Naval dockyards have been largely neglected by labour historians, a surprising omission given their importance as industrial workplaces with a distinct culture of labour and labour relations. This article considers labour politics in Karlskrona dockyard, Sweden, in the light of a growing body of research on work and labour relations in the British and other European dockyards. Evidence from Karlskrona suggests that, rather than being repressed by military discipline or bought off by generous state benefits, the dockyard workforce drew on aspects of its unique relationship with the national state to improve working conditions. Particular attention is given to the role of the dockyard trade union in creating a sense of workforce identity as state employees. This is in contrast to the British dockyards where unionism was founded on the rigid division of labour in the shipbuilding industry.

This article looks at the effect of transoceanic migration on rural Sicilian families. The author focuses on the conflicts, stresses, and transformations experienced by members of transnational families. While the reality of migration rarely reflected the popular notion that emigration would ruin families, the experience did create deep divisions between migrant men and the women who remained behind. Even before men migrated, husbands and wives struggled over the initial decision to emigrate. From their differing positions within the family, men and women separately weighed the potential benefits and risks of migration. When women encouraged their husbands to work overseas, the experience of migration often created new dreams and opportunities that divided family members. This essay highlights the deeply gendered nature of transnational migration, and the role of the family in altering ideas of husband, wife, mother, and father.

Partition, the break-up of colonial India in 1947, has been the subject of considerable serious historical research, but almost exclusively from two distinctive perspectives: as a macropolitical event; or as a cultural and personal disaster. Remarkably, very little is known about the socioeconomic impact of Partition on different localities and individuals. This exploratory essay considers how Partition affected working people's livelihood and labour relations. The essay focuses on the northeastern part of the subcontinent, where Partition created an international border separating East Bengal – which became East Pakistan, then Bangladesh – from West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, and other regions which joined the new state of India. Based largely on evidence contained in “low-level” state records, the author explores how labour relations for several categories of workers in the new borderland changed during the period of the late 1940s and 1950s.

I regard the work of the past 20 years and of some years to come as the work ofclearing the underbrush, so that we may build a more useful framework for socialscience.

Immanuel Wallerstein (1996)

In September 1976, the Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies,Historical Systems, and Civilizations opened its doors at the State Universityof New York - Binghamton. The new institution made a flying start. Afterthree months it presented its “Proposed Research Programs” in a substantialbooklet. In the summer of 1977, the first issue of its journal, Review, cameout. That same year, a section on the “Political Economy of World-Systems”(PEWS), inspired by the Braudel Center, was established within theAmerican Sociological Association. The PEWS section has held annualconferences and published their proceedings ever since. Since 1979, theCenter, together with the Maison des sciences de l'homme of Paris, hassponsored a book series called “Studies in Modern Capitalism”, published byCambridge University Press.