Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation

Direction: Frank Bösch/ZZF, Winfried Süß/ZZF (speaker), Stefan Berger/ISB Bochum, und Andreas Wirsching/IfZ München-Berlin
Duration: November 2021 - October 2024 (second funding phase of the Kolleg).

In the second half of the 20th century, the work underwent fundamental changes due to technological and economic change. Especially the digitalization and automation of production, globalization as well as the expansion of the service sector contributed to this. The ZZF is investigating this upheaval in a doctoral program together with the Institute for Social Movements Bochum and the Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. It asks what social consequences this change in work had for workers. The doctoral projects examine primarily at the meso and micro levels practices of the world of work, social situations and patterns of inequality, and the role of trade unions.
The second phase of the doctoral program focuses on "Social Polarizations in Service Occupations" along lines drawn by knowledge, migration, and gender. The four dissertation projects of Lukas Doil, Till Goßmann, Jessica Hall, and Christina Häberle are located at the ZZF Potsdam in Dept. IV "Regimes of the Social."

Jessica Lindner-Elsner and Katharina Täufert are working on two on the four projects at the ZZF in the first funding phase of the Kolleg (duration: December 2016 - October 2020). Ronny Grundig and Stefan Zeppenfeld have already completed their projects.

The website of the project can be found under this link: http://wandel-der-arbeit.de/

Forschung

Projekte

Hot on the heels of the world. An international history of the West German shoe industry from 1970 to 2000

Christina Häberle

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This project follows the footsteps of the German shoe industry abroad, tells the story of the companies and their employees.

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt speaks at the central rally of the DGB on May 1, 1973 in Munich. Photo: Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F039611-0005 / Storz / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Jobs for everyone? The role of the German Trade Union Confederation in the conflicts about unemployment and poverty, 1972-1998

Katharina Thießen

Associated PhD project

Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Using the example of the umbrella organization DGB union efforts and interests in dealing with the unemployment problem are analyzed. Why the DGB insisted on its demands and only hesitantly adapted to the changed circumstances and living conditions is determined in the project on the basis of four fields of investigation: g social inequalities.

"Flexible" and "precarious". Labour and time relations in temporary work in Germany

Lukas Doil

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This doctoral project examines the transformation of work and temporal regimes in temporary employment since the 1970s. It focuses on the micro- and meso-levels of work and the lifeworld, social conflicts and distinctions, and the media and academic observation of this development and its reciprocal effects.

Turkish guest workers in the Naunynstraße (Berlin-Kreuzberg, July 1974), Photo: Foto: Landesarchiv Berlin/Horst Siegmann, F Rep 290 (05) Nr. 0172854

Employment after ‘guest work’. Turkish worlds of work in West Berlin since the 1970s

Stefan Zeppenfeld
Completed PhD project

The termination of recruitment contracts for ‘guest workers’ in November 1973 was a political action of the West German government designed to alleviate the expected impact of their extension on the Federal Republic’s economy. However, numerous ‘guest workers’ settled down permanently in Germany. Especially people from Turkey and their commercial activities enrich the appearance of German cities to this very day.

Ansicht eines Einkaufszentrums des volkseigenen Einzelhandels „HO“ im Juni 1990 in Brandenburg. Die Reklame an den Schaufenstern wirbt bereits für westliche Produkte, Juni 1990, vermutlich Falkensee. Urheberin: Viola Kaffke, CC BY-NC-ND, www.wir-waren-so-frei.de

Die sozialen Folgen des Wandels im Einzelhandel in Ostdeutschland in den 1990er Jahren

Till Goßmann

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Das Projekt untersucht die sozialen Folgen der arbeitsweltlichen Veränderungen im ostdeutschen Einzelhandel im ersten Jahrzehnt nach der deutschen Einheit. Dabei nimmt die Studie das Aufkommen neuer sozialer Ungleichheiten unter dem Fokus auf die Dimensionen von „Geschlecht“ und „Wissen“ in den Blick. Im Sinne einer „Ko-Transformation“ fragt das Vorhaben des Weiteren nach den Rückwirkungen dieser Prozesse auf den westdeutschen Handel.

