Unlike conventional Eurocentric historiography, current approaches in global history reject analy... more Unlike conventional Eurocentric historiography, current approaches in global history reject analyses and comparison based exclusively on the Western model. However, beside Europecentrism, Chinese, Indian or Russian ethnocentrism do exist as well. Thus, global history seeks to reconcile the differences between the historical paths specific to particular regions with their connections, transfers and overall dynamics. Today’s forms of globalization are not the first or unique. During previous centuries if not millenaries, strong connections between different areas of the world were already developed. Circulation of ideas, people, institutions and values added to climatic impact and overall market dynamics. Yet, forms of integrations and internationalization did not always give rise to global dynamics. We need to stress the analogies and differences between globalizations in History.
This chapter discusses the main relevant approaches to the questions of labor coercion, first pre... more This chapter discusses the main relevant approaches to the questions of labor coercion, first presenting the main economic explanations, followed by the sociology of labor, power, and the state. The ensuing sections specify the notion of resistance, starting with socioeconomic and historical approaches and presenting in detail the theories of law in action, and from there, the use of judicial sources in labor and colonial contexts. The chapter ends with a broader discussion about political philosophies of rights, freedom and coercion and argues the relevance of Hirschman’s triad (voice, exit, and loyalty), although appropriately modified.
Liberal utilitarianism is usually presented as a current of thought mostly inspired by Jeremy Ben... more Liberal utilitarianism is usually presented as a current of thought mostly inspired by Jeremy Bentham and other Western European thinkers, and eventually diffused in other parts of the world. This paper adopts a different approach and shows, on the one hand, how the Bentham brothers’ experiences in Russia and serfdom in particular inspired their invention of the Panopticon. The latter was not related to deviance (Foucault's interpretation), but to labor organization and surveillance. On the other hand, the interplay between utilitarianism and colonial India led Bentham, then James and John Stuart Mill, and ultimately Henry Maine to revise utilitarianism, in particular the relationship between law, labor, and political economy. In both the Britain–Russia interplay and Britain–India interplay, the tension between universalism and particularism of philosophical, social and economic categories was at work.
After Oriental Despotism : Eurasian Growth in a Global Perspective, 2014
Introduction: The Scope and Aims 1. The Historical Dimension of Economic Backwardness 2. Beyond A... more Introduction: The Scope and Aims 1. The Historical Dimension of Economic Backwardness 2. Beyond Asiatic Despotism: Territorial Power and State Construction in Eurasia 3. The Power of the Steppe: the Mongol Heritage and the Expansion of the Muscovy 4. Slavery and Trade in Central Asia and Russia 5. Nor Feudalism or Capitalism : Agrarian Markets under Coercion 6. Beyond Economic Backwardness. Labor and Growth in Eurasia in the Long Nineteenth Century Conclusion : Russia in a Globalizing World Bibliography Index
Unlike conventional Eurocentric historiography, current approaches in global history reject analy... more Unlike conventional Eurocentric historiography, current approaches in global history reject analyses and comparison based exclusively on the Western model. However, beside Europecentrism, Chinese, Indian or Russian ethnocentrism do exist as well. Thus, global history seeks to reconcile the differences between the historical paths specific to particular regions with their connections, transfers and overall dynamics. Today’s forms of globalization are not the first or unique. During previous centuries if not millenaries, strong connections between different areas of the world were already developed. Circulation of ideas, people, institutions and values added to climatic impact and overall market dynamics. Yet, forms of integrations and internationalization did not always give rise to global dynamics. We need to stress the analogies and differences between globalizations in History.
This chapter discusses the main relevant approaches to the questions of labor coercion, first pre... more This chapter discusses the main relevant approaches to the questions of labor coercion, first presenting the main economic explanations, followed by the sociology of labor, power, and the state. The ensuing sections specify the notion of resistance, starting with socioeconomic and historical approaches and presenting in detail the theories of law in action, and from there, the use of judicial sources in labor and colonial contexts. The chapter ends with a broader discussion about political philosophies of rights, freedom and coercion and argues the relevance of Hirschman’s triad (voice, exit, and loyalty), although appropriately modified.
