Transitions in Global Labor History, 1250-2010: Entanglements, Synchronicities, and Combinations on a Local and a Global Scale

• Published in: Review - Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations Historical Systems, and Civilizations, 2013-01, Vol.36 (2), p.155-190
• Main Author: Komlosy, Andrea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0147-9032; 2327-445X

This contribution is based on a broad notion of work and labor, including commodified, reciprocal, tributary, as well as community-related activities. The first part offers a taxonomy as well as a theoretical framework for assessing transfers of value when labor relations are combined. Moreover, the question is raised: Which activities in European history were considered work/labor by contemporaries and which factors made reciprocal work disappear from the history of work/labor. Languages and literary sources reveal the discrepancy between hard work (labor) and creative realization (opus), which was only levelled to gainful occupation by capitalist rationality. The second part offers six cross-cuts, from 1250 until present times, showing that global capitalism did not bring along the breakthrough of free labor. Conversely, the capitalist world-system has always been characterized by the combination of old and new forms of free and unfree, paid and unpaid, formal and informal labor on a local and a global scale. Finally, shifts in labor regimes and combinations are related to crises and transitions in the longue durée.