We show how rather than manually, we created an algorithm to derive labour relations automatically from IPUMS-USA data in a more efficient and detailed way, allowing for explanatory questions rather than descriptive questions
1. Work in a globalized world
Rombert Stapel, IISH / Weatherhead Initiative on Global History
Richard Zijdeman, IISH / Stirling University
An algorithm allocating
labour relations
to digitized census data
DH 2016
Kraków, July 15, 2016
2.
3. labour relations
Extensive definition of ‘work’
• market
• non-market
• family
• coerced labour
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serf
tributary labourer
slave
indentured labourer
self-employed wage-earner
4. TLR: taxonomy of labour relations 4
total
population
non-working
reciprocal
labour
tributary
labour
commidified
labour
households
polity
market
non-market
institutions
non-working
6. ‘the collab’
a.k.a.
The Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations
6
all continents
ca. 1500-2000
for / with whom
one works
7. Current approach
Is there regional and temporal change?
• regional experts
• period 1500-2000, in ca. 100 year intervals
• mainly macro data (e.g. occupational census tables)
• methodological papers & uniform data entry
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28. Current caveats
• Lack of multiple labour relations (e.g. part time self-
employed, part time wage earner)
• Census registration issues: child/female labour
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29. Methodological conclusions
• Validation of construction of labour relations
• Assessment of 100-year intervals
• Describe and explain shifts over space and time
• Introducing the individual and household level as
unit of analysis
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30. Substantive conclusions
In addition to hypothesized shifts:
• Evidence for ‘structural’ shifts: occupations that
change in nature
• Life cycle shifts in labour relations
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31. Contact
Selected recent literature
rombert.stapel@iisg.nl
richard.zijdeman@iisg.nl
www.historyoflabourrelations.org
• Karin Hofmeester, Jan Lucassen, Leo Lucassen, Rombert Stapel and Richard
Zijdeman, ‘The Global Collaboratory on the History of Labour Relations, 1500-2000:
Background, Set-Up, Taxonomy, and Applications’ (2015;
www.historyoflabourrelations.org)
• Leo Lucassen, ‘Working Together: New Directions In Global Labour History’,
Journal of Global History 11.1 (2016; forthcoming)
• Marcelo Badaró Mattos et al (eds), Relações Laborais em Portugal e no Mundo
Lusófono. Historia e Demografia. Lisbon: Edições Colibri 2014
• Special Issue ‘Labor Relations in Africa’: History of Africa 41 (2014)
31
Tilly & Tilly: “Work includes any human effort adding use value to goods and services. […] Prior to the twentieth century, a vast majority of the world’s workers performed the bulk of their work in other settings than salaried jobs as we know them today. Even today, over the world as a whole, most work takes place outside of regular jobs. Only a prejudice bred by Western capitalism and its industrial labor markets fixes on strenuous effort expended for money payment outside the home as “real work”, relegating other efforts to amusement, crime, and mere housekeeping.”
Basis is total population. Mooie aan schema: gedwongen om hele bevolking op te nemen: expliciet over wie je meeneemt, niet simpel alleen ‘werkende’ bevolking, maar plaats voor allerlei typen van werk en niet-werk.
Nalopen: 5 Kin-non producers; Non-market institutions (e.g. Church, government)
“So how have we tried to answer these questions thus far?”
Voorbeelden uit eigen onderzoek: gebruik van census, maar ook muntvondsten, belastingrecords, etc.
Hoe heeft het project zich ontwikkeld: beginnen met niet-Europa en niet-modern (want meest onbekend). Nu blijkt 2000 en Europa/VS juist blinde vlek.
In the process of setting up a symposium on the history of self-employment (including recent developments)
Labrels + social inequality -> meest voordehand liggende verband zichtbaar bij slavery bijv.
Depending on the year, auxiliary variables can be used to further specify the labour relations
while similar variables are available for all years, it’s not similar enough to just copy it
Design of labour relation extraction
To do: betere blik op child-labour (for comparison reasons now everyone in LR 1 (non-working) below 16yr. Still minor growth of non-working (1+105).
Huge decline of self-employment. Slaves > Wage-earners after abolition.
Slow decline of commodified labour
Decline of male wage labour after 1990.
Decline of female commodified labour 1850 > 1870 (abolition of slavery), then slow growth, rapid after WW II. RISE AND DEMISE OF MALE BREADWINNER SOCIETY. Growth stops after 1990 however!.
To do: test validity of ability of census officers to detect female labour (is everyone in 5 or 105 non-working/soing household tasks only): evaluate likelihood per case using other variables in census records.
Also: child-labour
Explain household: entire household (incl. children, husbands, wives, etc.) where at least one person is a meat cutter.
Shifts in the year preceding to the survey
Vooral dat laatste punt levert een enorme mogelijkheid aan verschillende analyses op.
Structural shifts: e.g. because of institutional changes (law for instance), or ideological changes, changes in type of labour, changes in available work
Uitnodigen om goede case-studies te geven
For comparison.
See clear growth of non-working population (to school instead of child-labour)
In comparison with US: much more wage-labour early on
WIJZEN OP ESTADO NOVO (1933-1974), MINDER FEMALE-WORKERS: ideological. Real or just different methods by census officers?
Lots of productive work by women before Estado Novo.
Similar pattern in last twenty years as in United States (stop of growth of commodified female labour).