What contribution can the history of labour provide to the study of family economy? The ELHN Working Group Labour and Family Economy aims at developing a labour centered reflection on a classical topic in economic and social history: the historical forms taken by family economy in different economic, geographical and institutional contexts.
We consider the family as an economic unit and its members’ labour and activities in a broad sense, including consumption patterns and the whole range of resources’ allocation and distribution within the family. Following a flourishing literature, we would like to consider the family not only as knot of blood tights but also as an extended web taking different forms according to cultural and institutional contexts: maisonnées, kinship coalitions, active parenthood, etc.
We would like to deal with these topics in a long period perspective. Family-based production is a pervasive phenomenon not only in early modern societies but also in modern times. Our aim is, finally, to broaden the scope of our discussion beyond labour history.
For ELHN Congress in Barcelona, we aim to explore different topics dealing with family economy such as care work, reproductive labour, migration and family economy. We welcome contributions from various disciplines, including case studies and comparative analyses., from the early modern period up the the 20th century.
We kindly ask you to consult the call for papers for each proposal to obtain more information.
- Women, work, and family in early modern Italian cities
Organized by Anna Bellavitis, Université de Rouen Normandie : anna.bellavitis@univ-rouen.fr and Corine Maitte, Université Gustave Eiffel: corine.maitte@univ-eiffel.fr
- Counting and understanding care work and domestic work in the societies of the past
Organized by Beatrice Zucca Micheletto, University of Turin, beatrice.zucca@unito
- Care Externalities: Historical Perspectives on Care Work Beyond the Home in the Long Term
Organized by Cristina Borderías Universitat de Barcelona cborderiasm@ub.edu and Raffaella Sarti Università di Urbino raffaella.sarti@uniurb.it
- Family work and the Early Modern illicit economy
Organized by Ida Fazio, Università degli Studi di Palermo, ida.fazio@unipa.it and Anne Montenach, Aix-Marseille Université, anne.montenach@univ-amu.fr
- Families on the move: Labour migration and family economies in the pre-modern and the modern world
Organized by Maria Papathanassiou , associate professor in Modern European History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, mpapath@arch.uoa.gr
How to apply
Please send a 500-word abstract and a short academic CV to the organizers of the session. The proposal should include name, surname, current affiliation and contact details of the proponent. The subject of the email needs to be: “Labour and Family Economy ELHN 2026”. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact the organizers.
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.