CfP ELHN Working Group Labour and Family Economy: Labour and Old Age / Labouring Elderly
Call for Papers
EUROPEAN LABOUR HISTORY NETWORK
WORKING GROUP Labour and Family Economy
Uppsala (Sweden, 11-13 June 2024)
Organizers: Maria Papathanassiou (Department of History and Archaeology/ National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) – Beatrice Zucca-Micheletto (DiSSGeA, University of Padua)
Labour and Old Age / Labouring Elderly
The history of the old age and the elderly constitutes an integral, yet rather neglected, part of the history of the family economy and the history of work. It is crucial to our understanding and interpreting the division of labour within households and kin groups, the features, dynamics and functioning of family economies as well as of labour markets in the past.
Family patterns, the existence of multigenerational households, the chronological limits and the definitions of old age, all differed depending on space and time, and all significantly affected the relation between old age, labour, and family economy.
Our interest centers on three basic interrelated groups of questions:
- Who belonged to the “elderly”, and what was the content of “old age” in past societies? How far did the chronological limits, the content, and in general the social meanings attributed to old age depend on social class and gender, and how did this affect the households’ division of labour as well as individual labour experience?
- How did physical or mental inability, due to old age, affect the division of labor within households in the past? Who took care of the elderly, under what conditions, what did this care mean for the reallocation of time and how did it affect the division of labor among household members?
- How far did those elderly who were generally able to work contribute to family economy? What were their work tasks within the household and why? How did age affect family division of labor and how did it interact with gender?
- What about those without a family, those who lacked a family economy to rely on? Did communities, the authorities, the state take care of them and how? Did such a care mean that they were exempted from work, and if so under what circumstances?
Proposals may refer, but are not limited to, the following topics: