International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) 2019 (Web)

Time: 05.-07.09.2019
Venue: Linz, Austria
The ITH 2019 is kindly supported by the Chamber of Labour of Upper Austria, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the Department of Social and Economic History, Johannes Kepler Univ. Linz, the Institute of Rural History in St. Pölten, and the City of Linz;
The ITH 2019’s preparatory group members are Lisa Bolyos, Dirk Hoerder and Brigitte Pellar (Vienna), Josef Ehmer and Erich Landsteiner (Univ. of Vienna), Winfried R. Garscha (DÖW), Ernst Langthaler (Johannes Kepler Univ.Linz), Lukas Neissl and Susan Zimmermann (ITH, Vienna), Silke Neunsinger (Labour Movement Archives and Library, Stockholm);
The ITH 2019 aims at strengthening the links between labour history and rural history. It intends to address the topic “working on the land” from two different angles: firstly, agricultural work as co-production of society and nature and, secondly, rural labour relations as elements of larger political and economic systems. Contributions to this conference will explore how these two perspectives complement each other, identify research desiderata and blind spots in the respective other, creatively develop bridges and contribute to the theoretical, methodological and empirical enrichment of the history of agrarian work and labour.
The first angle highlights how agricultural work – growing cereals, tree- or garden-crops, raising cattle, working in woods and forestry or processing raw materials produced on the land – differs from other forms of work. It draws our attention to the differences of agriculture from other branches of the economy due to its natural embedment: the natural constraints on the choice of crops in specific regions, the biological growth processes of plants and animals, the seasonality of the labour process, the uncertainties of weather and the resulting output-related risks and the effects these features may have (had) on the material and immaterial traits of culture, such as settlement patterns, household composition, techniques and technology, perceptions of the environment, the … read more and source (Web).