The project will be presented on a panel at the forthcoming ASEES convention in Washington D.C.:

„Labor, Shipbuilding and the (Inter)National Economy: Adriatic and Baltic Case Studies in Comparison“

Sat, November 19, 3:45 to 5:30pm, Wardman DC Marriott, Lobby Level, Park Tower Suite 8223

Brief Panel Description
The panel addresses the question, how business development and labor relations in East Central Europe’s 20th century were interrelated with politics of nation-building on the one hand, patterns of integration into global flows of capital on the other. We take the example of three emblematic shipyards: „Uljanik“ in Pula (Croatia) and two Polish shipyards, in Gdynia and Gdańsk. Maritime ship-building is a peculiar industry: it is usually characterized by a strong role of the state, regardless whether the economy is socialist or capitalist in nature. It is also exposed to particularly fierce global competition. Hence, the in-depth study of these case studies sheds fresh light on the ambiguous interconnections between nation state-driven economic strategies, the international division of labor, and the local position of industrial workers. One of the starting assumptions is that the researchers shipyards help to complicate conventional wisdom about the role of the state in socialist, and post-socialist economies.

Papers:
Philipp Ther/Piotr Filipkowski: „Neoliberal Reforms and the ‚Self-transformation‘ at the Shipyard in Gdynia“
Ulf Brunnbauer: „Between States and Political Systems: Labor in the Uljanik Shipyard (Pula, Croatia)“

Discussants: Alison Frank (Harvard University), Pavel Kolar (EUI, Florence)