PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Doing different types of work to get by is not just an aspect of the informal and precarious work conditions of present day Europe. It was also part of working class strategies of survival in several European societies during the nineteenth and twentieth century. During the transition of agrarian societies to industrialization, workers ploughed small plots, did self-employed work in crafts and trade, produced at home, and migrated in order to ensure the survival of their families in periods of economic crisis and unemployment and in old age. During the second half of the nineteenth century, these strategies of subsistence declined, although they never entirely disappeared. While these practices often proved unstable, they are still carried out today in places with weak or non-functioning social systems.