International Conference of Labor and Social History
The International Conference of Labor and Social History ("International Conference of Historians of the Labor Movement;" ITH for short) is an Austrian association that holds its international conferences in Linz .
The ITH held its first conference from September 7th to 9th, 1964 in Vienna in the Porrhaus as the international conference of the historians of the labor movement . Rudolf Neck chaired the meeting . The ITH originally functioned as a platform for dialogue between the “western” and “eastern” historians of the labor movement. In 1965 the association of the same name was founded in Linz.
The ITH is geared towards global and transnational access. Since the end of the bipolar world system , the bridging function that the ITH has historically exercised between the workers' historiographies in “East” and “West” has been obsolete. The ITH has redefined itself as a forum for international academic exchange in the field of workers' history as part of social history. She favors global access to this history and transnational research subjects. Following the tradition of cooperation with organizations of the labor movement (such as the Chamber of Labor in Austria), it attaches great importance to the mediation of research outside the academic research community itself.
The main activities of the ITH are the planning and implementation of the annual Linz conferences and the publication of the conference results in an anthology. Conference languages are German, English and French. The Linz Conferences are events for the member institutes. The ITH also organizes scientific events between the Linz conferences in cooperation with other institutes. In addition to the conference activities, the ITH acts as a worldwide network in the field of the history of work and social movements.
The ITH supports research by awarding the René Kuczynski Prize for outstanding work in the field of social and economic history and (in cooperation with the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance ) the Herbert Steiner Prize for the promotion of scientists in the areas of Nazi persecution , Anti-Fascist Resistance, Exile and History of the Labor Movement.
The members are research institutions and institutes with a focus on workers' history and the history of social movements.
The board consists of the president, the general secretary, the treasurer and his deputy as well as the board of trustees. Eric Hobsbawm was also a member of the international scientific advisory board and honorary committee until his death .
literature
- Herbert Steiner : International conference of the historians of the labor movement . In: Politics and Society in Old and New Austria. Festschrift for Rudolf Neck for his 60th birthday . Volume II. Publishing house for history and politics. Vienna 1981. ISBN 3702801898 , pp. 351–358.
- Günter Benser : 50 years of ITH - from the perspective of a companion , in: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Issue II / 2014.