Workers' Experiences. Lives, Bodies, Struggles

This virtual exhibition is the product of the Eurasemploi collective research programme, funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency) from 2016 to 2023. This project analyses the changes in employment and the forms of uncertainty at work in periods of rapid economic growth. It takes a comparative approach, examining different places and time periods. France’s 30-year post-war boom and Japan’s high growth era, from the 1950s to the 1970s, are compared to the last four decades in China, where the creation of wealth has accelerated to a degree rarely seen in history. In all three cases, we can observe a transformation of the working-class condition. Perspective is provided in two ways: through historical distance and by examining the other side of the story: forms of precarity in the context of prosperity. This method aims to show the Bibl that have accompanied and, to a large extent, enabled regimes of sustained economic growth. This comparison across time and space is audacious. The social, institutional, political and cultural contexts differ between the three places studied. However, beyond these differences, we believe that comparison allows us to identify patterns.

As we looked at the different countries, our attention was drawn to two industrial sectors: coal mines and textiles. Coal mines were indispensable to the post-war reconstruction of economies and have been at the heart of China’s national construction. They have also been the site of an interaction between the huge risks faced by employees and a near-military regulation of the workforce. This industry faced challenges to its profitability and survival from the 1950s. The second sector is textile production, particularly clothing manufacture, which is both the oldest of the industries and the first that had to face globalised competition.

We conducted both archival research (see Credits) and interviews when it was possible to meet retired workers in France (and Belgium) and in Japan, or current workers in China. In our research, we collected over a hundred documents. These vary in nature: numerical data on income and consumption, employment-related documentation (work contracts, payslips and retirement certificates), and evidence of suffering at work (accidents, surveillance tools), of life difficulties (poverty) and of individual and collective struggles to transform the working-class condition. Some of these documents were produced by employers, others by trade unions, journalists or experts conducting studies, and some were even produced by workers themselves (biographical texts, poems and songs). These documents are texts, tables of figures, images, and audio or video recordings. This online exhibition shows the richness and variety of these documents. To portray individual journeys, we called upon professional actors (see Credits) to perform certain accounts. Our aim is to give visibility to those who are invisible.

The programme was directed by Bernard Thomann and brought together historians and sociologists from several university institutions in France and Belgium (see Team). The virtual exhibition was created under the leadership of Eric Florence and Gilles Guiheux, together with Edouard Sombié (web designer) and Jérôme Foubert (designer). Aside from this online exhibition, the Eurasemploi programme has generated a book and various research articles (see Further Reading) and a play called Petites mains by the theatre company Si et Seulement Si.