About this book:

"Invisible Workers" offers a comprehensive economic and social history of labor in Europe, tracing its evolution from medieval guilds to the contemporary gig economy. The book argues that Europe's prosperity has consistently relied on often-overlooked workers who organized, resisted, and negotiated their rights within shifting power structures. It chronicles key transformations, including the transition from artisanal workshops to industrial factories, the making of a working class through dispossession and migration, and the establishment of time discipline and factory regimes that redefined the nature of work.

The narrative also highlights the persistent gendered orders of work, examining the roles of women and children and the emergence of the "family wage" ideology that rendered much of women's labor invisible. It delves into the processes of urbanization and the making of industrial cities, alongside the development of collective action, from early bread riots to mass strikes and the formation of trade unions and mutual aid societies. The book further explores the competing ideologies of labor, such as socialism, anarchism, and Christian democracy, and the birth of labor law as states gradually recognized workers' rights to organize.

Later chapters analyze the profound impact of total wars, the interwar crisis, and the postwar "golden age" on labor markets, including the rise of Fordism and social partnership models. It then tracks the shift beyond the factory to service-sector and white-collar employment, and the subsequent move from Keynesianism to neoliberalism, ushering in deregulation and labor market "flexibility." The book concludes by examining the post-socialist transitions in Eastern Europe, the complexities of EU integration and cross-border mobility, the contemporary challenges of precarity, platform work, and digital Taylorism, the invisible labor of care and social reproduction, and the looming impacts of climate change and automation on the future of European work.

Ultimately, "Invisible Workers" demonstrates that the story of European labor is one of continuous negotiation over the value of work and the rights of workers. It emphasizes that periods of technological change and economic crisis consistently open political space for new forms of organization and regulation. The book concludes that the future of European work will continue to be shaped not by technology alone, but by institutions, struggles, and ideas—by the collective capacity of workers and citizens to demand dignity, security, and voice.

What You'll Find Inside:

• European prosperity has historically depended on labor that was rendered invisible in politics, policy, and public memory - from artisanal guilds and migrant harvesters to platform couriers and care workers.
• Labor organization and worker solidarity have emerged in response to technological change and economic crises, from guild resistance to putting-out systems to strikes, union formation, and modern platform worker organizing.
• The making of the European working class was fundamentally shaped by enclosure, expropriation, and the separation of people from access to the means of subsistence, creating a propertyless wage labor force.
• Gender, migration, race, and religion have been central to labor history, structuring workplace hierarchies and determining who gained access to rights, protections, and social citizenship throughout European history.
• Workers' rights have advanced when collective action was possible, states treated social protection as a floor rather than a ceiling, and economic policy was yoked to social citizenship rather than the reverse.

Who's It For:

This book is essential reading for students and scholars of labor history, economic history, and European studies seeking to understand how work has been organized and contested across centuries. It will also be valuable for policymakers, trade union organizers, and social activists interested in the historical roots of contemporary labor issues, welfare state development, and the relationship between technological change, migration, and worker rights in Europe. Anyone looking to grasp how past struggles shape current debates about living wages, platform regulation, and cross-border labor standards will find this work indispensable.