Programme Clusters

In this project cluster we study several aspects of globalization through four themes: Economic Developments, Commodity Frontiers and Commodity Chains, The Spread of Forced Labour and Slavery and Precarization.

Social inequality can be slowed down or decreased by individual and collective strategies. In this project cluster we have two themes on individual and household strategies: Life Course Studies and Migration.

In this project cluster we study the ‘weapons of the weak’, like building organizations like guilds, mutual insurance associations or trade unions, but also actions like deserting, mutiny or going on strike.

The IISH has been building and using databases on Global Labour History since the 1980s. The scale on which this is happening now requires an advanced and reliable digital infrastructure.