History of Labour Intermediation

Sigrid Wadauer is currently Fellow at the International Research Center Work and Lifecycle in Global History at the Humboldt University Berlin. She is principal investigator of the START- and ERC Starting Grant-Project “The Production of Work” at the University in Vienna.

“The editors should be applauded for going some way towards re-orienting historical research from the well-established focus on nascent systems of public labour intermediation to show the continuous persistence of older forms of labour recruitment and social classification as well as the precarious economic and bureaucratic conditions upon which public offices operated.” • H-Soz-Kult“This collection has the great merit of having chosen an interesting and socio-politically topical theme which, up to now, has been paid little attention by historians… No doubt, it represents a first insightful step towards a phenomenon still to be researched more extensively.” • Sehepunkte“[This book] offers a valuable overview of the histories of job mediation in Europe from the late 19th century onwards. It shows different trajectories that are predicated upon different types of state interference or abstinence from economic life, national trajectories of labour movements, and the trajectories of organisation of labour placement over time. For anyone who wants to get a proper understanding of the working of labour markets in modern Europe this work is a potential ‘must read.’” • Ulbe Bosma, International Institute of Social History“…the book provides insight into job-search and job-placement institutions and practices….The entire enterprise is predicated on providing, for the very first time, a transnational view of job-placement issues, with a focus on the turn of the 19th century. Another point of interest is combining the study of institutions and individuals. This multi-level approach is quite an original and promising one…” • Bénédicte Zimmermann, EHESS

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Finding Work and Organizing Placement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth CenturiesSigrid Wadauer, Thomas Buchner, Alexander MejstrikChapter 1. Organizing the Market? Labour Offices and Labour Markets in Germany, 1890-1933Thomas BuchnerChapter 2. Between Labour Market Constituencies: The Struggles to Establish Vocational Counselling in Weimar GermanyDavid MeskillChapter 3. Organizing Labour Markets: the British ExperienceNoel WhitesideChapter 4. Creating a National Labour Market: Public Labour Exchanges in Sweden, 1890-1920Nils EdlingChapter 5. Mediation, Allocation, Control: Trade Unions and the Changing Faces of Labour Market Intermediation in Western Europe in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth CenturiesAd KnotterChapter 6. Labour Intermediation, Uncertain Employment and the Bourses du Travail in Late Nineteenth Century FranceMalcolm MansfieldChapter 7. Transforming Soldiers into Workers. The Austrian Employment Agency for Disabled Veterans During the First World WarVerena Pawlowsky, Harald WendelinChapter 8. The Usage of Public Labour Offices by Job Seekers in Interwar AustriaIrina VanaChapter 9. A Vocation in the Family Household? Household Integration, Professionalization and Changes of Positions in Domestic Service (Austria, 1918-1938)Jessica RichterChapter 10. Tramping in Search of Work. Practices of Wayfarers and of Authorities (Austria, 1880–1938)Sigrid WadauerChapter 11. Labour Mediation Among Seasonal Workers, Particularly the Lippe Brickmakers, 1650-1900Piet Lourens, Jan LucassenChapter 12. Sardars, Kanganies and Maistries: Intermediaries in the Indian Labour Diaspora During the Colonial PeriodAmit Kumar MishraChapter 13. ‘Organizing the Labour Market’ in a Liberal Welfare State: The Origins of the Public Employment Service in AustraliaAnthony O’DonnellConcluding RemarksSigrid Wadauer, Thomas Buchner, Alexander MejstrikNotes on ContributorsIndex