Work is central to human wellbeing, but job quality has received comparatively little attention in economic history and historical wellbeing studies. The inclusion of ‘decent work’ in the Sustainable Development Goals and the recent profusion of present-day job quality metrics provide an opportunity for historical social science to contribute to discussions about the development of job-related wellbeing and the determinants of good work.

The Work and Wellbeing in History FRESH Meeting will bring together research on labor and quality of life in the past. The meeting will welcome economic and social historians, work researchers, and wellbeing scholars to share papers on work in the past, historical wellbeing, and the relationship between the two. We are delighted to welcome professor Leandro Prados de la Escosura (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and professor Amy Erickson (University of Cambridge), who are world-leading experts in the study of historical wellbeing and labour, to deliver keynote lectures.

A limited number of attendee places will be available to researchers who are not presenting at the conference. Please sign up by email as early as possible >

This meeting is supported by the Centre for Welfare and Labour Research at OsloMet and organised in association with the Frontier Research in Economic and Social History (FRESH) series. It is part of the Young CAS project Work and Wellbeing in History.