By examining shipbuilding since 1950, the global importance of the industry in transportation, global trade, commodity chains, steel production, and military defence can be highlighted. The economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s led to a global structural change in the industry. With shipbuilding, along with mining and steel production, being important industries in Europe and Japan, the consequences of the crisis resulted in the reorganization of Western European and Scandinavian shipyards and production methods. Due to intense international competition in the shipbuilding market, production centres began to be relocated to East Asia and other newly industrialized countries.

The workshop brings together some twenty researchers from different world regions who will provide insight in labour history and labour conflicts from different shipbuilding territories. The workshop arises from a global labour history project, under the initiative of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam as well as following the approach of earlier comparative studies on the history of dockworkers and of textile workers. The workshop is promoted and developed by the Centre for Area Studies at the University of Leipzig.