Migration and ethnicity in mining history (worldwide) - Call for papers for a Special Issue of the International Review of Social History 2015
Mining in every form is a truly global industry. Being place-bound by geology, often originating in isolated places, and always labour intensive, mining was dependent on migrant labour in almost every district. Cross-border migratory labour connected mining areas, regions and countries, and mobilised both experienced miners and new groups of workers of a variety of national and ethnic descent. Therefore, the history of mining labour is not only a global, but often a transnational history as well. Ethnic minority groups were also mobilised from within national states, however. These salient features of mining labour have generated a lot of research, especially in labour history, both in different European countries, America, Japan, China, and in former colonies like, for instance, India, Indonesia, Australia/New Zealand, Nigeria, and Southern Africa. While in this research many insights can be gained on the issues of class solidarity, race discrimination, and ethnic identity in individual mining districts, what is still lacking is a comparative perspective on a global scale.
In this special issue we want to concentrate on comparative research on migration and ethnicity in mining history across all five continents. Comparative studies of groups such as, for instance, Koreans in Japan, black miners in the United States and South-Africa, Italians, Poles and Moroccans in European countries, Irish in Britain, could do much to sharpen our understanding of the impact of migration and ethnicity, not only in the history of mining, but also in labour history in general.
We invite participants to present papers on the impact of migration and ethnicity on:
- workers struggles and labour relations;
- forced migration and mining labour of specific ethnic groups;
- oscillatory peasant-miners and subcontracting;
- segmentation and discrimination in mining labour markets;
- transnational labour mobility and ethnic diaspora's;
- the mining community between integration and segregation.
Comparative papers studying developments in mining districts in different countries and continents would be most welcome.
Planning:
1 March 2014: Deadline for proposals, including brief outlines of articles by authors April 2014: Letters of acceptance (or rejection) of proposal
1 September 2014: Deadline for first draft of articles November 2014: Letter from the editors to authors about any necessary revisions
1 January 2015: Second draft of articles
1 April 2015: Final version of manuscript
15 November 2015: Publication of Special Issue
For more information, please contact Ad Knotter (a.knotter@maastrichtuniversity.nl)