Introduction

Comparative analyses of labour often assume a dividing line between free and forced labour which is universally applicable. The contributions to this special theme argue that the tensions between “freedom” and “unfreedom” may be identified more precisely as those between multiple notions and practices of contract, status, and social conditions. Free and unfree labour on the one hand, status and contract on the other, are historically determined categories. This introduction argues that those histories do not run in parallel but are strictly intersected. From that point of view, social and economic inequalities are mutually linked to legal entitlements; a modification in legal entitlements strongly influences the economic and social equilibrium, and vice versa. Underlying this conclusion is a perspective that is resolutely non-Eurocentric and global. We do not endeavour to find the “missing” freedom of contract in the “periphery”, nor do we consider the “cultural” and economic domination of “the West” as a starting point. We stress instead the mutual connection between “peripheries” and “core” categories and practices. Such a bilateral circulation of ideas and practices contrasts with the argument according to which “the West” invented “freedom” and coercion as well

Argument (complex analysis · Coercion (linguistics · Economics · Employment contract · Inequality · Law and economics · Perspective (graphical · Point (geometry · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Positive economics · Social contract · Sociology · Theme (computing · Work (physics · International Labor and Employment Law · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender

• The Politics of Ambiguity

  Open Access•Sidney Chalhoub•International Review of Social…•2015

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• Free and Unfree Labor in Atlantic and Indian Ocean Port Cities (Seventeenth-Nineteenth Centuries)

  Open Access•Peter Brandon, Pepijn Brandon et al.•International Review of Social…•2019

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• Presentation

  Open Access•Raquel Gil Montero, Consejo Nacional De Investigaciones Científicas Y Técnicas…•Población & Sociedad•2020

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• Labour relations and the persistence of servitude in Seventeenth-Century Charcas (present-day Bolivia)

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• Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1680

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• Beyond Slavery

  Frederick Cooper, Rebecca J Scott et al.•Beyond Slavery•2000

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• White servitude in colonial America

  David W Galenson•White servitude in colonial America•1981

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• Capitalism and Antislavery

  Seymour Drescher•Capitalism and Antislavery•1986

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• Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century

  Open Access•Robert J Steinfeld•Coercion, Contract, and Free…•2001

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• The overthrow of colonial slavery, 1776-1848

  Robin Blackburn•The overthrow of colonial…•1988

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• The Ideology of slavery in Africa

  Paul E Lovejoy•The Ideology of slavery in Africa•1981

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• A New System of Slavery

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• The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution 1770-1823

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• Colonialism and Migration; Indentured Labour Before and After Slavery

  Open Access•P C Emmer•Colonialism and Migration;…•1986

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• L'Esclavage en Afrique precoloniale

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• The Origins of Colonial Labour Policy in Late Eighteenth-Century Madras

  Open Access•Ravi Ahuja•International Review of Social…•1999

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• Codification and the Rule of Colonial Difference

  Open Access•Elizabeth Kolsky•Law and History Review•2005

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• Transformations in Slavery

  Open Access•P E Lovejoy, Lidwien Kapteijns•Transformations in Slavery•2011

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• L'Afrique Noire de 1800 a nos Jours

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• Utilitarianism and the Criminal Law in Colonial India

  Open Access•Kartik Kalyan Raman•Modern Asian Studies•1994

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• Economic Change in Pre-Colonial Africa

  John D Hargreaves, Philip D Curtin•The International Journal of…•1975

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