AtypicalWorkPatterns · Atypical Works in Pre-Industrial Europe. Pluriactivity, Mobility and Social Identities

The aim of this project is to investigate atypical forms of work (professional mobility - moving from a job to another-, temporary works, pluriactivity) in pre-industrial Europe. By using a micro-analytical approach, and focusing on individuals, their biographies and career paths, the project aims at shedding a new light on the preindustrial European labor market, and to identify and describe “atypical” patterns of work.The project has the final goal to demonstrate that work, in present and past societies, was a complex social resource, that individuals manipulated/handled in a framework made of individual and household’s life-cycle, conflicting sets of rules, juridical frameworks, social networks and contexts, flexibility.Beside showing the complexity of work as resource, the aim of this proposal is to identify and describe patterns of atypical work, with a strong micro-analytical approach. to this purpose, the research will be carried out on the following topics: 1. Patterns of pluriactivity and other atypical works; 2. Alternative accesses to the labor markets; 3. The relation between professional and geographical mobility.The research will be entirely carried out on primary sources. The survey will go through a series of case studies which mirror different patterns of atypical work, in France and in Italy. To this purpose, the research will have a strong micro analytical approach, focusing on individuals and making an extensive use of biographical data.The subject of flexibility in the organization of work is a living matter: the project will be an important contribution to understand how individuals of the past societies coped with periods of crisis, unemployment and impoverishment processes, but also how work was used to enhance processes of social mobility. For this reason, the project will be of the greatest importance and utility for the European Community, and it will be a major contribution to EU scientic excellence.