We are pleased to announce the publication of the special issue “Exploring Labor Coercion through Im/mobility and the Environment (18th-20th centuries)” in the Journal Labor History. edited by Claudia Bernardi, Amal Shahid, and Müge Özbek.
Labour migrations have been a major topic of discussion for migration scholars along the 20th century. In the first decade of the 2000s, following the formulation of the ‘new mobilities paradigm’, some labor scholars started to explore the possibilities of the concept of im/mobility as an interpretive framework for understanding processes of work and labour. The essays contribute to the continued cross-fertilisation between mobility studies and labour studies by exploring the theoretical and methodological prospects of focusing on particular assemblages of temporal-spatial practices that simultaneously compel and confine movement, while exploring labour coercion. Moreover, they consider the environment as a significant factor impacting coercion and im/mobility emanating from the spatial site of work, but also the transformation of labor relations through their impact on and interrelation with aspects beyond the human sphere.
This special issue includes the contributions presented and discussed during the international conference “Sites and Intersections of Labour Im/Mobility” WORCK – Worlds of related coercions in work and, promoted by SISLav- Italian Society for Labour history, and MOHU-Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility & Humanities at Padua University that was held on June 24-25, 2021, and hosted by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The contributions cover the period from the 18th to the 20th century and include studies on the Carribbean, French Congo, Sweden, Yugoslavia, and British colonial Sri Lanka.
You can find the issue here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/clah20/64/6