 

Mozambican workers at the Eisenach automobile plant in August 1990. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0808-006 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0808-006, Eisenach, Automobilwerk, mocambikanische Arbeiter, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Working Conditions, Gender and Social Disparity in the Automotive Engineering Industry of the GDR
Automobil-Werk-Eisenach (AWE) since the 1970s

Jessica Lindner-Elsner
Completed PhD project

Funded by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

This PhD project focused on social disparity and its origins and changes since the 1970s in connection with changes in the working world in the GDR. Disparity developed in the GDR for other reasons and in a different form than in the Federal Republic and manifested itself in other contexts, for example in companies.

Eine deutsch-deutsche Sozialgeschichte von Eisenbahner*innen im Zeichen von Wiedervereinigung und Privatisierung

Jessica Hall

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage: Welche sozialen Folgen hatten Wiedervereinigung und Privatisierung der deutsch-deutschen Eisenbahnen für die Arbeits- und Lebensverhältnisse von Eisenbahner*innen? Dies im Kontext globaler Veränderungen von Logistikstrukturen durch die zunehmende internationale Arbeitsteilung und den Aufbau „schlanker“ Produktionsketten mit erhöhtem Bedarf an Transportlogistik.

Picture credits: The infographic was first published in "leibniz", the magazine of the Leibniz Association.

From Meritocracy to Heritocracy? Inheritance Policies and Practices and their Effect on Social Inequality in West Germany and Great Britain (1949–1990)

Ronny Grundig
Completed PhD project

The transmission of wealth via inheritance is an important social mechanism, which contributes to the stability of our social and economic structure. At the same time, it also transfers structures of social inequality from the past to the future – and maybe even intensifies them.

Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation

Direction: Frank Bösch/ZZF, Winfried Süß/ZZF (speaker), Stefan Berger/ISB Bochum, und Andreas Wirsching/IfZ München-Berlin
Duration: November 2021 - October 2024 (second funding phase of the Kolleg).

In the second half of the 20th century, the work underwent fundamental changes due to technological and economic change. Especially the digitalization and automation of production, globalization as well as the expansion of the service sector contributed to this. The ZZF is investigating this upheaval in a doctoral program together with the Institute for Social Movements Bochum and the Institute of Contemporary History Munich-Berlin. It asks what social consequences this change in work had for workers. The doctoral projects examine primarily at the meso and micro levels practices of the world of work, social situations and patterns of inequality, and the role of trade unions.
The second phase of the doctoral program focuses on "Social Polarizations in Service Occupations" along lines drawn by knowledge, migration, and gender. The four dissertation projects of Lukas Doil, Till Goßmann, Jessica Hall, and Christina Häberle are located at the ZZF Potsdam in Dept. IV "Regimes of the Social."

Jessica Lindner-Elsner and Katharina Täufert are working on two on the four projects at the ZZF in the first funding phase of the Kolleg (duration: December 2016 - October 2020). Ronny Grundig and Stefan Zeppenfeld have already completed their projects.

The website of the project can be found under this link: http://wandel-der-arbeit.de/

Forschung

Projekte

Hot on the heels of the world. An international history of the West German shoe industry from 1970 to 2000

Christina Häberle

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This project follows the footsteps of the German shoe industry abroad, tells the story of the companies and their employees.

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt speaks at the central rally of the DGB on May 1, 1973 in Munich. Photo: Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F039611-0005 / Storz / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Jobs for everyone? The role of the German Trade Union Confederation in the conflicts about unemployment and poverty, 1972-1998

Katharina Thießen

Associated PhD project

Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Using the example of the umbrella organization DGB union efforts and interests in dealing with the unemployment problem are analyzed. Why the DGB insisted on its demands and only hesitantly adapted to the changed circumstances and living conditions is determined in the project on the basis of four fields of investigation: g social inequalities.

