The Precarious Labour Working Group will participate in the Sixth ELHN Conference with thematic sessions. We invite members of the Working Group, and all other interested colleagues, to come up with paper and session proposals under the following call:
We hope to receive session and paper proposals on the history of precarious labour from all over the world. We encourage the participation of researchers at all stages of their work life as well as researchers without institutional affiliation, and we welcome researchers anchored in various disciplines and investigating different historical periods.
For this conference the Working Group Precarious Labour aims to organise sessions on the topics listed below. We explicitly invite papers dealing with studies from across the globe and in different time periods. This includes studies in contexts where concepts such as standard employment and precarity do not apply or was/is not widely used, but where tensions between stability vs precarity play a role.
- Trade unions, precarious and unorganised labour
How did trade unions in the past respond to precarious working conditions? What was the role of trade unions in establishing standard employment relationships – and how did trade unions relate to workers outside or on the fringes of standard employment? For example, which strategies and repertoires did they use?
- Women in precarious labour
The working group is interested in examining social groups that are more likely to work under precarious conditions. For this conference we will organise one or two sessions on women workers. What are factors that contribute to precarisation of women’s labour? How do women experience working in precarious conditions? How do social factors such as racialisation, migration, age, education, language etc., relate to gender experiences of precarity? Which resistance strategies have women in precarious work conditions made use of (from collective actions to individual strategies, including for example “weapons of the weak”)?
- If you work on precarious labour or related topics but your paper does not match the two topics above, please feel free to submit it anyway, and we will see if the proposals can fit together thematically.
Information on the Working Group Precarious Labour can be found here.
Meeting of the Working Group Precarious Labour
All scholars with an interest in precarious labour history around the world are invited to join a discussion that will be held during the ELHC 2026 about ideas and themes for future research and collaboration within and beyond the Working Group.
How to submit proposals
Please send an abstract (max 300 words) and a short bio (max 100 words, including contact details) to the WG coordinators, by September 9, 2025.
If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact the coordinators:
- Nina Trige Andersen, nina.trige.andersen@gmail.com
- María Fernanda Arellanes, maria.fernanda.arellanes@gmail.com
- Rosa Kösters, rosa.kosters@iisg.nl
- Sibylle Marti, sibylle.marti@unibe.ch
Time and Location
The 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 June 2026. Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the network at elhn@iisg.nl.