Migration, Ethnicity, and Divisions of Labour in the Zonguldak Coalfield, Turkey

Bibliographic Data

ID9968431
AuthorsErol Kahveci (İzmir University of Economics, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume60
IssueS23
Pages207-226
Publication date2015-10-21
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020859015000425
OpenAlexW2339364588
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited15

This article examines labour relations and labour conditions in the Zonguldak coalfield on the Black Sea coast in Turkey. From 1867, peasants from surrounding villages were obliged to work in the mines on a rotational basis. Peasants continued to work part-time in the mines after the end of this forced-labour regime in 1921, and after its reintroduction between 1940 and 1947. The article explores the significance of the recruitment of local villagers for the division of labour in the mines. Underground work was performed by low-skilled rotational peasant-miners, while migrants became skilled, full-time surface workers. Different ethnic origins added to the division of labour between these two groups. Attention is then turned to trade unionism in Zonguldak. The miners’ trade union was controlled by permanent workers, mostly migrants of Laz origin, to the detriment of underground peasant-workers. Ethnographic fieldwork reveals that these divisions have persisted over many years

Archaeology · Division of labour · Economics · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Geography · Labour economics · Peasant · Political science · Sociology · Trade union · Work (physics · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Engineering · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society

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