Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Short-Term Labour and Precarious Work in Northern Europe, C. 1620-1870

Short-Term Labour and Precarious Work in Northern Europe, C. 1620-1870

Viitaniemi, Ella
Gustafsson, Sofia

Hardcover

Series: Labour in History and Society

EconomicsGeneral European HistoryGeneral World History

ISBN10: 303214759X
ISBN13: 9783032147592
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Published: May 29 2026
Pages: 339
Weight: 1.27
Height: 0.81 Width: 5.83 Depth: 8.27
Language: English

This open access volume explores the history of short-term employment and precarious work in pre-industrial Northern Europe. Contrary to popular belief, stable, long-term employment--potentially lasting decades--was uncommon in Northern Europe until the advent of large-scale industrialisation and the emergence of the welfare state. Prior to this, most wage earners survived through work that was often temporary, seasonal, and poorly paid, forcing families to rely on multiple jobs and alternative ways of supplementing their modest income. The central aim of this book is to investigate how people dependent on odd jobs or temporary work navigated precarious labour markets. What strategies did they employ to cope with uncertainty? What were their opportunities for social mobility? What do their labour relations reveal about the structure of pre-industrial labour markets in Northern Europe?

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General European History

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