stadtdo.de), Mareen Heying (mail@mareenheying.de), Vanessa Höving (FernUniversität in Hagen, vanessa.hoeving@fernuni-hagen.de), Bernd Hüttner (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Bernd.Huettner@rosalux.org)

 

Im Mittelpunkt der dritten Konferenz der German Labour History Association (GLHA) stehen geistes- und gesellschaftswissenschaftliche, v. a. historische Zugänge zu ‚Drecksarbeit‘ von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zum 21. Jahrhundert.

Soziale Hierarchien, gesellschaftliches Ansehen und kulturelles Kapital werden nicht zuletzt über Arbeit bzw. berufliche Tätigkeiten verhandelt. Sie werden symbolisch hervorgehoben durch Codes wie die Farbe des Hemdkragens oder semantische Chiffren wie ‚Drecksarbeit‘. Als sogenannte Drecksarbeit gelten allgemein Tätigkeiten, von denen angenommen wird, dass ihre Ausübung mit Widerwillen geschieht, dass sie sozial bzw. moralisch fragwürdig sind, oder dass sie mit widrigen Arbeitsumständen verbunden sind. Drecksarbeit wird als „disgusting or degrading“ gewertet (Simpson: Embodying Dirty Work, 2018). Sie auszuführen, kann bedeuten, Arbeit unter schwierigen und prekären Bedingungen zu leisten, in physischen Kontakt mit abjekter Materie zu treten und für diese Tätigkeit stigmatisiert oder sogar kriminalisiert zu werden.

Deutlich wird: Die sogenannte Drecksarbeit ist ein Zuschreibungsphänomen, das Fragen nach Materialitäten und Semantiken, nach kulturellen Praktiken und Ökonomien aufwirft. Sie eröffnet einen gesellschaftlichen Diskurs, der auch in Literatur, Bildender Kunst und Medien gestaltet, geprägt und verhandelt wird. Die strukturelle Bedeutung von als ‚Drecksarbeit‘ eingeordneten Tätigkeiten wird dagegen vor allem dann sichtbar, wenn sie nicht mehr reibungslos ausgeführt werden, etwa wenn die Müllabfuhr oder die Pflegekräfte streiken.

Als Selbst- oder Fremdzuschreibung dient ‚Drecksarbeit‘ der Etablierung und Legitimierung von Hierarchien. Bei der Untersuchung von ‚Drecksarbeit‘ stellt sich unmittelbar die Frage nach Relationen und Zuschreibungen zwischen Akteur:innen, Kontexten, Materialitäten und Praktiken: Wer bezeichnet in welchem Kontext etwas als ‚Drecksarbeit‘; welche Bilder werden von ‚Drecksarbeit‘ und ihren Subjekten gezeichnet; welche Hierarchien, Machtverhältnisse und Beziehungskonstellationen entstehen dabei oder begünstigen Zuschreibungsprozesse; welche Grenzziehungen von Differenz und Fremdheit werden dabei sichtbar? Bereiche wie die der Sexarbeit, des Müll- oder Pfandsammelns, aber auch andere Arbeitsfelder, wie z. B. Reinigungsarbeiten, bieten sich an, um über Fragen nach der Bedeutung von Dreck, und dem vermeintlichen Gegensatz oder Korrelationen zwischen ‚schmutziger‘ und ‚sauberer‘ Arbeit nachzudenken – so etwa auch im Fall der Computerarbeit, die als sauber gilt, aber Dreck produziert.

Folgende Fragen könnten im Rahmen der interdisziplinären Konferenz adressiert werden: Wann und wie werden Tätigkeiten in verschiedenen historischen Kontexten, in Erzählungen und Medien als ‚Drecksarbeit‘ konnotiert? Was wird dabei als Dreck verstanden – und wer oder was bestimmt darüber, was als ‚Drecksarbeit‘ gilt? Welche Korrelationen und Verhältnisse lassen sich zwischen race, class, gender, (dis)ability, Alter und ‚Drecksarbeit‘ ausmachen und wie lassen sie sich beschreiben? Wie hat sich die Wahrnehmung von sogenannter Drecksarbeit seit der Frühen Neuzeit bis heute gewandelt, welche Verschiebungen gab es angesichts des sich ebenfalls wandelnden subjektiven und gesellschaftlichen Umgangs mit Dreck oder Schmutz? Welche subjektiven Umgangsstrategien mit Stigmatisierungen werden thematisiert? Wird ‚Drecksarbeit‘ zukünftig sichtbarer auf einem globalen Arbeitsmarkt mit unsicheren und prekären Arbeitsbedingungen?

