Labnet: CFP: History of Labour Intermediation. Institutions and Individual Ways of Finding Employment - Vienna 11/09

[labnet at lists.labourhistory.net]

[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Soz-u-Kult.]


From:    Alexander Mejstrik <alexander.mejstrik at univie.ac.at>
Subject: CFP: History of Labour Intermediation. Institutions and
         Individual Ways of Finding Employment (19th and
         early 20th centuries) - Vienna 11/09
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Production of Work (ERC-Starting Grant); Department of Economic and
Social History; University of Vienna, Vienna
27.11.2009-28.11.2009, University of Vienna
Deadline: 30.06.2009

Questions of labour market and labour intermediation have been a
political concern in most European countries as well as the USA and
Canada since the late 19th century. In contemporary debates, public
labour exchanges have been depicted as a tool to cope with the confusing
complexity of labour markets and to match the supply and demand of
labour more effectively. On the one hand, labour intermediation was
designated to provide adequate labourers for employers. On the other
hand, providing employment opportunities for those in search of
employment was seen as a tool of social policy in the fight against
poverty. In this context, a new understanding of being out of work
emerged: "unemployment" was conceived as an integral aspect of labour
markets and therefore as an outcome of economic processes. As a result,
public labour exchange came to be and is still commonly regarded as an
inevitable requirement of modernization. 

However, public labour exchange did not just coordinate or regulate a
given labour market but also participated in the historical creation of
labour and segregation of labour markets. Public labour exchanges
fundamentally contributed to the codification of practices of work by
imposing new categories of wage labour and of being out of employment.
They established formal criteria of classifying occupational skills and
employability. Public labour intermediation defined acceptable as well
as unacceptable employment according to training, career, age, gender
and nationality. While selectively including some practices in labour
markets, it excluded other practices as well. Thus, it contributed to
the creation and differentiation of national workforce and a segregated
labour market. By defining regular employment, it helped impose a
particular distinction between formal and informal (or casual) work,
between the "real" economy and a shadow economy. Finally - in respect to
unemployment benefits - it aimed at distinguishing those willing and
able to work from those deemed "work-shy". 

Up to now, only a few studies have asked how public labour exchanges
contributed to the emergence and differentiation of nationalized labour
markets. Previous research has mostly focussed on the political aims and
formal regulations of labour intermediation. By contrast, we know little
about how labour exchanges functioned practically and what it meant to
be subjected to those practices. It would, however, be quite misleading
to assume that explicit aims and rules mirror actual practices in labour
intermediation.

Moreover, we have to reflect on the practical impact of public labour
exchange in seeking jobs and the position of exchange within the variety
of forms of intermediation. Public labour offices have always been only
one of many possible ways of finding employment or employees, but they
have not necessarily been the dominant one. According to contemporary
and recent estimates, informal practices of finding employment with the
help of kin or other social networks, newspaper ads or direct inquiries
have been important job search practices. Job placement by commercial
mediation, charitable organisations, trade unions or associations has
been quite common as well. However, in debates of the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, "irregular" forms of labour intermediation were
often criticized as ineffective. They were not only accused of failing:
(1) to organize the labour market effectively; (2) to prevent migration
into the cities; or (3) to provide reliable data on labour markets. 
Abuses and fraud against people in search of a job were seen as common.
To prevent this, public control of intermediation was put into practice.


Still, particularly as public labour exchange was emerging, there was no
political consensus that labour intermediation should be a monopoly of
the state since control of intermediation was seen as a way to control
wages, labour conditions and strikes. As international comparison shows,
a state monopoly of labour intermediation was the outcome of
conflict-laden historical processes, but not an inevitable effect of
modernization. 

The workshop we have planned aims at comparing practices of labour
intermediation and ways of finding employment in the 19th and 20th
centuries across a variety of countries. Historians as well as
researchers in other disciplines (such as sociology, anthropology,
economics) are invited to participate.

At the workshop, questions such as the following should be addressed.
-	Searching for employment: How did people make use of various forms of
intermediation? What did it practically mean to be subjected to job
placement, vocational counselling or assistance by public labour
offices? How did people in search of employment perceive and experience
public labour exchange? How did people influence practices of
intermediation in making use of labour exchanges?
-	The clientele of labour offices, commercial intermediation or
charitable organisations: Which (main) targets did different forms of
labour intermediation have?
-	Do differences between towns/cities and rural areas influence
practices of job seeking?
-	Codification of work: How did labour placement practically establish
new differences and hierarchies between different forms of labour and
unemployment, between work and non-work? How was labour intermediation
involved in producing old and new forms of labour market segregation? 
-	How did public job placement contribute to the establishment of
national and regional labour markets? 
-	Unemployment benefits and labour offices: How did public employment
offices change with the emergence of unemployment benefits? How did
labour offices provide aid or enforce an obligation to work in
officially accepted ways? How was the distinction between those "willing
to work" and those "unwilling" or "work-shy" made on a practical basis?
Which consequences did such labelling practices have? 
-	The perspective of employers: Which forms of recruitment did employers
use or prefer? How did they make use of labour offices? Which
differences can be observed between employment practices in enterprises
of different size and in different commercial sectors?
-	Labour intermediation and mobility: How did public and other
non-governmental agents establish forms of control of and support for
those migrating or tramping in search for work? Which measures aimed at
the regulation and control of inter- and intra-national labour
migration? How effective were these regulations?
-	Political interests and conflicts: How did different interest groups,
such as trade unions, employers' associations or individuals interact in
labour exchange, in consensus and conflict? How did these interactions
shape labour offices' practices of distributing jobs? How did public
labour offices play a role in mediating interests between employers' and
labourers' associations? 
-	Interrelation of administration and science: Which impact did research
have on labour exchange (for example, what was the impact of psychology
on vocational counselling)?  How did labour exchanges contribute to the
production of knowledge about labour markets (i.e. statistical
representations)?
-	Administration of labour exchange: How were the unemployed and job
offers administered by different forms of labour exchanges? Did the
establishment of public labour offices influence the professionalization
of job placement?

The workshop is organised by the ERC-starting grant project "The
Production of Work: Welfare, Labour-market, and the Disputed Boundaries
of Labour (1880-1938)", directed by Sigrid Wadauer. For more information
on the project see the homepage http://pow.univie.ac.at.  

The project will cover travelling expenses and accommodations for
invited speakers. 

Abstracts not exceeding 2 pages should be sent to pow.wiso at univie.ac.at

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sigrid Wadauer

Dept. of Economic and Social History / University of Vienna
Maria-Theresien-Straße 9/4, A-1090 Vienna, Austria


pow.wiso at univie.ac.at

Homepage <http://pow.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=26317&L=0>

URL zur Zitation dieses Beitrages
<http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/termine/id=11305>