International Review of Social History最新文献

Classifying Occupational Hazards: Narratives of Danger, Precariousness, and Safety in Indian Mines, 1895–1970 职业危害分类：1895-1970年印度矿山的危险、不稳定和安全叙述

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-04-08 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000057

Dhiraj Kumar Nite

{"title":"Classifying Occupational Hazards: Narratives of Danger, Precariousness, and Safety in Indian Mines, 1895–1970","authors":"Dhiraj Kumar Nite","doi":"10.1017/s0020859025000057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859025000057","url":null,"abstract":"This article suggests that classification exercises were the quintessential modality for both the narrative and labour–management relations of occupational health and safety in Indian mines for the period 1895–1970. The extant literature has underestimated the cause-and-effect relationship that such classification practices had, including punitive safety regulation clauses, compensation clauses, the public image of firms, forms of knowledge, and stakeholder bargaining. The narrative of work hazards fundamentally forged casualty classification patterns. The ascertainment techniques applied to casualty, perceptions of occupational risk, and the politics of restitution shaped the narratives and defined patterns of casualty classification. Management devised various ways to present a decent picture of mining through casualty statistics. Later, critiques of this business practice exposed statistical discrepancies and flaws in the classification system, challenging the built-in business-blindness. From the late 1920s, the informed, organized mineworkers articulated their experiences of workplace risk; they confronted the managerial discourse of “unavoidable” work hazards and mineworkers’ liability for casualty. The mineworkers’ publicists and the government of the Republic of India took an interest in research on occupational health and safety and its regulation. They aimed at industrial efficiency and national reconstruction by creating a healthy, contented, and experienced workforce. All this steered the classification exercises of industrialists and public authorities towards favourable changes. The twin forces of capital and working people converged on the restitution measures articulated within the utilitarian paradigm. The latter, ironically, contributed to valorizing the narrative of risk and sacrifice in the lives of mineworkers.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143797877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Beyond the Great Divergence: Household Income in the Indian Subcontinent, 1500–1870 超越大分化：1500-1870年印度次大陆的家庭收入

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-04-07 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000100

Hélder Carvalhal, Jan Lucassen

{"title":"Beyond the Great Divergence: Household Income in the Indian Subcontinent, 1500–1870","authors":"Hélder Carvalhal, Jan Lucassen","doi":"10.1017/s0020859025000100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859025000100","url":null,"abstract":"The article explores the evolution of household income in India before the late nineteenth century. At a time when criticism of estimates of global real wages challenges the assumptions arising from the Great Divergence Debate, we aim to provide alternative ways of contributing to the discussion. By looking at individual and household income, as well as consumption levels in different parts of India, we found that members of the household other than the head (namely women) supplied a larger part of its total income than an analysis of wage differentials would suggest. Moreover, we argue that India, in the centuries under review, had a functioning labour market, despite several impediments. This adds to the value of our data as building blocks to reconstruct real wages and, consequently, to better understand welfare levels. Nevertheless, the decline in the Indian skill premium suggests that channels of social mobility decreased over time. The implications of all these findings for the Great Divergence Debate depend on the extent to which our approach also has consequences for our view on household income in other parts of Eurasia. Certainly, they call for a nuanced approach to Indian economic development during the period.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"217 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143790168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The Distinct Seasonality of Early Modern Casual Labor and the Short Durations of Individual Working Years: Sweden 1500–1800 早期现代散工的明显季节性和个人工作年数的短持续时间：瑞典1500-1800

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-04-07 DOI: 10.1017/s002085902500001x

Kathryn E. Gary

{"title":"The Distinct Seasonality of Early Modern Casual Labor and the Short Durations of Individual Working Years: Sweden 1500–1800","authors":"Kathryn E. Gary","doi":"10.1017/s002085902500001x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s002085902500001x","url":null,"abstract":"This article makes use of nearly 25,000 observations representing over 95,000 paid workdays across over 300 years to investigate individual work patterns, work availability, and the changes in work seasonality over time. This sample is comprised of workers in the construction industry, and includes unskilled men and women as well as skilled building craftsmen – the industry that is often used to estimate comparative real wages through early modern Europe. Data come predominantly from Scania, the southernmost region in modern day Sweden, and especially from Malmö, the largest town in the region.Findings indicate that workers probably do not engage in paid labour on a purely labour-supply-based schedule, but are strongly impacted by the demand for construction labour, which was highly seasonal and impacted by local labour institutions. Seasonality was stronger further back in the past, indicating that finding long-term work may have been more difficult in earlier periods. A typical work year could probably not have been longer than 150 days, and would be made up of shorter work spells at several different sites. This is not enough work to meet standard assumptions of 250 days, or enough work for an unskilled man to support his family at a respectable level. Individual workers rarely worked more than a handful of days in a year on a construction site, even when labour demand was high, indicating that they did not maximize their income from waged labour.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143790120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Introduction: Wage Systems and Inequalities in Global History 引言：全球历史上的工资制度和不平等

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-03-27 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000070

Hélder Carvalhal, Jan Lucassen, Judy Z. Stephenson, Pim de Zwart

{"title":"Introduction: Wage Systems and Inequalities in Global History","authors":"Hélder Carvalhal, Jan Lucassen, Judy Z. Stephenson, Pim de Zwart","doi":"10.1017/s0020859025000070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859025000070","url":null,"abstract":"For two decades, real wage comparisons have been centre stage in global socio-economic history studies of comparative development, offering a tractable – if oversimplified – gauge of living standards. But critics argue that these studies have leaned too heavily on the earnings of male, urban, unskilled, daily wage labourers, overlooking wage disparities between social groups and the mechanics of how wages were paid. This Special Issue attempts to shift the focus to overlooked groups and “wage systems” – the methods behind pay determination – and their role in deepening or mitigating inequality. This introduction attempts a global overview of the long-term developments in real wage studies, highlighting methodological innovations and challenges over recent decades. It also explains how the various articles in this Special Issue, spanning topics from medieval Europe to colonial India, contribute to this field. We argue that wage systems – and the inequalities they breed – played out in ways as varied as history itself, so comparing material living standards across time and space remains a complex calculation. We plead for a two-pronged approach: the continued study of all types of income of all working people, alongside a new focus on the social norms, institutions, and systems that determine the opportunities for individuals to acquire an income. A consolidated bibliography of all references in this Special Issue may help future research.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"183 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143712918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

So Rich, So Poor: Household Income and Consumption in Urban Spain in the Early Twentieth Century (Zaragoza, 1924) 《如此富裕，如此贫穷：二十世纪初西班牙城市的家庭收入与消费》（萨拉戈萨，1924）

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-03-21 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000069

Francisco J. Marco-Gracia, Pablo Delgado

引用次数: 0

Living Standards and Development Paths: Factory Systems and Job Quality during US Industrialization, 1790–1840 生活水平与发展路径：美国工业化时期的工厂制度与工作质量，1790-1840

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-03-17 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000033

Benjamin Schneider

{"title":"Living Standards and Development Paths: Factory Systems and Job Quality during US Industrialization, 1790–1840","authors":"Benjamin Schneider","doi":"10.1017/s0020859025000033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859025000033","url":null,"abstract":"Differences between models of industrialization are increasingly recognized as an important element of global economic history, and the quality of jobs is receiving new interest as a better indicator of living standards than income alone. This paper considers the implications of historical development models for job quality using the spinning section of textile manufacture in the early United States as a case study. The three factory systems that originated in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and around Philadelphia varied in technical choice, management practices, and establishment size, and exhibited heterogeneity in components of job quality. The paper uses quantitative evidence, including more than 2000 observations of early industrial workers’ wages, qualitative material from government investigations, worker letters, and company correspondence, and the Historical Job Quality Indicators to analyse work quality for spinning workers and to explore variation between the three industrial models. Workers in the more competitive Philadelphia model had lower real earnings, less job security, and higher work intensity than employees of the paternalistic Massachusetts mills. The paper highlights the importance of considering variation by location when evaluating historical living standards and the implications of industrialization strategies for quality of life.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143635772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Wages, Gender, and Coercion: Socio-Economic Stratification and Labour Practices among the Khoe in Early Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony 工资、性别和强迫：19世纪早期开普殖民地霍伊人的社会经济分层和劳动实践

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-03-13 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000082

