Cultivating Fields of Progress: Agriculture and the International Labour Organization, 1920s–1950s

Cultivating Fields of Progress by historian Amalia Ribi Forclaz (Graduate Institute, Geneva) explores the ILO’s underexamined engagement with agricultural labour during the interwar and early post-war decades. How did the ILO help to globalise the debates on working and living conditions in agriculture, from the struggles of landless farmworkers in 1920s Europe to the conditions of plantation workers in the 1950s? The book draws attention to the problem of integrating the complex realities of agricultural work into broader visions of economic modernisation, social progress and international governance.  Based on ample archival research, it challenges conventional narratives that have largely side-lined agriculture in accounts of the ILO’s history and of labour internationalism more broadly.

Following the author’s presentation, a panel of discussants will reflect on the specific contribution of this study to a better understanding of agricultural labour and its persistent marginalization in labour policy, data systems, and global agendas.