Work and the Balkans, special issue of the Études Balkaniques
(scheduled for publication in the second half of 2026)
Editors: Antonis Nasis, PhD candidate in history at EHESS/CETOBaC – University of Crete, and Christos Andrianopoulos, PhD in History and member of the CRH at EHESS
Call for contributions
Work and the Balkans
The concept of work—its meaning and how it is culturally, socially, and historically constructed—varies significantly from one region and society to another. In the context of the Balkans, an area rich in cultural diversity, political complexity, and historical transformations, the notion of work has experienced considerable changes. These shifts have been shaped by various socio-economic systems, from Ottoman rule to socialist regimes and the post-socialist transition to market economies.
This collective volume aims to critically explore and analyse the evolution of conceptions of work within the Balkan context. Authors are invited to reflect on how work has been understood, practised, and experienced in the Balkans across different historical periods and through the lens of social class, gender dynamics, and rural or urban settings. Second, we encourage a critical examination of the Balkan context through the analysis of work in its semantic and historical dimensions and from a broader spatio-temporal perspective. Lastly, we propose to examine work as a representation or an imaginary construct by exploring its connotations across different Balkan languages.
Additionally, we aim to highlight lesser-explored aspects, such as geography and the environment, emphasising the significant variations in the landscape: island territories, mountainous and semi-mountainous regions, plains, coastal cities, and the hinterland. We will also consider the contrast between major urban centres (such as Istanbul) and small villages, examining women’s labour, alongside domestic work, artisanal traditions, and working-class identities in major industrial hubs. Other points of interest include foreign workers (seasonal or otherwise), intellectual labour, work narratives, labour activism (anarchism, syndicalism, and marginal forms of communism), labour reforms, and resistance to these reforms. Finally, we will address the complex issue of forced labour and slavery, which persisted in the Ottoman sphere until the 20th century despite its official abolition.
Historiographical approaches to the Balkans often remain confined to traditional frameworks, failing to clarify whether there is a distinct “Balkan” specificity. Some portray the Ottoman period as a "dark" era, while others view it as a “laboratory” of Westernization or modernisation (especially in the 19th century). National historiographies tend to focus on post-Ottoman emancipation. These approaches frequently position Balkan histories in relation to the so-called “West” within a narrative of progress or its absence.
However, recent historiographical perspectives emphasize the permeability of Balkan societies to modern ideas originating from the West thus challenging interpretations attribute
certain phenomena solely to the region's national or cultural particularities. The Balkans, integrated into global dynamics, have not only absorbed external influences but have also become a hub for producing and disseminating new ideas and challenges, situating the region within broader global transformations.
Our study on labour in the Balkans, which we propose to conduct within the framework of Études Balkaniques, does not seek to oppose these various approaches but rather to re-examine them in light of an issue that has yet to receive systematic analysis. Indeed, labour is rarely regarded as a central focus when studying the Balkan region despite its enduring significance in its societies. Over the years, labour has been explored through multiple lenses: politically (the distinction between socialist and capitalist modes of production), as a tool of oppression (e.g., for political prisoners in Greece), economically (such as the self-management labour model in Yugoslavia), or as a marker of craftsmanship and product quality in popular cultures.
Our goal is to broaden these perspectives and examine whether a specific typology of labour exists in the Balkans beyond rigid categories such as socialism, empires, nations, and war—whether by applying terms used in other contexts, frequently shaped by European or Western societies.
When examining the history of labour in the Balkans, can we truly speak of "industry," "proletariat," "factory," or "modernity," or should we instead consider a distinct form of "archaism" in Balkan labour organisation? What are the various forms of labour organisation—whether scientific or not—across different historical periods and regions in the Balkans? How did the Ottoman state's attempts at centralising production models interact with centrifugal local dynamics in the Balkan provinces? How is labour represented in literature, art, folklore, and popular culture, and what does this reveal about the symbolic value of labour in Balkan societies? To what extent do ethnic, national, linguistic, and religious identities shape labour markets, and how does the latter, in turn, condition the working class? Moreover, do Balkan diasporic movements contribute to the perpetuation of "Balkan" labour practices in regions such as Russia, Ukraine, or Poland? Finally, can contemporary labour and production crises in the Balkans be interpreted as the manifestation of a crisis of a precisely "Balkan" form of labour, or do they reflect the challenges of a global system?
To address these questions, we propose an analysis spanning multiple historical periods, from the 17th century to the present day, and covering an extended geographical space that transcends the traditional geographic and cultural boundaries of the Balkans. This special issue encourages interdisciplinary contributions, welcoming perspectives from all disciplines within the social sciences and humanities, including sociology, anthropology, history, and economics.
The Travail et Balkans volume, scheduled for publication in the second half of 2026, is a peer-reviewed journal available on demand and indexed on the CAIRN platform, ensuring the highest academic standards. https://shs.cairn.info/revue-etudes-balkaniques-cahiers-pierre-belon?la… The editors of this volume are Antonis Nasis, PhD candidate in history at EHESS/CETOBaC – University of Crete (antonios.nasis@ehess.fr), and Christos Andrianopoulos, PhD in History and member of the CRH at EHESS (andriano.paris10@gmail.com).
Articles will be published in French, although a limited number of contributions in English will also be accepted. The average length of articles is 40,000 characters. Abstracts, along with completed participation forms, are expected by April 18, and full articles must be submitted by September 26, 2025. For abstract submissions or further inquiries, please contact workandthebalkans@gmail.com
