大会報告・共通論題：「生きること」の経済史学－「再生産と生活の接点」に視点をあわせて－
近代産業地域社会における「生活」と「労働」の再編過程
―Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston史料による再編主体の日米比較を視野に―
2020 年 62 巻 3 号 p. 4-17
詳細
2020 年 62 巻 3 号 p. 4-17
In the modern era, the rise of industry, the birth of workers, and the rapid influx of population led to the formation of new industrial communities, which in turn caused a reorganization of “life” and “labor” according to a logic and system different than those that had previously obtained. The purpose of this study is to focus on this reorganization process and to clarify how work and life were understood, and by whom, and what position they occupied in the newly prevailing logic and systems. The research examines Japan and America during the Industrial Revolution.
Principally, the study examines who organized the “life” and “labor” of workers and how the reproduction of labor was accomplished. Specifically, it analyzes three categories of historical material : (1) Japanese “factory statistics”, historical materials from textile factories, and surveys by prefectural bureaus on social matters ; (2) the historical documents of textile factories in Lowell, Massachusetts, and of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, Boston (WEIU) ; (3) Life and Labor, the journal of the National Women’s Union Trade League established in 1903.
Chapter II focuses on the formation of industrial areas in modern Japan and clarifies their regional characteristics. It reconstructs the world of daily life of male and female workers, notably in Tokyo’s Fukagawa district. Chapter Ⅲ considers the different factors among men and women influencing the reorganization of life and labor in modern Japan, focusing on historical changes in the lives of female workers.
Chapters Ⅳ and Ⅴ examines textile production areas in the state of Massachusetts in 18th‒ and 19th‒century America. Comparing these cases with those of Japanese female workers in their factories, the paper analyzes the world of women working in Lowell’s textile factories (Chapter Ⅳ). Next, it discusses changes in the labor market and local communities beginning in the mid‒19th century, when the number of migrant workers increased due to the women’s labor movement (Chapter Ⅴ).
Based on this research on Japan and the United States, Chapter Ⅵ shows that the actors who reorganized workers’ lives and work differed in the two cases. A discussion follows of the background for these differences, and the paper concludes with a presentation of the significance of and prospects for discussing “living” as an aspect of political‒economic history.
