CFP: International Conference on the Comparative Social Histories of Labour in the Oil Industry
13 to 16 June 2013, IISH, Amsterdam
The International Institute of Social History (IISH) organizes a conference to be held from 13 until 16 June 2013 in Amsterdam on the comparative social histories of labour in the oil industry. The conference is part of the larger project Labour in the Iranian Oil Industry at the IISH, which is supported by the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO).
Background
This conference aims to pull together the work of scholars who situate labour and the social, political, and cultural dimensions of oil at the centre of their analysis. The conference is conceived as a comparative look at the social history of oil workers, so our invitation is going out to scholars whose work has pioneered original research, archival investigation, or anthropological and sociological field research into how labour relations and experiences have contributed and shaped the emergence of this global extractive industry.
This two day conference is tentatively organized around 4 general panels, which are meant to help provide a framework for organizing presentations around inter related themes. These panels are around the themes of:
- migration and labour process
- formation of class and other social and cultural identities
- social and political agency, organizations, and mobilizations
- the built environment and the urban life of labour
Papers
The final versions of the papers presented at this conference will be published in an edited volume, which will open up an important, but significantly overlooked dimension of the oil complex. The organizers are delighted to have assembled scholars from a range of disciplines whose work will shed light on the historical and contemporary experience of oil workers in a number of key oil producing regions that include Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Europe and Africa.
Scholars who are interested to take part in this conference are requested to:
- provide a working title and a brief abstract by 1 February 2013.
- provide a working paper, describing original work to be circulated among all conference participants by 13 April 2013.
The International Institute of Social History covers the travel expenses and arranges the accommodation in Amsterdam.
Contact: for further information, please contact:
Touraj Atabaki (tat [at] iisg.nl)
Kaveh Ehsani (Kaveh.Ehsani [at] iisg.nl)