Calumet Links, Erik Green

{"title":"Wages, Gender, and Coercion: Socio-Economic Stratification and Labour Practices among the Khoe in Early Nineteenth-Century Cape Colony","authors":"Calumet Links, Erik Green","doi":"10.1017/s0020859025000082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859025000082","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the wages and labour contracts of Khoe workers in Graaff Reinet, a district on the Cape Colony's eastern frontier in the early nineteenth century. Using wage registers from 1801 to 1810, we offer the first individual-level analysis of wages for both male and female Khoe workers, examining payment forms, socio-economic stratification, and gendered wage dynamics. The findings highlight a persistently high reliance on in-kind payments – aligned with the pastoral economy and cultural preferences of the Khoe – but reveal a gradual shift towards cash wages, driven by the colonial administration's efforts to reduce labour coercion. Gender disparities emerge as a critical theme, with female labourers experiencing higher wage inequality and receiving a larger proportion of in-kind wages. The analysis underscores the intersection of colonial economic policies, labour practices, and social inequalities, challenging aggregate approaches to understanding inequality and living standards in colonial Africa. These insights expand our knowledge of coercive labour systems and frontier economies.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"183 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143608409","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

An Apology for Unreal Wages: Building Labourers and Living Standards in the Southern Low Countries (1290–1560) 为虚幻工资道歉：南方低地国家的建筑工人和生活水平（1290-1560）

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-02-27 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859025000045

Sam Geens, Bruno Blondé

引用次数: 0

Wage Determination and Employer Power in the Labour Market for Servants: Evidence from England and Wales, 1780–1834 仆人劳动力市场中的工资决定和雇主权力：来自英格兰和威尔士的证据，1780-1834

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-02-20 DOI: 10.1017/s0020859024000944

Moritz Kaiser

{"title":"Wage Determination and Employer Power in the Labour Market for Servants: Evidence from England and Wales, 1780–1834","authors":"Moritz Kaiser","doi":"10.1017/s0020859024000944","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020859024000944","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the labour market for female servants in England and Wales between 1780 and 1834, using previously unexplored archival materials alongside qualitative sources. After introducing the dataset, the study provides a micro-level analysis of wage determinants and traces the sources and evolution of employer market power. The findings show that real wages fell substantially during the early decades of the nineteenth century and stagnated throughout the period from 1780 to 1834. Amid rising cost-of-living pressures in the early 1800s, declining real wages were accompanied by increased nominal wage bunching, suggesting greater employer market power. These trends are contextualized with insights from servants’ autobiographies and household manuals. The combined quantitative and qualitative evidence suggests that service labour markets were highly localized, employers coordinated wage-setting and working conditions, and servants faced barriers to job mobility due to living in tied housing, difficulties in recovering unpaid wages, and the critical role of character references. The results indicate that employers in the largest segment of the labour market had considerable wage-setting power, which intensified during the early years of industrialization.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143451437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

“The Very Soul Must Be Held in Bondage!”: Alice Victoria Kinloch's Critical Examination of South Africa's Diamond-Mining Compounds “灵魂必须被束缚！”： Alice Victoria Kinloch对南非钻石开采化合物的批判性考察

IF 0.8 2区历史学

International Review of Social History Pub Date : 2025-01-21 DOI: 10.1017/s002085902400097x

Rafael de Azevedo, Tijl Vanneste

{"title":"“The Very Soul Must Be Held in Bondage!”: Alice Victoria Kinloch's Critical Examination of South Africa's Diamond-Mining Compounds","authors":"Rafael de Azevedo, Tijl Vanneste","doi":"10.1017/s002085902400097x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s002085902400097x","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on the intellectual efforts made by a South African activist named Alice Kinloch, one of the first people to openly criticize the violence perpetrated against black mineworkers in Kimberley's compound system, at the end of nineteenth century. In the first section, we focus on Alice Kinloch's early life, her involvement in early Pan-Africanism in Britain, and the beginning of her efforts to denounce the compound system. In section two, we shift our analysis to the interaction between missionaries working in the compounds, and the colonialist discourse on “civilizing the natives”. As representatives of the Christian faith, in which Alice Kinloch also was brought up, missionaries play a central role in her critique, which takes aim at their collaboration, as Christians, with a system of racist violence that, in Kinloch's eyes, had nothing to do with the “civilization” it claimed to bring. The conclusions Alice Kinloch drew on observing the compound system were published in Manchester in 1897. In the third section we dive into her pamphlet Are South African Diamonds Worth Their Cost?, in which she condemned the hypocrisy inherent in the compound system and laments its effects on the black mineworkers subjected to a horrible regime.","PeriodicalId":46254,"journal":{"name":"International Review of Social History","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142991210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0