The road corvée
The persistence of the use of unpaid labour for road maintenance in nineteenth and twentieth century Estonia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10249466 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tambet Muide (0000-0002-9122-7977, University of Tartu Faculty of Social Sciences, Estonia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 83-103 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Transport History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5266 • E-ISSN: 1759-3999 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00225266231208285 |
| OpenAlex | W4387819180 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
This paper examines the road corvée, a practice of using unpaid labour for road maintenance, in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I focus on the case of Estonia, where the road corvée, originating in the feudal economic system, persisted surprisingly long, being abolished only in 1959. Earlier studies on the road corvée have focused mainly on road construction and have therefore failed to recognise the use of the practice beyond absolutist Europe and colonial Africa. Focusing on maintenance reveals that the corvée was also widespread in twentieth-century Europe. I examine how the road corvée was organised and debated to reveal what inhibited and what accelerated its abolition. The study shows how maintenance practices can be deeply embedded in social and economic structures – like the agricultural system in this case – and ultimately be highly inert and resistant to change
Agriculture · Archaeology · Civil engineering · Colonialism · Economics · Economy · Feudalism · Political science · Politics · Road construction · Engineering · History · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |