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

该项目首次系统地结合了非洲后殖民时代的经济和社会历史观点;这是迄今为止缺乏长期研究的劳工历史时期。以加纳为例，它尝试了一种独特的混合方法，结合定性和定量来源的系统使用，解决最近在劳动力和经济历史方面的辩论，并将一系列地方研究与国家概览相结合。该项目解决了历史和史学中两个部分冲突的趋势。一种趋势是分析“工资劳动以外”的工作，越来越多地侧重于“非正规”和“不稳定”劳动。这与对旧假设的批评相吻合，即非洲将通过“无产阶级化”来复制欧洲模式，以雇佣劳动为主导形式。相反，这种观点认为，在后殖民时代的非洲，正规工资劳动者的数量并没有像预期的那样增长，而增长的是被称为习惯劳动力、非正式劳动力或不稳定劳动力的类别。第二个趋势包括发现整个非洲大陆特别是农村地区的雇佣劳动的发生率被严重低估，这一综合观察是深入研究非殖民化和独立非洲劳工趋势的出发点。加纳是一个恰当的案例研究，因为那里有大量的殖民时代的劳工史学，也有可能是后殖民时代的极好的原始材料。“非正规部门”一词是在加纳创造的，加纳是非洲独立以来较早时期和较近时期经济增长率和劳工关系对比的一个缩影。该项目将编制一份全国概览，但详细侧重于三个地区-可可种植区阿克拉和北方热带稀树草原区-这三个地区被选定代表劳动经验的不同方面。研究问题包括劳动力规模和组成的变化、职业和就业形式结构的变化、劳动力的真实的收入、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、工作不稳定与工作之间的关系。所有这些问题都具有强烈的性别色彩。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，德国和英国调查员之间的合作提供了综合的专门知识，构成了该项目所设想的全面办法的不可或缺的基础。特别强调加纳学者的参与。两名在加纳各大学工作的经验丰富的学者将作为顾问参与，提供专家咨询意见和个别章节。此外，来自加纳的早期职业和高级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.