Labour in premodern Europe - 9th international conference of the Research Group on Late Medieval Economic History
Conference Venue: Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University, Náměstí Jana Palacha 2, Prague
Date: 19 to 21 May 2022
Conveners: Dr. Tomáš Klír and Dr. Martin Musílek in cooperation with the working group on late medieval economic history (Arbeitskreis für Spätmittelalterliche Wirtschaftsgeschichte), the conference will be supported by KREAS | Projekt KREAS (<https://kreas.ff.cuni.cz/en/>).
Call for papers
The topic of “labour” has recently been rediscovered by premodern economic history. A wide variety of forms came into view, for instance how labour relations could be shaped, how employer and employee could be matched and how labour could be remunerated. The 9th annual conference of the working group on late medieval economic history (Arbeitskreis für spätmittelalterliche Wirtschaftsgeschichte) will discuss different aspect of premodern labour in Europe from c. 1200 to c. 1700. The conference will take place from May 19 to 21 2022 at the Charles University of Prague and will be co-organised by Tomas Klír und Martin Musílek.
We would like to tackle the topic from various angles and with different methods: for instance, on a discourse level we are interested in the changing perception of the complex relationship between labour and poverty and between work and begging in the Later Middle Ages. further topics will be multiple employments, employment-induced mobility and labor migration as well as temporal or structural unemployment and the influence of the human body and lifecycle, gender and social background on the ways and opportunities of people trying to make a living.
The materiality of labour in the Middle Ages (working tools, workshop structures, raw materials, etc.) can be traced in archeological findings as well as in depictions in various works of art and enhances our understanding of the means of production and places of work as well as the practices of work. Thus, we also invite papers on this aspect by art historians and archeologists.