European Labour History Network
Working Group Labour in Mining
The ELHN Working Group Labour in Mining is launching an Early Career Researcher blog series – The Young Mining Historians’ Corner – with the aim to provide a stimulating space of discussion and exchange on the field of mining history. We encourage ECRs whose interests lie at the intersection of mining history and labour history broadly construed to share their research and open insightful discussion with peers from interdisciplinary and trans epochal perspectives.
This idea stemmed from the increasing limitations to collaborative work and archival research created by the Covid-19 pandemic. As ECRs we suffer particularly from the absence of human and intellectual proximity, that is a fundamental aspect to cultivate at the beginning of our career. This series aims to restore these elements with a view to build a space of exchange and collaboration for young researchers whose interests lie in mining history. We will publish monthly periodical and blog posts about ongoing interdisciplinary research on mining history from various methodological perspective. While writing you may think of publishing online a working paper, essays, dissertations, digital humanities projects, or an abstract of a thesis already defended. The idea is to give the floor to the YMHC’s members and provide fruitful discussions and insightful feedback that will be sent to the author. After collecting the comments, the author may respond by sending private or public replies to further the conversation and deepen the intellectual exchange.
We strongly believe that a fresh and interdisciplinary perspective will reinvigorate and update scholarly debates on mining history. This series will foster new research and collaborative work, while circulating news about research projects among its members. In short, this initiative focuses on communication and networking, which are also the fundamental pillars of this Working Group.
Contributions
These blog posts may consist of different formats: written essays, audio podcasts, short videos, slide presentations, mind-maps, posters, and potentially every form of communicative support that could be published online. The series is open to accept contribution from WG members and external ECRs. If you are interested in participating, please send emails to labourinmining@gmail.com!
Agenda
The Provisional Agenda for publication is the following:
- November 2021: Guy Solomon (Associate Lecturer at Open University): Progression in junior mining occupations: north-east England in the nineteenth century.
- December 2022: Shruti Iyer (PhD candidate at Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford), provisional title: Recognition and compensation of silicosis under labour law in South African mines, 20th century.
- January 2022: Francesca Sanna (Post-doc at Université Paris Est – Créteil and LiM coordinator): PhD thesis (defended) abstract: Organizing Mining Industry in the Mediterranean: Industrial and Labour Management at Peñarroya Mining and Metallurgical Company (1881-1950).