Liberal utilitarianism is usually presented as a current of thought mostly inspired by Jeremy Ben... more Liberal utilitarianism is usually presented as a current of thought mostly inspired by Jeremy Bentham and other Western European thinkers, and eventually diffused in other parts of the world. This paper adopts a different approach and shows, on the one hand, how the Bentham brothers’ experiences in Russia and serfdom in particular inspired their invention of the Panopticon. The latter was not related to deviance (Foucault's interpretation), but to labor organization and surveillance. On the other hand, the interplay between utilitarianism and colonial India led Bentham, then James and John Stuart Mill, and ultimately Henry Maine to revise utilitarianism, in particular the relationship between law, labor, and political economy. In both the Britain–Russia interplay and Britain–India interplay, the tension between universalism and particularism of philosophical, social and economic categories was at work.
After Oriental Despotism : Eurasian Growth in a Global Perspective, 2014
Introduction: The Scope and Aims 1. The Historical Dimension of Economic Backwardness 2. Beyond A... more Introduction: The Scope and Aims 1. The Historical Dimension of Economic Backwardness 2. Beyond Asiatic Despotism: Territorial Power and State Construction in Eurasia 3. The Power of the Steppe: the Mongol Heritage and the Expansion of the Muscovy 4. Slavery and Trade in Central Asia and Russia 5. Nor Feudalism or Capitalism : Agrarian Markets under Coercion 6. Beyond Economic Backwardness. Labor and Growth in Eurasia in the Long Nineteenth Century Conclusion : Russia in a Globalizing World Bibliography Index
This book is the final product of about thirty years of discussion with colleagues, friends and s... more This book is the final product of about thirty years of discussion with colleagues, friends and students. It would be impossible to remind all of them, I try to do my best and I apologize for those who I do not mention. Discussions on the tensions between data and sources took place during my staying at the Wissenschafts Kolleg, the Wiko, in Berlin, in 2011-12. The very fact of discussing with historians, biologists, artists, philosophers, legal scholars provided an incredible arena for such a complicated topic.
This book is about the evolution of labor and labor institutions in Russia compared with Europe, ... more This book is about the evolution of labor and labor institutions in Russia compared with Europe, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean between the sixteenth and the early twentieth centuries. It questions common ideas about the origin of labor institutions and market economies, their evolution, and their transformation in the early modern and modern world. Since the eighteenth century at the latest, comparative analyses of labor institutions and labor conditions in Russia have been made as if the boundary between free and unfree labor were universally defined. Free labor in the "West" is thus contrasted with serf labor in Russia and Eastern Europe. This book intends to call that view into question and to show that Russian peasants were much less bound and "unfree" than usually held. On the other hand, in most "Western" countries labor was similar to service, and wage conditions resembled those of domestic servants, with numerous constraints imposed on work mobility. In turn, this situation gave rise to extreme forms of dependency in the colonies, not only under slavery, but also after it (indentured labor in the Indian Ocean and obligatory labor in Africa). Unfree labor and forms of coercion were perfectly compatible with market development; in Russia, Europe, and the Indian Ocean, economic growth between the seventeenth and the mid-nineteenth century made wide use of bondage and legal constraints on labor. This was so not because population was lacking, but because consistent economic growth took place all over Eurasia between the seventeenth and the nineteenth century. This
After the abolition of slavery in the Indian Ocean and Africa, the world of labor remained unequa... more After the abolition of slavery in the Indian Ocean and Africa, the world of labor remained unequal, exploitative, and violent, straddling a fine line between freedom and unfreedom. This book explains why. Unseating the Atlantic paradigm of bondage and drawing from a rich array of colonial, estate, plantation and judicial archives, Alessandro Stanziani investigates the evolution of labor relationships on the Indian subcontinent, the Indian Ocean and Africa, with case studies on Assam, the Mascarene Islands and the French Congo. He finds surprising relationships between African and Indian abolition movements and European labor practices, inviting readers to think in terms of trans-oceanic connections rather than simple oppositions. Above all, he considers how the meaning and practices of freedom in the colonial world differed profoundly from those in the mainland. Arguing for a multi-centered view of imperial dynamics, Labor on the Fringes of Empire is a pioneering global history of nineteenth-century labor.
November 1985: graduation with full marks and honour (110/110 cum laude) in economics, University... more November 1985: graduation with full marks and honour (110/110 cum laude) in economics, University of Naples.
