Mission
The struggle for an eight-hour day was foundational to the emergence of the modern labour movement, and the battle over working time remains significant to labour activism across the globe. The ELHN Working Group Histories of Working Time aims to encourage collective examination of global histories of working time. It also aims to connect scholarship to contemporary struggle.
Scope
Our group convenes in an environment of increasing contest over working time: attempts by employers to extend the length of the working day; progressive experiments with a ‘four-day week’; increasing recognition of the importance of household labour and caring work; the widespread breakdown of ‘standard hours’; new forms of technology that enable the intensification of work, heightened surveillance, and perhaps also the potential for new reductions in working time.
While there is already a rich body of scholarship on working time, most of this research focuses on particular national cases. We seek to encourage comparative, transnational, and global research. Existing historical research is also largely concerned with paid work, and mostly neglects unpaid and household labour. We seek to encourage research on their mutual relationships and transformations.
We aim to encourage collective research on the histories of working time, drawing upon and extending the methods developed by labour historians, as well as those from economic history, social and cultural history, and approaches pioneered within ‘social movement studies’. We hope to connect our research with popular education and ongoing campaigns.
Activities
The Working Group plans a conference in 2027. We also plan to panel at the next ELHN conference in 2028.
Contact
Coordinators of the Working Group:
- Stefan Berger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany (Stefan.Berger@ruhr-uni-bochum.de)
- Silke Neunsinger, Swedish Labour Movement Archives and Library & Uppsala University, Sweden (silke.neunsinger@arbark.se)
- Sean Scalmer, University of Melbourne, Australia (sscalmer@unimelb.edu.au)
External links
[last updated 26 June 2026]