The summer academy discuss the subject of work, focusing on the connections between work and life cycle. Central questions are related to the relationship of work and social justice between generations, the interchange between work and career, between work and career images, and between work and career structures. Are specific forms of work - that is, specific links between work, non-work and other life-expressions - typical of people across the age spectrum, or can at least be regarded as such, and why and with what consequences? Are the customary organization of one's career in various societies can be normatively and practically defined through participation in various forms of work? And to what degree is the distribution of life opportunities determined by work?
By applying a global and historical perspective and systematically employing the approaches of area studies, the summer academy compares varied industrial and non-industrial, capitalist and non-capitalist realities in the past and present.
The summer academy takes place in the framework of the International Research Center "Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History," which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the direction of Professor Andreas Eckert and senior advisor Professor Jürgen Kocka in collaboration with the Humboldt University Berlin.
It investigates from a comparative, interdisciplinary perspective how at different times different societies throughout the world have filled the term “work” with meaning, and how different concepts of work have each been connected with respective expressions of the actual performance of work.
A central aspect of the IGK is the conceptual discourse on what can meaningfully be meant by “work” and all that is incorporated in the concept. These basics must be clarified before any sound statements with respect to history, social theory, and a diagnosis of the present can be made.
Also, the IGK uses a consistently global and chronologically far-reaching perspective to elucidate how diverse industrial and non-industrial, capitalist and pre-capitalist realities were and continue to be.
Candidates
Candidates are invited from the disciplines of history, anthropology, law, sociology, political sciences as well as area studies. They should be at the doctoral and postdoctoral level. Ph.D holders should have received their doctorate in the last five years. Proposed projects should employ a historical and transregional perspective and emphasize connections beyond the national state. They should focus not only on work/labor, but on life-cycle as well.
Pending on the definite confirmation of funding, the travel costs as well the costs during the stay in Bamako will be covered.
Application Procedure:
To apply, send the following, in English.
1. A curriculum vitae
2. A statement about the current research relevant to the summer academy’s theme of up to 1.000 words (not counting cited references)
3. Names and addresses (incl. e-mail) of two referees
Application Deadline May 15th, 2010
Successful candidates will be informed by the end of May 2010. They will be asked to submit a full paper (10.000 words) in English until the end of July to be distributed to the other participants.
Please send your application to
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
IGK Arbeit und Lebenslauf in globalgeschichtlicher Perspektive
Prof. Dr. Andreas Eckert
Unter den Linden,
10099 Berlin, Germany
rework@asa.hu-berlin.de