ISCH 2012 Conference, Lunéville. Call for papers.
July 2-5, 2012
At a time when the questions raised by unemployment, retirement pensions and hard work are major stakes in today’s societies, cultural history can shed a new light on work as a notion.
How is it possible to write a “cultural history of work”, an expression which is traditionally associated with sociology, economics and social history? What importance should be attached to working practices and workers in historical analysis? What part is played by work, trades and vocational focuses in the history of cultural practices and representations of work?It is in the intention of the 2012 Lunéville Conference to reflect on the links between work and culture, by starting a dialogue between several trends of historiography, at the crossroads of several fields and disciplines. The papers will reflect this diversity, focusing on various periods, various countries and relying on various methods and theories.
For that purpose, several themes are suggested.
• The definitions and representations of work: the difference between working and not working, reflections on voluntary and unpaid work, militancy, domestic chores, artistic and intellectual work, or working on and transforming oneself through mourning, psychotherapy or psychoanalysis.
• The habits and traditions of workers and the role of culture at work ― focusing on trade unions, labour movements, farming, paternalism, or workers’ councils, employment law.
• Culture as work: creative work, the various trades related to culture, the vocational focus in arts occupations.
• Work as enslavement or as a liberation: (coal-)mining or slavery are the first examples that spring to mind, but the notions of suffering and pleasure at work, linked to the histories of the body and of sensitiveness, could also be treated.
• Work and gender, involving social relationships and professional statuses.
• Work and migrations: the division of work in various countries, the circulation of workers and production modes in a globalized world.
Presentations should be no more than 20 minutes in length and will either be delivered in English or in French. Each researcher can either submit a single proposal or a panel composed of various presentations ― from 3 to 4.
All the proposals should be submitted to the following e-mail address, isch.luneville2012@gmail.com, before March 15th, 2012.
• For a presentation: a summary (not exceeding 1,500 characters) and a short CV of the author, including his or her publications and articles.
• For a panel: name of the person in charge, an overview of the panel (not exceeding 1,000 characters), a summary of the presentations (not exceeding 1,500 characters) and a short CV of the authors, including their publications and articles.All the delegates must be members of the ISCH (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/isch/) and pay the fees specified at the time of registration.