070124 PS Proseminar - Free and Bounded Labour in the Middle Ages and the Modern Period (2019S)

The evolutionary view of a world-historical development from unfree to free forms of labour relationships (from “feudalism” to “capitalism”, from “status” to “contract”) has been fundamentally challenged by recent historical scholarship. New interpretations now stress that wage labour was until the second half of the 19th century not solely based on a freely negotiated contract between sellers and buyers of labour power, but involved many elements of servitude. In a global historical perspective the simultaneity and interconnectedness of forms of free and unfree labour relations are debated. From this viewpoint, the early development of capitalism is no longer seen as identical with the establishment of free wage labour, but based on the interaction of different modes of production based on more or less unfree forms of labour. The subject therefore provides opportunities to investigate, compare and relate different forms of labour relationships within wide historical and spatial dimensions.
The seminar will be held in weekly sessions. After a general introduction, we will read and discuss exemplary sources, provided by the teacher, in each session. Each participant has – individually or in a group – to present and interpret one of these source texts based on the preliminary reading of pertinent literature. A seminar paper (10-15 pages manus.) that interprets and contextualizes the source texts has to be handed in until the end of the semester.