Worlds of Related Coercions in Work
The COST Action “Worlds of Related Coercions in Work” (WORCK) calls for a radical change of perspective in labour history. It links the stories of work and production with those of violence, expropriation, and marginalisation. By studying the persistence and transformations of coercion and bondage across gender orders, geographic regions and historical eras, WORCK shifts the focus of labour history: from the male-breadwinner model and the free wage labourer or the capitalist mode of production to the understanding of the mechanisms of coercion in all work relations throughout history; from the analytical framework of the modern West to radical historicisation that helps reconceptualising labour history as a specific approach to social history and to link the study of the past with current debates on social inequalities and the flexibilisation and precarisation of work worldwide.
Learn more about WORCK here.
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Recent News
Extension of the COST Action WORCK
We are thrilled to announce that after three years of our COST Action, WORCK has been granted an extension. The network will continue to operate for another 6 months after the end of the [...]
Writers Workshop “Labour and Coercion. Doing Social History after the Social Turn” (Urbino, Italy)
From 23-25 September 2022, the authors and editors participating in the WORCK publication project "Labour and Coercion. Doing Social History after the Global Turn", which will be published as a Past & Present Supplement, met in [...]
After WORCK Drinks (Autumn/Winter 2022)
WORCK’s Think Tank invites you to participate in the After WORCK Drinks. This monthly jour fixe is dedicated to discussions of “What is coercion?” and “What comes after WORCK?” The overarching goal of these informal After WORCK Drinks is to link our [...]
Recent Blog Posts
Solidarity with Iranian Women
By the Società Italiana delle Storiche (Italian Society of Women Historians) The Società Italiana delle Storiche (Italian Society of Women Historians) is following the recent events in Iran with admiration and concern in [...]
Project-making and discourse imperialism instead of cooperation and innovation? Some re-flections on my experiences in the European research area
German By Peter-Paul Bänziger (University of Basel) In a 2017 interview, Tuğrul Erbaydar, a physician and founding member of AİDS Savaşım Derneği (Association for the Fight against AIDS), explored the history [...]
Knowledge and Power: The Languages of Academia
Italian By Christian De Vito (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies) This text was originally written 2019 in Italian, and published under the title Sapere e potere: le lingue dell’accademia [...]