Labnet: CfP: 2009 IRSH Supplement on Ottoman and Turkish Labour History

[labnet at lists.labourhistory.net]

From: Aad Blok irsh at iisg.nl

Call for Papers on Ottoman and Republican Turkish Labour History

Supplement to the International Review of Social History (2009)


Editors: Touraj Atabaki and Gavin Brockett

Introduction
In recent years historians of labour have begun to shift the focus away
from western Europe and from advanced capitalist countries to regions
previously defined as "peripheral". This reflects a broader scholarly
interest in non-Western social history at a time when historians seek to
take analyses beyond standard nationalist narratives and to explore
popular experiences of nation-state creation in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. In many cases it is now historians raised in these
countries who are exploiting new sources and setting the agenda for
future research. They do so cognizant that while they may address
aspects of a particular nation's history, labour history necessarily
incorporates a wide variety of phenomena which are inherently
trans-national in nature.

In this Supplement to the International Review of Social History we draw
attention to recent developments in the state of labour history as it
relates to the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey. Of late historians
have devoted considerable attention to workers and their histories:
initially the interest was in Ottoman labour history, but now research
into Republican Turkish labour history is also beginning to appear in
print. An emphasis upon labour history is particular valuable to
on-going scholarly effort to counter the simplistic "decline paradigm"
as it has been applied to the Ottoman Empire, as well as to efforts to
overcome the narrow nationalist historical narrative that for so long
has stood for Republican Turkish history. As an important dimension of
social history, the study of labour history contributes to an overall
concern to trace continuities between empire and nation-state, while at
the same time to recognize those developments specific to each polity.
The labour history of the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey thus also
plays a major role in the overall analysis of non-western forms of
modernization and industrialization.

A critical aspect of the emerging social history of the Ottoman Empire
and Republican Turkey is the creative exploitation of hitherto unused
sources that permit new interpretations of the past. Labour historians
in particular are uncovering a wide array of revealing sources and
applying to them sophisticated theoretical approaches. Both sources and
approaches raise important questions concerning various aspects of
labour history: the identification and roles of specific occupational
groups; shifting relationships between labour groups and the state; the
conjunction of gender and labour; the relative importance of labour in
major urban centers as well as that in provincial towns and cities; the
contribution of labour groups to the political process; the role of
workers in collective action and public protest; and the importance of
occupation to other dimensions of popular identity such as religion and
ethnicity.

Call for Papers
The International Review of Social History invites scholars to submit
abstracts for papers relating to Ottoman and Republican Turkish labour
history. We seek papers that reflect recent and original research, and
which seek to make an important contribution to the fields of social and
labour history. Papers might focus on the whole geographical range of
the Ottoman Empire or on Republican Turkey, or on continuities between
the two. We also encourage studies which address trans-national aspects
and connect developments in the Ottoman Empire or Turkey with those in
other parts of the world. While theoretical sophistication is important
we are particularly interested in those papers which are devoted to more
than theory: we encourage the close analysis of new sources which can
contribute to our understanding of the history of labour in the Ottoman
and Republican Turkish contexts. 

Structure of the Supplement
The Supplement will include eight to ten individual papers covering
various aspects of Ottoman and Republican Turkish labour history. An
introduction will situate the Supplement within the context of recent
developments in labour history in general as well as of developments
related specifically to the social history of Ottoman Empire and Turkey.


Deadline
Deadline for sending proposals with brief outlines of  articles is 1
February 2008. Please send your proposal to irsh at iisg.nl, including your
affiliation, and e-mail and postal address.

Time schedule
1 February 2008: deadline proposals with brief outlines of articles by
authors 
March 2008: Letter of acceptance (or rejection) of proposals 
September 2008: deadline first draft of articles 
November 2008: Letter by the editors to authors about necessary
revisions 
January 2009: Second draft of articles 
April 2009: Final version of manuscript to copy editor 
December 2009: Supplement is published

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