Where have all the Workers Gone? Labour and Work in Ghana, 1951-2010

该项目首次系统地结合了对非洲后殖民时代的经济和社会历史观点；这一时期的劳工史迄今缺乏长期研究。以加纳为例，它尝试了一种独特的混合方法，将定性和定量资料的系统利用结合起来，处理最近在劳工和经济史上的辩论，并将一系列地方研究与国家概览结合起来。该项目解决了历史和史学中两个部分相互冲突的趋势。其一是倾向于“超越工资劳动”来分析工作，并越来越多地关注“非正式”和“不稳定”的劳动。这与一种对旧假设的批评相吻合，即非洲将通过变得“无产阶级”、以雇佣劳动为主要形式来复制欧洲的模式。相反，这种观点认为，后殖民时代非洲固定工资工人的数量并没有像预期的那样增长，而增长的是被称为习惯性劳动、非正式劳动或不稳定劳动的各种类别。第二个趋势包括发现工资劳动的发生率被严重低估，特别是在整个非洲大陆的农村地区。这一综合观察结果是深入研究非洲非殖民化和独立的劳动趋势的起点。加纳是一个恰如其分的案例研究，因为它有大量殖民时代的劳工史学，而且可能是后殖民时代的优秀原始材料。“非正规部门”一词是在加纳创造的，加纳是非洲自独立以来早期和最近时期在经济增长率和劳资关系方面形成更广泛对比的缩影。该项目将制定一份国家概况，但将重点放在三个地区--阿克拉、可可种植区和北部稀树草原地区--被选为代表劳动经验的不同方面。研究问题包括劳动力规模和构成的变化、职业和就业形式结构的变化、劳动力的实际收入、劳动力市场一体化、非正规工作和创业的结构、移民流动和区域不平等，以及贫穷、不稳定和工作之间的关系。所有这些问题都带有强烈的性别色彩。资料来源包括访谈、官方和非官方档案、调查、人口普查、报纸和法庭记录。德国和英国私人投资促进机构之间的合作提供了综合的专门知识，构成该项目设想的综合办法不可或缺的基础。特别强调加纳学者的参与。受雇于加纳大学的两名经验丰富的学者将担任顾问，提供专家建议和个别章节。此外，来自加纳的初学者和资深学者将参加讲习班和其他与项目有关的活动。

This project for the first time systematically combines economic and social history perspectives on the post-colonial era in Africa; a period of labour history so far lacking long-term studies. Taking the example of Ghana, it tries out a distinctive blend of approaches, combining the systematic use of both qualitative and quantitative sources, addressing recent debates both in labour and economic history, and combining a range of local studies with a national overview. The project addresses two partly conflicting trends in history and historiography. One is the tendency to analyse work “beyond wage labour” and focus increasingly on “informal” and “precarious” labour. This matches a critique of older assumptions that Africa would reproduce European patterns by becoming “proletarianized”, with wage labour as the dominant form. Instead, the argument goes, the number of regular wage workers in postcolonial Africa did not grow as expected, while it was the category variously known as customary, informal or precarious labour that grew. The second trend includes the finding that the incidence of wage labour especially in rural areas across the continent has been seriously underestimated.This combination of observations is the starting point for an in-depth study of labour trends in decolonizing and independent Africa. Ghana makes an apt case study, because there is substantial labour historiography for the colonial era, and potentially excellent primary material for the post-colonial. It was in Ghana that the term “informal sector” was coined, and Ghana epitomises a broader African contrast in economic growth rates and labour relations between the earlier and more recent periods since independence. The project will develop a national overview but focus in detail on three areas – Accra, a cocoa-growing region, and a northern savanna region – selected to represent different aspects of the experience of labour. Research questions include the changing size and composition of the workforce, the changing structure of forms of occupations and employment, the real earnings of labour, labour market integration, the structure of informal work and entrepreneurship, migrant flows and regional inequality, and the relation between poverty, precariousness and work. All these issues are strongly gendered. Sources include interviews, official and unofficial archives, surveys, censuses, newspapers and court records.The cooperation between the German and British PIs offers combined expertise that forms the indispensable basis for the comprehensive approach envisaged in this project. Special emphasis is put on the participation of Ghanaian scholars. Two experienced scholars employed at Ghanaian universities will be involved as consultants, contributing expert advice as well as individual chapters. Moreover, early-career as well as senior scholars from Ghana will take part in workshops and other project-related activities.