Coercion and Wage Labour: Exploring Work Relations through History and Art
How can we explore the many ways in which coercion has occurred in and through paid labour? This book discussion brings visual and written sources and interpretations into dialogue, broadening the analytical horizon of Labour History.
In Coercion and Wage Labour: Exploring Work Relations through History and Art (UCL Press, 2024), twenty contributors from art, anthropology, economics, history, and sociology set out to explore coercion in wage labour in an experimental approach. Artists “translated” written analyses into visual forms such as graphic novels, watercolours, and collages, which function both as stand-alone interpretations and as new sources of further reflection for the authors (“described as translation loop”).
Using global case studies, the book explores how complex labour relations are shaped by space, time, remuneration, institutions, and structural constraints, individual agency, and lived experience. Join the discussion with the book’s editors on ways to diversify knowledge production through interdisciplinary practice.
The volume has an accompanying virtual exhibition, which you can explore here.
Practical
Date 10 February 2026
Time 16:00
Location IISG, Cruquiusweg 31, Amsterdam
Admission Free. You can just walk in, but it would be very helpful for the organisers if you could send an email to let them know you are coming. You can do so via event@iisg.nl
Anamarija Batista is an interdisciplinary researcher and curator working at the intersection of art, architecture, and economics. In 2026, she will begin her habilitation project Labour Relations: Annotations on Productivity and Solidarity, funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Viola Franziska Müller is a historian at Wageningen University. In the broadest sense, Viola seeks to understand how slavery has impacted work. Her research focuses on slavery and labor in the Americas and integrates themes such as migration, race, urban history, environmental history, and capitalism.
Corinna Peres is a medievalist and social historian whose research focuses on the history of labour, slavery and inequalities. Her dissertation (University of Vienna, 2024) on enslaved women in the medieval Mediterranean was awarded multiple prizes, including the Award of Excellence from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.
