OBJECTIVES

The pitfalls of platform economies, struggles for unionisation in digital entertainment companies, outsourcing and exploitation in social media enterprises, fragile global commodity chains in hardware production: Topics of labour and digital industries are prominent in today’s news headlines. These themes, however, have a history that goes back several decades. Studying industrial relations at the dawn of computing, the struggles over automation and digitization, and the emergence of new forms of work can provide us with a better understanding of digital labour relations and struggles.

The conference will adress questions that are crucial for the history and present of labour and digitization. Possible questions could be:
- What visions of future work were propelled by the introduction of computers, and how were these visions perceived by the workforce?
- Which aspects of pre-digital labour shaped the conception of digital work? What was the effect of informal DIY cultures and countercultural ethics on structures and practices of digital labour?
- How were IT workers (programmers, systems analysts or operators) perceived and how did they perceive themselves within traditional structures of labour organising?
- To what extent did structural inequalities, especially questions of race, class and gender, come to the fore?
- How did unions deal with the threats (and chances) of automation and digitization?
- What new forms of work relations, vocational education and labour organising sprung up in newly formed digital industries such as microchip manufacturing, software fabrication or computer games production?
- How did the global division of labour manifest itself in the computing and IT industries over decades?
- How did the various pathways into the digital age differ around the globe, especially when comparing developments in the United States and Western Europe with those in state socialist countries and the countries of the Global South?
- What effects did the introduction of personal computing have on work relations, the atomisation of the labour force, as well as the images and narratives of small-scale entrepreneurship?
- How did the introduction of mobile technologies change both the digital industries and broader work relations yet again?

We welcome papers that strive to address these and related questions, and highly welcome contributions focussing on regions that traditionally lay outside the geographical scope of digital history, such as Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa.

SUBMISSION

Proposed papers should include:
- Abstract (max. 300 words)
- Biographical note (continuous text, max. 200 words)
- Full address and Email address

The abstract of the suggested paper should contain a separate paragraph explaining how and (if applicable) to which element(s) or question(s) of the Call for Papers the submitted paper refers. The short CV should give information on the applicant’s contributions to the field of labour history, broadly defined, and specify (if applicable) relevant publications. For the purpose of information, applicants are invited to attach a copy of one of these publications to their application.

Proposals to be sent to Laurin Blecha: conference@ith.or.at

SCHEDULE
Submission of proposals: 26 January 2024
Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2024
Full papers or presentation version: 12 August 2024

PREPARATORY GROUP
Gleb J. Albert, University of Lucerne
Julia Gül Erdogan, University of Stuttgart
Michael Homberg, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam
Stefan Müller, Friedrich Ebert Foundation