Report: "ITH-Panel" Johannesburg 2008
ITH organised a panel: "New developments
in Labour History" at the conference: "Labour
Crossings: World, Work and History", organised by the History
Workshop, University of Witwatersrand, and the Centre for Sociological
Research, University of Johannesburg, in association with the International
Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI) and the International
Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH), Johannesburg, 5.-8.9.2008
How to renew Labour Studies? This question was the rationale of the panel.
New global approaches to labour history will prove useful only to the extent
that they respect and feed upon the richness of distinct historiographical
traditions in the various regions of the world. Identifying connected, parallel
or diverging tendencies in the trajectories of labour across borders and
world regions and organizing a dialogue between the various historiographical
traditions seems essential for the development of global approaches to labour
history. This panel contributed to this task by operating a “crossing”
of labour histories of Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.
Under the chair of Marcel van der Linden (IISG
Amsterdam, ITH), Berthold Unfried gave a contribution
on trends in labour history and recent orientations of ITH: Networks
as a concept for transnational Labour history.
Rana Behal (Association of Indian Labour History, Delhi),
situated this umbrella organisation of Indian Labour historiography in the
Traditions of South Asian Labour Historiography. Martin
Legassick (Univ. Cape Town) and Claudio Batalha
(Univ. Campinas and Mundos do Trabalho, Brasil) evaluated strengths
and desiderata of these regional historiographies in order to explore potentials
of 'cross-fertilization'.
For ITH, this was the occasion to establish contact with Labour historians
from Africa, Asia and Latin America and their respective associations –
the Association of Indian Labour Historians, Mundos do Trabalho
in Brasil, and the Association of Southern African Labour Historians
whose foundation was decided at the conference. This cooperation shall be
continued in international conferences planned for the years 2009 and 2010.