The Forgotten Legacy of Guild Socialism: Toward a Transnational History of Industrial and Economic Democracy (GuiSoc)

• Applicant: Dr. Philipp Reick
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 580381908

GuiSoc investigates the history of guild socialism, which has been largely neglected in historical research. In the first third of the twentieth century, this term encompassed a range of ideas for the democratization of work and the wider economy. Guild Socialists no longer regarded the core demand of European social democracy, namely the gradual transfer of industries from private into public ownership, as a guarantee for comprehensive democratization. According to guild socialist theory, this required completely new institutions, which would be tasked with enforcing democracy in industry and the economy by striking a balance between, on the one side, the legitimate interest of producers in having a say about the organization of their immediate work realities, and, on the other side, the equally legitimate interest of consumers in affordable and widely available products. While originating in Great Britain, these ideas began to travel abroad in the mid to late-1910s. By the end of the First World War, guild socialism had thus become a truly European phenomenon. GuiSoc explores this largely forgotten movement of ideas. The project has three objectives. First, GuiSoc aims to free the study of guild socialism from its previous fixation on Great Britain, exploring instead how guild socialist ideas were received by socialist and trade union movements in other European countries. Second, GuiSoc aims to examine guild socialism as an early contribution to a theory of economic democracy that did not understand democratic participation primarily as a way to increase productivity and social justice but as an essential component of a comprehensive ethical-educational program, through which workers would learn to appreciate and take part in democratic decision-making processes, which, especially in view of widespread anti-democratic attacks, was intended to contribute to the strengthening of democratic rule more generally. Against this backdrop, GuiSoc, third, reassesses the role that guild socialism played in the history of international socialism in the twentieth century. The goals of the project are reflected in its methodological approach. As a transnationally oriented research project, GuiSoc does not carry out individual case studies or comparative analysis, but systematically investigates cross-border debates and transfers of ideas. In order to enable time-efficient analysis of a wealth of relevant sources, GuiSoc focuses on the period from the early 1910s to the end of the 1920s in four countries that can be considered representative of the socialist world of ideas in early-twentieth-century (Western) Europe, namely Austria, Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants