Työhistorian

Työhistorian, or the history of work, refers to a scholar who studies the history of work, labor relations, and employment. The field investigates how occupations, workplaces, and labor markets have developed over time and how these changes have shaped social structures, economies, and everyday life. It covers industrialization, wage systems, working conditions, unions, and the broader social meanings of work.

Methodologically, työhistorian uses archival research, trade union and company records, census data, oral histories, newspapers, and government reports. It combines qualitative narratives with quantitative sources and often draws on sociology, economics, and anthropology to analyze labor processes, skills, and institutions.

Themes include gender and race in the workplace, occupational mobility, skill formation, migration, precarity, and the impact of technology and globalization on work. Researchers may study national or regional histories, as well as comparative or transnational labor movements, to understand how work has shaped, and been shaped by, broader social change.

The work informs public history and policy discussions through museums, education programs, and documentation of workers’ experiences, seeking to present evidence-based analyses of wages, safety, social protection, and labor rights. In practice, työhistorian is often aligned with labor history or occupational history in English-language contexts and is used to analyze how work life has both influenced and reflected wider societal transformations.