On 12 October 2013, the European Labour History Network (ELHN) was established during a meeting at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. The meeting drew more than 40 researchers from 19 countries, represententing several labour history journals and national labour history networks all over Europe, responding to an invitation sent out by IISH Research Director Marcel van der Linden.
The European Labour History Network aims to function as a gateway to share knowledge and (digital) material and as a platform for networking and future collective research. As an umbrella organization for small working groups with specific topics or tasks, ELHN will organize a broad conference on labour history in 2015 in order to mobilise young scholars to participate and bring in their specific topics and knowledge, and as an opportunity to do transnational comparative studies.
The network will stimulate the creation of specialist research working groups where scholars can closely work together on specific topics. This may include, for instance, labour history journals editors coming together and exploring options of collaboration, experienced difficulties, solutions; joint applications for a grant to subsidise research groups; groups on collections, to bring together data, sources or a bibliography on specific issues; and so on.
A Coordination Committee will both organise the broad conference and assist the working groups. Members are Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam), Stefano Musso (Turin), Silke Neunsinger (Stockholm), Leda Papastefanaki (Ioannina), Tibor Valuch (Budapest), Xavier Vigna (Dijon), Donald Weber (Ghent), and Susan Zimmermann (Vienna).
The next meeting of the Coordination Committee will be held in Vienna, during the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), 23-26 April 2014.