Legal philosopher Alan Wertheimer wrote that “our understanding of coercion underlies … our view of various social practices”. The opposite also holds true: Researching social relations in a given historical context is essential for understanding how coercion underpins the organisation of production, the administration of punishment, and interpersonal relations in conditions of power asymmetry. In turn, social practices can only be understood within processes such as valorisation, im/mobilisation, and punishment that converge to create the historical dimension within which we understand those practices.

Moving on beyond a research agenda that seeks to posit a dichotomy between free and unfree labour or design a spectrum of scalar shades of coercion between the opposite poles of freedom and unfreedom, the WORCK network has attempted to understand how prac tices and processes of labour coercion can illuminate social practices (and vice versa) at specific historical junctures and in various geographical settings. 

This conference brings together scholars conducting empirical research on such practices and processes, as well as on the perspectives of historical actors and how they were entangled in social asymmetries.

Over 50 papers on various questions, periods, and regions will be presented, two films will be screened, and we will hear a keynote speech by Marcel van der Linden of the International Institute of Social History (IISG).  

Complete programme and book of abstracts at the conference website:
worck.eu/conference-3-2023-prague/

Registration: conference@worck.eu or use the registration link in the conference website.