Wir begrüßen Beiträge, die den Blick über den Nationalstaat und den Globalen Norden hinaus erweitern, etwa durch eine transnationale/globalhistorische Perspektive auf sogenannte Drecksarbeit. Dabei können die Beiträge die oben aufgeworfenen Fragen berücksichtigen, jedoch auch darüberhinausgehende Fragen aufwerfen.

Für die interdisziplinäre Konferenz „Drecksarbeit. Materialitäten, Semantiken und Praktiken von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart“ sind Beiträge aus dem gesamten Spektrum der Geistes- und Gesellschaftswissenschaften willkommen, insbesondere der Geschichtswissenschaft, Literatur– und Kulturwissenschaft und Soziologie. Die Konferenzsprache ist Deutsch, englischsprachige Beiträge sind möglich. 

Reisekosten und Unterkunft werden für Vortragende übernommen. 

 

Ein Abstract mit etwa 400 Wörtern und ein kurzes akademisches CV (maximal eine Seite) sind bis zum 23. Oktober 2023 zu senden an:

mail@mareenheying.de und vanessa.hoeving@fernuni-hagen.de

 

Weitere Informationen zur GLHA: https://www.germanlabourhistory.de/

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda anuncia la aparición de su número 22     https://www.archivosrevista.com.ar   ISSN: 2313-9749 | ISSN en línea: 2683-9601   Índice

• Presentación, Hernán Camarero

Dossier: "Eppur si muove. Las comunidades obreras del transporte en la Argentina contemporánea"

• Presentación del dossier, Laura Caruso y Gustavo Contreras
• Constelaciones gremiales en el mundo marítimo argentino. La Federación Obrera Marítima y el Centro de Capitanes de Ultramar (1924-1934), Laura Caruso y Gustavo Contreras
• Prensa sindical y construcción política. Los ferroviarios comunistas del Central Argentino (Rosario y Pérez durante los años 20), Laura Badaloni
• Cuando la “liberación” quiso viajar en colectivo. Proyectos, facciones y disputas en una seccional de la Unión Tranviarios Automotor, Mar del Plata, 1970-1976, Juan Ladeuix
• El enigma de Camioneros. Identificación sindical y acción política en Argentina desde los años 90 hasta la actualidad, Joaquín Aldao
• La conflictividad laboral durante la gestión estatal de Aerolíneas Argentinas (2009-2015). Un análisis a partir del accionar de la Agrupación Independiente de Trabajadores Aeronáuticos, Agustina Miguel
   

Artículos libres

• Inconsciente filosófico e inconsciente ideológico, o sobre la historicidad en Althusser, Violeta Garrido
• Composición de clase e historia interna de los dirigentes sindicales chilenos de los años 60. Notas sobre una encuesta obrera de 1963, Luis Thielemann Hernández
• ¿Un muro de contención? La justicia del trabajo frente al avance del poder sindical durante el primer peronismo, Pablo Canavessi 

Crítica de libros

• Enzo Traverso, Revolución. Una historia intelectual, Mercedes López Cantera
• David Harvey, The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, Daniel López Fernández
• Richard Evans, Eric Hobsbawm. Una vida en la historia, Laura Scoppetta

    Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda, revista de acceso abierto, es una publicación científica de historia social, política, cultural e intelectual, que tiene como objetivo impulsar la investigación, la revisión y la actualización del conocimiento sobre la clase trabajadora, el movimiento obrero y las izquierdas, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, propiciando el análisis comparativo. Es una publicación semestral (marzo-agosto y septiembre-febrero) y todos sus artículos son sometidos a referato externo con el sistema doble ciego. Las colaboraciones deben ser originales y no estar sometidas simultáneamente a evaluación en ninguna otra publicación.   Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda se encuentra indizada en el Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas, en SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences), en Dialnet (Universidad de La Rioja), en el catálogo 2.0 de Latindex, en CLASE (Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, dependiente de la UNAM), en el DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) y en la REDIB (Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico). También es parte de las siguientes bases de datos, indexaciones y directorios: EuroPub, Journal TOCs; MALENA (CAICYT); BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine); CIRC (Clasificación Integrada de Revistas Científicas, de España); MIAR (Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas, Universitat de Barcelona); BIBLAT (Bibliografía Latinoamericana en revistas de investigación científica y social, UNAM); BINPAR (Bibliografía Nacional de Publicaciones Periódicas Registradas); REDLATT (Red Latinoamericana del Trabajo y Trabajadores); Latinoamericana (Asociación de revistas académicas de humanidades y ciencias sociales) y LatinREV (Red Latinoamericana de Revistas Académicas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de FLACSO Argentina). El CEHTI es miembro de la International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI).

Archivos es una publicación del Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas (CEHTI)

Director y Editor Responsable: Hernán Camarero

Secretarios de Redacción: Diego Ceruso y Martín Mangiantini

 

 

In the past two decades, histories of American capitalism have been reconstructing the transformations of the U.S. economic and political order, focusing in particular on the late 18th and 19th centuries. This “new” history of capitalism has focused in particular on the centrality of slavery in U.S. economic development, on the role of the State in fostering growth and building markets, on the establishment of global networks of commodities exchange, as well as on the role of finance in accelerating accumulation. At the same time, while carefully depicting the emergence, affirmation and expansion of capitalism in the United States, this historiography has often failed to take into adequate account its many vulnerabilities due to the constant presence of subjects, particularly blacks, women and workers who refused to be dominated by its command, rejecting the violence, oppression and discrimination inherent in capitalist accumulation. In other words, this literature has often ignored the crucial role of social conflict, and of the subjects that animated it, in the history of American capitalism, which on the contrary should be seen as a constant and always precarious attempt to overcome its own vulnerabilities in front of blacks’, women’s and workers’ movements. This panel aims to overcome these historiographic shortcomings, by investigating the social relationships underpinning American capitalism and therefore by studying how conflicts around class, race and sex contributed to forge it institutionally and ideologically. More precisely, the goal is to deepen our understanding of how challenges against the sexual, racial and class hierarchies of American capitalism were crucial in shaping the U.S. economic and political order, as well as its strategies of ideological legitimation. To do so, the panel also aims to chronologically broaden the perspective on American capitalism by including contributions on the 20th century.

We welcome contributions from all disciplines and approaches, as well as critical discussions of recent historiography, but papers addressing the following questions are particularly welcome:
>how did blacks, women and workers collectively and individually contest the racial, sexual and class hierarchies imposed by American capitalism throughout U.S. history?
>how did social conflict and social movements contributed to shape the economic, political and juridical institutions of American capitalism?
>how did American capitalism attempt to overcome its own vulnerabilities in front of social conflict?
>how did the vulnerabilities of American capitalism affect its process of growth and expansion?
>how did economic and political thinkers reacted to the challenges posed to the capitalist order by social conflict and how did they attempted to legitimize it ideologically in the wake of such conflicts?
what was the role of the State in answering to social conflict and in institutionally shaping capitalist development throughout U.S. history?
>how did the historiography on American capitalism account for the role of blacks, women and workers in the history of American capitalism?

 

Please send your proposal to the panel coordinators by the new May 19th deadline with an abstract of up to 200 words and a short bio. By May 24th coordinators will communicate acceptance by mail and will proceed to publication on the conference website.

Panel coordinators: 

Matteo Rossi, University of Torino matteo.rossi@unito.it
Clemente Parisi, University of Bologna clemente.parisi2@unibo.it

 

The panel will be part of the 27th AISNA (Italian Association for North-American Studies) Biennial Conference, that will take place on September 21-23 at the University of Perugia in Narni (Italy).

Here you can find the call for papers of the whole conference: https://www.aisna.net/call-for-papers-narni/#1679628767026-3e5b8a85-7be4