ELHN

Call for Papers
European Labour History Network Conference 2026 – Barcelona
Session: “Extractive Industry under Dictatorship in the 20th Century: Social, Political and Environmental Issues”
Organizers: Labour in Mining Working Group

The mining sector occupied a central role in shaping the economic, political, and social history of many countries throughout the 20th century. As a strategic industry, mining was closely tied to national development agendas, regimes of labour control, environmental transformations, and the consolidation of state power.

The Maritime Labour History Working Group of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) invites submissions for its sessions at the 6th ELHN Conference, to be held in Barcelona from 16 to 19 June 2026.

The working group brings together scholars interested in the study of maritime labour across time and space. Since its inception, it has provided a transnational platform for sharing research on the transformation of maritime and port labour markets, and the conditions, struggles and agency of labouring communities connected to maritime economies.

We invite scholars to explore the complex entanglements between labour, sites of production, industrial geography and environments across historical contexts. We seek papers that examine how workplaces—whether factories, offices, shipyards, mines, farms, or digital infrastructures—function not only as sites of economic production, but also as dynamic ecosystems embedded in social, spatial, and environmental relations.

Call for Papers: The conceptions and contributions to Social Europe of European Trade Union Federations, the European Trade Union Confederation, and the Workers’ Group of the European Economic and Social Committee of the EU

Sixth European Labour History Network (ELHN) meeting

Barcelona-16-19 June 2026

Working Group: European Trade Unionism.

The EHLN working group, Arctic and Indigenous Labour, aims to bring together scholars interested in the historiography of Indigenous labour in settler colonies, both within and outside Europe.

This is a call for abstracts for the Military Labour History Working Group (MLHWG) panels at the 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN), to be held at the University of Barcelona, Spain, 16-19 June 2026. See the following link for further information on the conference: https://socialhistoryportal.org/elhn/conference-2026. A full website for the conference will be available soon.

The Labour Migration History Working Group of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) invites submissions for its sessions on the theme of “Disparities and Inequalities in Transformations of Labour Migration: Historical Shifts and Historiographical Debates” to be held at the 6th European Labour History Conference in Barcelona, 16-19 June 2026.

Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group at the VI Congress ELHN

The Guild and Artisan Labour Working Group of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) brings together scholars engaged in a classic topic of economic and social history: craft guilds and artisan labour. We aim to expand upon and deepen the long-standing debates on the socio-economic dynamics that linked these institutions to labour and society from a historical perspective, especially spanning the 14th to the 19th centuries, in Europe and abroad.

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.

Call for Papers
Nordic Labour Internationalism in the 20th Century
15–16 January 2026, University of Oslo, Norway