Working on Globalisation: Work and Transport in Global History after 1945
Berlin, October 25-27, 2013
Jamie Monson (Macalester College) and Niels P Petersson (Sheffield
Hallam University)
Globalisation is hard work. Global flows do not 'just exist', they have
to be set in motion – goods, people and information have to be carried
from one end of the globe to the other. The aim of this workshop is to
contribute to the agenda of the emerging field of global history by
investigating entanglements and connections through the lens of the
transport work that is required to make them happen. By bringing
together histories of work and transport in a global perspective, we aim
to shed light on the interplay between the global and the local; agency
and structure; flows and boundaries.
Papers will explore some or all of the following questions within a
triangle constituted by the notions of globalisation, transport, and
work:
- How does the history of transport work contribute to our
understanding of global processes of integration, disintegration and
reconfiguration?
- In which ways can a history of transport work make the limits as well
as the flows of globalisation more visible?
- How does a focus on the experiences and processes of work affect our
understanding of the history of transport and globalisation?
- In which ways does global transport labour history lead us to
reexamine specific post-1945 moments and periods as they are commonly
defined: for example decolonisation, nationalism, the cold war,
socialism and post-socialism?
Our primary focus will be on work and work processes. We will also be
interested in the global history of labour relations and labour
organisation, in particular as these are related to specific contexts of
global transport work. We would also invite contributors to reflect on
methodology, including the location of historical sources and their
interpretation.
The workshop will focus on the post-1945 period in order to ensure a
basic coherence of themes and problems. We will not specify any
particular regional or geographic focus, but expect that all papers will
address an aspect of non-Western history. Alongside historians, we would
encourage social scientists, anthropologists and all others with an
interest in exploring the workshop topic to submit a proposal.
We are happy to announce Frederick Cooper (New York) and Marcel van der
Linden (Amsterdam) as keynote speakers (confirmed).
The workshop will be hosted by the International Research Centre 'Work
and the Human Life Cycle in Global History' at Humboldt University
Berlin.
An expanded version of this call for papers, including a list of
possible topics, is available at
http://www2.hu-berlin.de/arbeit/fileadmin/Documents/CfP_Working_on_Glob….
Interested scholars should submit an abstract of their proposed paper
(c. 500 words) by April 21 to n.p.petersson@shu.ac.uk. Successful
applicants will be notified by early May.
Papers will be submitted two weeks in advance of the conference, and
presentations will be limited to about 20 minutes to leave sufficient
time for discussion.
We expect to be able to fund the speakers' travel and accomodation
expenses.
Apologies for the inevitable cross-posting!
Niels P Petersson
Sheffield Hallam University
n.p.petersson [at] shu.ac.uk
[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Labor]