"Flexible" and "precarious". Labour and time relations in temporary work in Germany

Lukas Doil

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This doctoral project examines the transformation of work and temporal regimes in temporary employment since the 1970s. It focuses on the micro- and meso-levels of work and the lifeworld, social conflicts and distinctions, and the media and academic observation of this development and its reciprocal effects.

Turkish guest workers in the Naunynstraße (Berlin-Kreuzberg, July 1974), Photo: Foto: Landesarchiv Berlin/Horst Siegmann, F Rep 290 (05) Nr. 0172854

Employment after ‘guest work’. Turkish worlds of work in West Berlin since the 1970s

Stefan Zeppenfeld
Completed PhD project

The termination of recruitment contracts for ‘guest workers’ in November 1973 was a political action of the West German government designed to alleviate the expected impact of their extension on the Federal Republic’s economy. However, numerous ‘guest workers’ settled down permanently in Germany. Especially people from Turkey and their commercial activities enrich the appearance of German cities to this very day.

Ansicht eines Einkaufszentrums des volkseigenen Einzelhandels „HO“ im Juni 1990 in Brandenburg. Die Reklame an den Schaufenstern wirbt bereits für westliche Produkte, Juni 1990, vermutlich Falkensee. Urheberin: Viola Kaffke, CC BY-NC-ND, www.wir-waren-so-frei.de

Die sozialen Folgen des Wandels im Einzelhandel in Ostdeutschland in den 1990er Jahren

Till Goßmann

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Das Projekt untersucht die sozialen Folgen der arbeitsweltlichen Veränderungen im ostdeutschen Einzelhandel im ersten Jahrzehnt nach der deutschen Einheit. Dabei nimmt die Studie das Aufkommen neuer sozialer Ungleichheiten unter dem Fokus auf die Dimensionen von „Geschlecht“ und „Wissen“ in den Blick. Im Sinne einer „Ko-Transformation“ fragt das Vorhaben des Weiteren nach den Rückwirkungen dieser Prozesse auf den westdeutschen Handel.

 

Mozambican workers at the Eisenach automobile plant in August 1990. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0808-006 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0808-006, Eisenach, Automobilwerk, mocambikanische Arbeiter, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

Working Conditions, Gender and Social Disparity in the Automotive Engineering Industry of the GDR
Automobil-Werk-Eisenach (AWE) since the 1970s

Jessica Lindner-Elsner
Completed PhD project

Funded by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung

This PhD project focused on social disparity and its origins and changes since the 1970s in connection with changes in the working world in the GDR. Disparity developed in the GDR for other reasons and in a different form than in the Federal Republic and manifested itself in other contexts, for example in companies.

Eine deutsch-deutsche Sozialgeschichte von Eisenbahner*innen im Zeichen von Wiedervereinigung und Privatisierung

Jessica Hall

Associated PhD project
Project of the Postgraduate Research Group of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Social Consequences of the Transformation of the World of Work in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage: Welche sozialen Folgen hatten Wiedervereinigung und Privatisierung der deutsch-deutschen Eisenbahnen für die Arbeits- und Lebensverhältnisse von Eisenbahner*innen? Dies im Kontext globaler Veränderungen von Logistikstrukturen durch die zunehmende internationale Arbeitsteilung und den Aufbau „schlanker“ Produktionsketten mit erhöhtem Bedarf an Transportlogistik.

Picture credits: The infographic was first published in "leibniz", the magazine of the Leibniz Association.

From Meritocracy to Heritocracy? Inheritance Policies and Practices and their Effect on Social Inequality in West Germany and Great Britain (1949–1990)

Ronny Grundig
Completed PhD project

The transmission of wealth via inheritance is an important social mechanism, which contributes to the stability of our social and economic structure. At the same time, it also transfers structures of social inequality from the past to the future – and maybe even intensifies them.