Head of the Academic Platform: PhDr. Radka Kopeček Šustrová, Ph.D.
The research platform brings together labour history and intersectional research on social inequalities. It focuses on the systematic study of multiple dimensions of intersectionality, with particular emphasis on gender alongside class, ethnicity and migration, religion, and other factors, and their relationship to historical experiences of work and to transformations in social protection.
The main aim of the platform is to analyse how different forms of inequality and solidarity, including their gendered dimensions, have been reflected, shaped, and intertwined within labour relations and welfare policies. The platform develops an international comparative perspective that links local and national case studies with broader European and global contexts, while fostering interdisciplinary dialogue.
The temporal scope of the platform emphasises the analysis of continuities and discontinuities from the 19th to the 21st century.
Thematic Areas
Global contexts and transnational comparisons – develops comparative and transnational approaches to the study of labour and inequalities. It traces the movement of people, ideas, institutions, and models of labour regulation across borders, and examines the connections between local and national cases and broader European and global processes.
Labour history from an intersectional perspective – examines historical experiences of work through the lens of intersecting gendered, class-based, ethnic, migratory, religious, and other social inequalities, with particular attention to the sexual division of labour. It explores how various groups of actors experienced labour regimes, hierarchies, and conflicts across diverse political, economic, and cultural contexts.
Inequalities and the social protection – analyses the relationship between work, social inequalities, and welfare-state policies. It examines historical forms of welfare provision, their inclusive and exclusive logics, and their effects on various stakeholders.
Solidarity, collective action, and social movements – focuses on forms of solidarity and collective action in the sphere of labour, including trade unions, professional organisations, informal networks, and everyday practices of cooperation and resistance. Particular attention is paid to the tensions between solidarity and exclusion, and to how collective identities have been historically constructed and contested.
Members: