Forced labour as a shifting global category: classification, comparison and meanings of work in the International Labour Organization (ILO), 1919 – 2017.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Marianne Braig, since 10/2021
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 413607635

This proposal explores shifting global meanings of forced labour with an approach of sociology of knowledge. We use the International Labour Organization (ILO) as empirical object to analyse these shifts, since it has been concerned with forced labour as an international organization since 1919 and since then it has drastically shaped the discourse on this topic. While during the 1920s forced labour was described by the ILO as a colonial phenomenon, today it is considered as a problem of the world labour market and it is placed in the context of global social inequalities. In the „Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights of Work“ (1998), the ILO declared the elimination of forced labour as a basic right of work. For the first time, the ILO pursues the goal to politically combat forced labour, which stresses a re- orientation. At the same time, the ILO expanded its means of observation to the quantification of forced labour, its statistical categorization, global estimate and measurement through indicators. We ask which continuities and ruptures in the meanings of forced labour can be observed in both configurations.Up to now, this connection has not been addressed by sociological studies. Our specific contribution with this project is to investigate the continuities and ruptures in the meanings of forced labour from a perspective of sociology of knowledge. These are crystallized and objectified in potentially global orders of knowledge. Following new research strands in global historical sociology, we aim at exploring on the basis of two qualitative case studies first the historicity of forced labour as a category in the imperial context and second its current global situation.We assume that the classification and reclassification processes of forced labour between 1919 and 2017 are embedded in different societal configurations. During this period, the category of forced labour has experienced a metamorphosis from a particular extra-European toward a global problem. This shift in the field of reference – following our hypothesis – allows opening the area of employment for forced labour, from which it has been excluded for decades.In order to explore this configuration from a perspective of sociology of knowledge, we suggest an approach based on theories of comparison. This enables us to analyse the classification of forced labour as historical and contingent way of ordering and differentiation between similarity and difference, but also to understand how forced labour can be compared with regard to indicators and measurement.With this proposal we suggest exploring a significant and contested phenomenon within the current world of work, which up to now did not receive recognition as a sociological topic of research, neither in the sociology of work and inequality, nor in the sociology of globalization.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Mexico, Netherlands, Switzerland
• Cooperation Partners: Professorin Silvia Giorguli; Dr. Olivier Giraud; Professor Dr. Marcel van der Linden; Yann Stricker; Privatdozentin Dr. Nikola Tietze
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Professorin Dr. Theresa Wobbe, until 10/2021