All households analyzed in this collection represent labour regimes which are based on an asymmetrically dependent workforce consisting of servants, peasants, enslaved and other coerced labourers. A coercive labour regime would then be a labour regime in which compulsion and asymmetrical dependencies play a crucial role. Various forms of such labour regimes have existed throughout human history in all parts of the globe. The authors of this volume focus on coercive labour regimes through the lens of the household. We inquire into the various forms, functions, developments, justifications and changes of the different types of coerced labour we can identify in these households. This is emphatically not to say that households are always and necessarily coercive institutions. Particularly but not exclusively family households are also affective frameworks that provide essential moral sustenance and a sense of belonging. It is precisely because of these powerful emotional frameworks that households can emerge as potent instruments of coercion. Intrinsic motivation is involved in many household tasks, which unfortunately also increases susceptibility for coercion.