In 1949, Fernand Braudel proposed a view of the Mediterranean world in which Islam was an integra... more In 1949, Fernand Braudel proposed a view of the Mediterranean world in which Islam was an integral part of Europe. This was a courageous act. At the very moment when, after WWII, Europe was reflecting on its unity and the first projects of European institutions were being formulated, Braudel did not conceive of Europe as going from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and beyond. Instead, he emphasized the unity of the Mediterranean and the structural compenetration between Islamic and Christian societies and values, despite the multiple wars that had opposed them over the centuries. 1 Later in life, Braudel changed his mind. In A History of Civilizations, he clearly distinguished European civilization from Islamic. He also differentiated between the Russian, African, Indian civilizations and so on. 2
Why we need global history. The critics and definition of eurocentrism and other forms of histor... more Why we need global history. The critics and definition of eurocentrism and other forms of historical centrisms (sino-centrism, Africa-centrism, etc) are discussed. This chapter argues that the solution to long-standing western domination in historical tools and writing does not consist so much in replacing one centrism with another (although this is somewhat necessary), than in overcoming the using of history as a clash of civilisations' perspectives. 2. Connected historiographies in expanding worlds, sixteenth-seventeenth centuries This chapter shows that since antiquity, and especially since the second millennium of our era, there have been important connections between the Euro-Asiatic and African worlds, as well as with respect to historiographical knowledge. Voyages, along with historical methods and books, connected the Arabo-Muslim, Chinese, and Indian worlds to one another, and connected these regions to Europe and Africa. Contrary to received opinion, this chapter also proves that Renaissance Europe did not invent early modern and scholarly historiography alone, but rather borrowed from previous centuries as well as other worlds. It also added new elements, such as philology and erudition, along with law and economic and anthropological reflections about "the others." Most important, these tools were part of state and empire building, deeply different in Asia and the West.
La crainte du global Jeudi 24 novembre 2016, François Fillon annonce l'urgence d'une re-écriture ... more La crainte du global Jeudi 24 novembre 2016, François Fillon annonce l'urgence d'une re-écriture de l'histoire : trop d'attention a été prêtée selon lui à l'histoire du monde, trop peu à celle de la France et ses valeurs. Deux ans plus tôt, en septembre 2014, Vladimir Poutine avait annoncé le retour de l'histoire patriotique dans les manuels. Le 12 février 2017, Donald Trump twitte sur la nécessité d'apprendre aux enfants l'histoire des partis américains et recentrer l'enseignement sur l'Amérique. Je pense à mes étudiants, des Français, des Russes et des Chinois, des Européens et des Africains, quelques Américains, deux Indiens, mais aussi des Brésiliens et une Japonaise. Faut-il que je leur apprenne l'histoire de France, celle de l'Europe, ou encore celle du monde ? Ce jeudi 24 novembre, ils me trouvent incertain. Je le suis. Si je vous disais histoire globale, vous penseriez à quoi, je leur demande ? Ils me donnent des réponses différentes : un Américain me lance : histoire du monde, tandis qu'une jeune normalienne avance avec certitude : « histoire connectée ». L'étudiante japonaise me regarde intimidée, puis elle chuchote : histoire de l'Europe. Finalement, mon étudiant indien évoque l'histoire coloniale et l'impérialisme, tandis qu'un étudiant sénégalais conclut avec une pointe d'irritation : professeur, l'histoire globale c'est encore une manipe du Nord pour contrôler le Sud. Je me dis que chacun a en partie raison ; l'histoire globale est un peu tout ce qu'ils ont évoqué. Mais alors pourquoi est-elle tellement inquiétante pour Trump, Poutine ou Fillon, sans oublier Le Pen ? A un niveau immédiat la réponse est simple : l'histoire globale désigne des approches différentes qui ont toutes l'ambition de décloisonner les histoires nationales et les paradigmes européocentriques lisant la planète, son histoire et ses diversités à l'aune de quelques catégories et valeurs occidentales. Au contraire, l'histoire globale inscrit l'histoire de chaque pays dans des dynamiques plus larges dans lesquelles l'Occident n'est pas nécessairement synonyme de progrès. Cette manière de penser et pratiquer l'histoire constitue une réponse aux phénomènes majeurs de notre époque depuis 1989 : la fin des « deux blocs », communiste et capitaliste; la globalisation et ses effets ; enfin, de nos jours, le retour des nationalismes.
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