RHN 11/2025 | Call, EURHO
Organisers: Luca Andreoni (UNIVPM), Francesco Chiapparino (UNIVPM), Niccolò Mignemi (CNRS)
Session at Rural History 2025, 9-12 September 2025, Coimbra, Portugal
Deadline for Submissions: 20 January 2025
Call for Papers:
Underemployment, Seasonality and Mobility in Rural Worlds (18th-20th Century)
Session S53 at Rural History 2025
Agricultural underemployment was a frequent and widespread, in some respect structural, situation in the 18th-20th centuries. It was linked to the seasonality of the farming systems, and the availability of a reservoir of rural workforce, which was the condition to cope with bottlenecks and peaks in the labour supply, throughout the year. Economic and social historians have paid particular attention the consequences of these dynamics in terms of seasonal mobility, the development of protoindustrial and off-farm activities, or crop specialization (vineyards, olives, fruits but also industrial crops). Observed through the lens of underemployment, work rhythms can indeed provide crucial insights into the evolutions of farm organization and rural rationalities. They are central to understand changes in productivity patterns (land and/or labour), the spread of labour-intensive rather than capital-intensive innovations, the management of local resources, the place of migrations (temporary or permanent), the evolution of the labour contracts, or the multiple strategies combining agricultural and non-agricultural activities etc.
However, despite the importance of the subject, historians have paid little attention to the study of agricultural underemployment per se, its role in technological innovations and the diversification/specialization of farm activities. There are several reasons for this lack of analysis. Firstly, the everyday forms of labour organization – both family and hired labour – are harder to detect in archives than land or heritage. Secondly, sources concerning the length of the working day or the numbers of days worked per season are scarce, lacking data for comparisons between national aggregates and longitudinal studies on specific territories. Thirdly, the seasonality of labour and the impact of agricultural underemployment are difficult to define and measure at different levels, as well as the mechanisms of its persistence and the consequences on the other economic sectors.
Contributions to this panel may address one or more of the following issues:
- Measurement and estimation of the working hours, according to their seasonal dynamics and distinguishing between specialised and non-specialised tasks: all approaches are welcome, from qualitative case studies to econometric analyses, as well as studies focusing on the production of data and statistics on these phenomena.
- Origins and consequences of seasonality on the organization of the farm, the development of technological innovations, and the dynamics of the farming systems.
- Debates on women’s underemployment and the changing perceptions/recognitions of female labour in agriculture (both within the family, and outside as servants or temporary workers).
- Income integration strategies (at the individual or the family level) in response to underemployment, with particular attention to life-cycle effects and the role of pluriactivity.
- Local and national initiatives promoted by local authorities, governmental and non-governmental organizations to manage seasonal labour and fight against underemployment, through technological change, employment and educational policies.
- Agricultural underemployment in the economic and social debates, in particular during the period of crisis, in the relation to the level of the agricultural wages, and the question of the rural population as a reserve army of unemployed workers.
Proposals should be submitted here: https://ruralhistory2025.org/call-for-papers/
They must include a title, the full name and affiliation of the authors and a short abstract (150-200 words) introducing the topic, its scope and approach.
The deadline for paper proposals is 20 January 2025.
If you are interested in participating or you have any question regarding the session, do not hesitate to contact the organisers: Luca Andreoni (l.andreoni@staff.univpm.it), Francesco Chiapparino (f.chiapparino@staff.univpm.it), Niccolò Mignemi (niccolo.mignemi@cnrs.fr)