Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WORK-AGE-JUST (Workers’ Agency and Social Justice in the Age of Authoritarianism: Austria and Czechoslovakia, 1938–1989)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31
Today, social justice is an ever-present ideal — frequently invoked in public debates and political campaigns. Yet a gap persists between its popular use and its analytical meaning. This gap limits our understanding of what social justice means to people and how they evaluate their living and working conditions. This historical research project set out to reshape the study of labour, democracy, social welfare, and social justice by analysing how ideas of justice were imagined and experienced in workplaces in Austria and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1989. It examined how employees understood social justice, traced continuities and ruptures from the Nazi period through the Cold War, and questioned the conventional division between socialist Eastern and democratic Western Europe.
Although social justice is often associated with democracy, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes have also drawn heavily on the language of fairness and equality. The project, therefore, posed a central question: Why and how did people continue to engage with ideas of social justice even under illiberal or authoritarian governments? It approached social justice as a deeply subjective concept — a moral compass through which individuals assessed the fairness of their workplaces and societies.
By investigating how men and women imagined, claimed, and negotiated justice in their everyday working lives, the research revealed how notions of fairness, equality, and welfare evolved across radically different political systems and ideologies— from Nazism to post-war democracy and State Socialism.
Focusing on Austria and Czechoslovakia placed central Europe at the heart of this inquiry. This comparative perspective bridged the long-standing divide between East and West and highlighted enduring continuities in how fairness and entitlement were imagined, articulated, and institutionalised across the twentieth century.
Although social justice is often associated with democracy, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes have also drawn heavily on the language of fairness and equality. The project, therefore, posed a central question: Why and how did people continue to engage with ideas of social justice even under illiberal or authoritarian governments? It approached social justice as a deeply subjective concept — a moral compass through which individuals assessed the fairness of their workplaces and societies.
By investigating how men and women imagined, claimed, and negotiated justice in their everyday working lives, the research revealed how notions of fairness, equality, and welfare evolved across radically different political systems and ideologies— from Nazism to post-war democracy and State Socialism.
Focusing on Austria and Czechoslovakia placed central Europe at the heart of this inquiry. This comparative perspective bridged the long-standing divide between East and West and highlighted enduring continuities in how fairness and entitlement were imagined, articulated, and institutionalised across the twentieth century.
During the grant period, the researcher carried out extensive multilingual and transnational archival research and literature review in Austria, Czechia, and Slovakia. Archival investigations took place in both state and private archives and collections. Using a new methodological perspective that historicises the concept of social justice, the project applied innovative analytical approaches to large sets of materials produced by state institutions, trade unions, and enterprises.
Beyond presenting her progress at two RECET (University of Vienna) seminars and contributing regularly to the host institution’s research meetings, the researcher participated in five additional academic events — including conferences, workshops, and book presentations — held in Boston (USA), Graz and Vienna (Austria), and Venice (Italy). She also delivered two lectures on her ongoing research invited by the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge (UK) and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
In terms of scholarly output, the researcher authored two book chapters and one journal article, with another article currently under review at Women’s History Review. The project’s intellectual direction was further shaped through the organisation of several academic and semi-academic events — including an international workshop, a round table, and a public discussion. Public engagement also formed an integral part of the project. The researcher prepared and hosted two podcast episodes that extended the project’s themes to a broader audience. Together, these academic and outreach activities played a key role in refining her analytical perspective and deepening the exploration of the project’s central questions. All activities are documented on the project website: www.workplacejustice.eu.
Beyond presenting her progress at two RECET (University of Vienna) seminars and contributing regularly to the host institution’s research meetings, the researcher participated in five additional academic events — including conferences, workshops, and book presentations — held in Boston (USA), Graz and Vienna (Austria), and Venice (Italy). She also delivered two lectures on her ongoing research invited by the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge (UK) and the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
In terms of scholarly output, the researcher authored two book chapters and one journal article, with another article currently under review at Women’s History Review. The project’s intellectual direction was further shaped through the organisation of several academic and semi-academic events — including an international workshop, a round table, and a public discussion. Public engagement also formed an integral part of the project. The researcher prepared and hosted two podcast episodes that extended the project’s themes to a broader audience. Together, these academic and outreach activities played a key role in refining her analytical perspective and deepening the exploration of the project’s central questions. All activities are documented on the project website: www.workplacejustice.eu.
As a pilot study, WORK-AGE-JUST has taken significant first steps toward a historical investigation that centres on people’s understandings of their rights and duties through the lens of social justice. The project advanced research beyond the state of the art by developing new methodologies for analysing labour disputes, workplace conflicts, solidarities, and their gendered dimensions. By focusing on selected industrial sectors, the researcher extended intersectional analysis into the fields of labour and welfare state history, introducing a new analytical framework for exploring everyday experiences of justice and recognition within industrial and social policy contexts.
Through high-visibility outreach — including the project website (www.workplacejustice.eu) academic presentations, podcast interviews, invited lectures at major European research centres, and a series of publications — the researcher demonstrated how ideas of social justice have continuously shaped workplace cultures. The project revealed how these notions were moulded through direct interactions among employees, employers, trade unionists, and state actors, highlighting the dynamic and negotiated nature of justice in the workplace.
Through high-visibility outreach — including the project website (www.workplacejustice.eu) academic presentations, podcast interviews, invited lectures at major European research centres, and a series of publications — the researcher demonstrated how ideas of social justice have continuously shaped workplace cultures. The project revealed how these notions were moulded through direct interactions among employees, employers, trade unionists, and state actors, highlighting the dynamic and negotiated nature of justice in the workplace.