REHT-Red Española de Historia del Trabajo

Established

The history of work in Spain has constituted an area of studies only marginal to the different disciplines and areas of research and historical teaching. However, since the 70s, a growing number of researchers have developed research in this field that today is recognized as a front-line contribution in Social History and Economic History. Nowadays there are very numerous groups and individual researchers that are investigating in this area. Until 1999 no specific group or association on Labour History existed in Spain. On that date, the Research Group Work, Institutions and Gender (TIG-Trabajo, Instituciones y Género) was founded in Barcelona, which since 1998 was recognized as the Research Group of Excellence of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The TIG became since then a nucleus of activities and projects with growing participation of researchers from other Spanish universities (conferences, seminars, publications, MINECO projects, European projects ...) and for that reason was invited in 2013 to be part of the ELHN. The creation of the ELHN and the establishment of networks of labour history in different countries (France, Italy, Greece ...) served as a stimulus to the creation of a Spanish Network of Work History in order to institutionalize collaboration among existing groups and give greater visibility to research in labour history.

On the occasion of the First Congress of the ELHN in Turin in December 2015, a meeting was convened which was attended by members of different groups: the Labor History Group [TIG] of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Social History Group of the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Group of History of Mining of the University of Murcia and individual researchers of the University of Mallorca and the Public University of Navarra. Other non-attending groups had also shown their interest to participate in the initiative - Feminist Economics Group of the Pablo de Olavide University, Maritime History Group of the University of Santiago de Compostela - and various individual researchers and research teams from different Spanish universities. In this meeting, held on December 16, 2016 at the University of Turin, the creation of the Spanish Labour History Network, REHT-Red Española de Historia del Trabajo, was decided.

Activities

The Spanish Network of Work History (REHT) is an informal platform for contact between those who work on the history of work in Spain in its many aspects. It is integrated into the European Labor History Network (ELHN). As a first step, a means of communication has been developed through the website (http://www.um.es/reht), which works as a blog for news and information of what is being done in this field and as an information repository of groups and researchers working on these issues and related to this network.

Objectives of the network and its platform:

  • Collaborate in the activities developed by the European Labor History Network (ELHN) in order to exchange information, conduct joint activities and encourage participation in transnational research and specific international networks that are developed.
  • Establish a formal contact of the research groups in which the history of the work is framed within its main objectives. This collaboration can be translated into joint initiatives, request for funding sources, or training of networks of excellence.
  • Favor the transmission of information and the contact between those who dedicate themselves in one way or another to the investigation of the history of work in Spain. This can be reflected both in the dissemination of information on activities that are carried out individually or collectively and in the possible initiative of an event on these issues.
  • Facilitate the visibility of the research carried out in this field, both through promoting publications in different formats and in the possible support of some type of publication (work documents, articles, etc.).
  • Develop a database on this subject, from which you can access and download (as much as possible) both current texts and relevant publications and documents on the subject.
  • Develop specific training aimed at young researchers in methodologies and analysis techniques for research in the history of work

As the network evolves and consolidates, the objectives and initiatives that are put in place will be outlined.

Structure

External links

http://www.um.es/reht

[last updated 17 July 2018]