Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency): Workers' experiences, lives, bodies, struggles

This virtual exhibition is the product of a collective research programme, funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency) from 2016 to 2023. Focus was placed on examining workers' experiences in Japan, France and Belgium during the 30-year post-war boom, and in China from the 1980s to today. This project analyses the changes in employment and the forms of uncertainty at work in periods of rapid economic growth. It takes a comparative approach, examining different places and time periods. Researchers conducted both archival research and interviews when it was possible to meet retired workers in France (and Belgium) and in Japan, or current workers in China. They collected hundreds of documents, varied in nature: numerical data on income and consumption, employment-related documentation (work contracts, payslips and retirement certificates), and evidence of suffering at work (accidents, surveillance tools), of life difficulties (poverty) and of individual and collective struggles to transform the working-class condition.

Building from the foundation of five worker biographies'--one for each featured country--the exhibition seeks to explore transformation and worker uncertainty during periods of rapid economic growth. Particular attention was given to two industries; coal and textiles, the former for its economic and political significance, government regulation, and tensions between proftitability and viability. Textiles, meanwhile, have often been a bellweather of change in labour and work conditions as one of the oldest and most universal industries in the world. 

These stories, and the accompanying materials, are an effort to connect these stories of the past with the present in an accessible and engaging matter. The content of this digital exhibit is available in both French and English.