CfP: Labor – Movement – Nature. Historical Perspectives on an Ambivalent Relationship
Labor can alter, shape or destroy
the environment. The relationship of humans with their external and internal
nature is mediated by labor. In a historical perspective, the development of
the present societal relationship to nature cannot be separated from the
development of capitalism. The emergence of a class of dependent wage laborers
during industrialization went hand in hand with the enclosure of rural areas,
forced displacement, resettlement, forced sedentarization of local populations
and with urbanization. Interventions in the biosphere and atmosphere, such as
the pollution and poisoning of air and water, the leaching of soils, the
clearing of forests or the reduction of biodiversity, did not take place in an
abstract or imagined nature. These processes directly affected living and
working conditions, bringing about conflicts and resistance. The proliferation
of toxic, noisy, accident-prone or sickening working conditions can equally be
seen as an expression of a disturbed „metabolism with nature“ (Marx). The
concept of the Capitalocene addresses this epochal shift that comprehensively
changed the supposed dichotomy of society and nature at the same time.
This depletion of humans and of the
environment, by exploiting labor and appropriating natural resources, was
politicized in workers‘ as well as environmental movements as their own kind of
“politics of exhaustion” (Hürtgen), but without necessarily recognizing what
they have in common. Political practices related to the body, such as
occupational safety, health, hygiene, and nutrition, intersected with
environmental policy issues. Nonetheless, the interests of workers and
environmentalism have often been discussed as being antagonistic. Today,
environmental movements in Europe appear as a phenomenon of an urban middle
class that differs from „the“ workers in terms of lifestyle and political
goals. What seems to be forgotten are disputes in trade unions and factory
groups about working conditions harmful to health and the environment, e.g.
in the discussions about a „humanization of work“ in the 1970s, or the
participation of workers in struggles on environmental politics. In the Global
South, peasant movements and feminists, among others, point to connections
between environmental destruction and questions of labor conditions and
livelihoods. Against the backdrop of current discussions about a
„socio-ecological transformation“ that builds a bridge between the challenges
of climate change and social justice, it is therefore worthwhile inquiring
connections and conflicts, ruptures and continuities in the relationship
between labor, nature and the movements concerned with them.
The focus of the issue ties in with
current historiographical and political discussions. Approaches in the
English-speaking context to historicize environmental activism from the
perspective of the working class have made reference to notions such as „A
People’s History of Environmentalism“ (Montrie), „working-class
environmentalism“ (Barca) or „environmentalism of the poor“
(Guha/Martínez-Alier), whereas such approaches are largely underrepresented in
the German context. Important impulses on how such histories can be written and
concepts such as ecology, nature and the social can be rethought derive from
other disciplines, such as cultural studies, anthropology, human geography. We
are especially looking forward to contributions displaying issues of movement
history and their links as well as theoretical, historical and
interdisciplinary questions about relations of labor, the labor movement and
nature.
Potential topics:
Alliances and conflicts
- To what extent has environment/nature been
identified and labelled as a political field by the classical actors of
the workers‘ movement (parties, unions, associations, etc.)? Which
methods/practices have been applied?
- Which interests/conflicts have prevented
such a debate (e.g. the belief in progress and productivism,
environmentalism as a class issue)?
- Social struggles over nature and labor
relations during industrialization
- Environment and labor under state socialism,
e.g. the oppositional role of environmental movements
- Deindustrialization and environmental
politics: renaturation, redefinition of living and working environments
- Workers and climate/energy politics: new
perspectives on the ‘jobs vs. environment’ debate
- Body politics: intersections between health
and environmental politics
Nature: a place of longing and
threat
- Nature as a worker’s place for leisure and a
counter-place to the city: e.g. youth movements, anarchism, communes;
experience and appropriation of nature as a distinct form of consumption
(vacation, recreational trips, etc.), nature conservation as a project of
the workers‘ movement
- Natural and industrial disasters: droughts,
floods, epidemics, industrial accidents and their effects on the working class
- Labor in the countryside as a relation to
nature: struggles for land and resources
- Global South: environment and labor under
colonialism, indigenous resistance and non-European approaches/concepts of
relations to nature, externalization of labor relations hazardous to the
environment and health, and „imperial lifestyles“
- Exchange relations between animals, plants
and other organisms with labor and workers (e.g. the use of animals in
mining and agriculture, animal husbandry and cultivation of crops for self-sufficiency,
access to commons like forests and fields)
- Intersectionality: the naturalization of
class, race, and gender, and the resulting differential impact of
environmental hazards at places of residence and work – „nature“ as a site
for the production of difference? (e.g., „environmental racism“)
Labor and „nature“ in the
theoretical and the historical debate
- How are the debates about the Anthropocene,
the Capitalocene, etc. (with their macro-historical and, longue
durée-perspectives) reflected in (social) history?
- What role do labor and workers play in
political ecology and ecofeminism and how can their insights be made
fruitful for a history of labor?
- What was the importance of environment and
nature in the workers’ movements thinking, such as Marxist/socialist/communist/anarchist
theory?
- Growth critique, sufficiency,
self-sufficiency, autonomy etc. – Alternative visions
Formats and Deadlines
We ask for the submission of
compelling synopses of up to 2,500 characters indicating the topic, method, and
source base of the proposed article by 15/4/2023. Based on the synopses, we
will request articles. The deadline for submission of finished articles is
15/11/2023. All articles will undergo an internal review process involving
multiple stages before publication. The approval to publication will only be
granted after submission and review of the final version. Publication is
limited to original contributions (exceptions for articles not originally
published in German). English-language articles will be translated into German
for the printed journal, but may be published digitally in English.
Contributions to „Arbeit – Bewegung – Geschichte“ will not be compensated for.
Please send manuscripts by e-mail, preferably as docx-files. The articles
should not exceed 50,000 characters (40,000 characters in English) including
spaces. Please note our instructions for authors.
Contact: cfp@arbeit-bewegung-geschichte.de
Deadline for finished articles:
30/11/2023
Prospective date of publication:
May 2024
Contact Info:
Arbeit - Bewegung - Geschichte.
Zeitschrift für historische Studien
URL: https://www.arbeit-bewegung-geschichte.de/cfp-schwerpunktheft-arbeit-bewegung-natur/