Call for papers: Relations of land and labour in commodity frontier zones, 16th-20th centuries
Panel on The Fourth European Congress on World and Global History
Paris, 4-7 september 2014
See: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~eniugh/congress/
The transformation of the global countryside through the development of export-oriented agriculture and soil exploitation has been one of the key processes in the emergence and consolidation of global capitalism during the past five hundred years. This has created changing sets of 'commodity frontiers', defined as processes of shifting incorporation of new supplies of land and labor for the global market. Commodity frontiers disclose sites of incorporation of new supplies of land and labor, which then become frontier zones. In this conference panel we interrogate the process of transformation of land and labor relations in these frontier zones. Although 'unlimited' access to local supplies of land and labor was indispensable for the success of commodity frontier processes, the way this process was shaped diverged considerable. Why? What determined the choice for 'unfree' (plantation) versus 'free' (peasant) labor, for direct land grabbing versus more equal property rights? We welcome paper proposals that enable a comparative analysis of different forms of commodity production, over space and time.
Proposals of 200-300 words plus CV should be sent before August 15th, to:
Eric Vanhaute, Ghent University: mailto:eric.vanhaute [at] ugent.be
Ulbe Bosma, International Institute for Social History: ubo [at] iisg.nl