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Introduction: A Global History Written from the ILO

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Globalizing Social Rights

Part of the book series: International Labour Organization (ILO) Century Series ((ILOCS))

Abstract

More than a history of the ILO, this book aims to map out a global history written from the perspective of the ILO, following the trend towards the ‘globalization’ of both the themes and practices1 of history as a discipline, for which the international organizations — and the ILO in particular — are especially fertile fields of study.

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Notes

  1. For an overview see Journal of Global History and the programmatic introduction by P. O’Brien, ‘Historiographical Traditions and Modern Imperatives for the Restoration of Global History’, in Journal of Global History (vol. 1, no. 1, 2006), pp. 3–39. See also the special edition of Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine (vol. 54 bis, no. 5, 2007), Histoire globale, histoire connectée.

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  2. The relationship between past and present is a standard theme, but it has never been so well documented as by M. Bloch, Apologie pour l’histoire ou métier d’historien (Paris: Colin, 1974, first published 1949), pp. 44–47.

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  5. M. Herren, Geschichte der internationalen Organisation (Darmstadt: WBG Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2009). See also the issue of the Journal of Global History (vol. 6, no. 2, 2011) with three articles on the history of international organizations, preceded by an introduction by G. Sluga, ‘The Transnational History of International Institutions’, pp. 219–222. See also the special edition of ‘Une autre approche de la globalisation: socio-histoire des organisations internationales (1900–1940)’, Critique Internationale (vol. 52, 2011).

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  6. M. Barnett and M. Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004).

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  7. The debate on this subject has taken various forms since the late 19th century. One example is G. Myrdal, Beyond the Welfare State (reprint, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960). Myrdal, a Swedish social democrat, led the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe from 1947 to 1957. He called for progress beyond the welfare state, which he felt was too closely focused on the nation.

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  14. See, for example, for the International Labour Office, F. Thébaud, ‘Réseaux réformateurs et politiques de travail féminin: l’OIT au prisme de la carrière et des engagements de M. Thibert’, in Lespinet-Moret and Viet, op. cit. pp. 27–37; on the dominant figures in the Health Organization, see I. Borowy and A. Hardy (eds), Of Medicine and Men: Biographies and Ideals in European Social Medicine between the World Wars (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008); for UNESCO,

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  16. On this approach see E. Adler and P. M. Haas, ‘Conclusion: Epistemic Communities, World Order, and the Creation of a Reflective Research Program’, International Organization (vol. 46, no. 1, 1992), pp. 367–390;

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  18. and a critical approach in S. Kott, ‘Une ‘communauté épistémique’ du social?’, Genèses. Sciences sociales et histoire (vol. 71, no. 2, 2008), pp. 26–46.

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  24. See P-A Rosental, ‘Géopolitique et État providence: le BIT et la politique mondiale des migrations dans l’ entre-deux-guerres’, Annales Histoire Sciences sociales, (vol. 61, no.1, 2006), pp. 99–134;

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  26. On the WEP see the bibliography published in 1978 and regularly reissued: ILO, Publication of Published Research of the World Employment Program (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1978).

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  27. See, for the interwar period, S. Kott, ‘De l’assurance à la sécurité sociale (1919–1944). L’OIT comme acteur international’, at: www.ilo.org/public/english/century/information_resources/download/kott.pdf. On the 1952 Convention see C. Guinand, Die internationale Arbeitsorganisation (ILO) und die soziale Sicherheit in Europa (1942–1969) (Bern, New York: Lang, 2003) and for the period of the 1980s, Matthieu Leimgruber, Chapter 17 in this volume.

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  30. For Germany see S. Kott, ‘Dynamiques de l’internationalisation. L’Allemagne et l’Organisation internationale du travail (1919–1944)’, Critique Internationale (vol. 52, July, 2011) pp. 69–84.

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  31. See also S. Zimmermann: ‘“Special Circumstances in Geneva”: The ILO and the World of Non-Metropolitan Labour in the Interwar Period’, in J. Van Daele et al. (eds), ILO Histories: Essays on the International Labour Organization and its Impact on the World during the Twentieth Century (Bern, New York: Peter Lang, 2010), pp. 221–250.

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  33. On the international networks, D. Rodogno, B. Struck and J. Vogel (eds), Shaping the Transnational Sphere (New York: Berghahn Books, 2012 forthcoming).

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  34. A. E. Alcock, History of the International Labour Organization (London: Macmillan, 1971), pp. 290–311,

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  35. and V. Y. Ghebali, L’organisation internationale du travail (Geneva: Georg, 1989), pp. 164–175.

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  36. On this point see the very perceptive comments by E. B. Haas: Beyond the Nation-state (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964), particularly Chapter 7.

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  37. R. Tosstorff: ‘The International Trade-Union Movement and the Founding of the International Labour Organization’, International Review of Social History (vol. 50, no. 3, 2005), pp. 399–433.

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  38. See D. Kévonian, Réfugiés et diplomatie humanitaire: les acteurs européens et la scène proche-orientale pendant l’entre-deux-guerres (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004) on the question of the links between the International Labour Office and humanitarian organizations helping refugees.

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  39. See also C. Guinand, ‘The Creation of the ISSA and the ILO’, International Social Security Review (vol. 61, no. 1, 2008), pp. 81–98.

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  40. On this conversion and how other countries’ experiences of expanding the welfare state acted as a foil here, see also J. Bell, ‘Social Politics in a Transoceanic World in the Early Cold War Years’, The Historical Journal (vol. 53, no 2, 2010), pp. 401–421.

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  41. See on this subject the areas of research suggested by the special edition ‘Modernizing Missions: Approaches to “Developing” the Non-Western World after 1945’, Journal of Modern European History (vol. 8, no. 20, 2010), and particularly the introduction by F. Cooper: ‘Writing the History of Development’, pp. 5–21. See also the first book in this Series, by Daniel Maul, Human Rights, Development and Decolonization. The International Labour Organization, 1940–1970 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

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  42. In this respect see the lucid article by K. Pribram, ‘The ILO: Present Functions and Future Tasks’, Foreign Affairs; an American Quarterly Review (vol. 21, No. 1/4, 1942/1943), pp. 158–167.

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Authors
  1. Sandrine Kott
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  2. Joëlle Droux
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Geneva, Switzerland

    Sandrine Kott (Professor of European Contemporary History) & Joëlle Droux (Senior Lecturer in History of Education) (Professor of European Contemporary History) &  (Senior Lecturer in History of Education)

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© 2013 The International Labour Organization

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Kott, S., Droux, J. (2013). Introduction: A Global History Written from the ILO. In: Kott, S., Droux, J. (eds) Globalizing Social Rights. International Labour Organization (ILO) Century Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291967_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291967_1

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-34475-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29196-7

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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