History of Labour Intermediation: Institutions and Finding Employment in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (International Studies in Social History, Band 26)

"[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


Searching for a job has been an everyday affair in both modern and past societies, and employment a concern for both individuals and institutions. The case studies in this volume investigate job search and placement practices in European countries, Australia, and India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors explore how looking for work becomes a means by which participants (individuals, placement agents, trade unions, municipalities, administrations, state authorities, and schools) articulated specific interests, perspectives, and agendas. Taking an exploratory approach, the chapters illustrate different approaches to the history of employment and job searching, ranging from organizational and regulatory histories to the analysis of practices and autobiographical accounts. In the process, they uncover the interrelations of search practices and attempts to arrange placement services.


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.


Thomas Buchner is a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, ERC-project "The Production of Work."
Alexander Mejstrik is a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of Vienna, ERC-project "The Production of Work."