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The Century Project aims to organize and to consolidate existing historical information on the ILO and its work in close collaboration with the ILO Archives and the Library. The objective is to make all information easily accessible to ILO officials as well as researchers inside and outside of the Organization. More details about information and documentation systems can be found through the links to the ILO Library and Archives under “information resources”.
The stimulation of academic research by external researchers and research communities and the building of an international academic network represent another important goal. The objective is to deepen from an interdisciplinary point of view the knowledge and understanding of ILO’s impact in key areas and in specific historical constellations such as the interwar period, the decolonisation process and the Cold War. The various activities will include, workshops, seminars, international research conferences, publication projects, research grants and partnerships with universities and other academic institutions. A special effort will be made to broaden the regional scope of research beyond Europe and the Western world. This will naturally include building partnerships with academic institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, supporting the work of scholars from those regions and improving the collaboration through regional conferences and workshops. It also means identifying new archival sources in the regions, completed if possible by interviews with people involved in ILO’s activities at the local level.
Achievements
The initial phase of the ILO Century Project was closely linked to the celebration of the ILO’s 90th Anniversary. The Project participated actively in the realisation of the events related to this occasion. It meant in particular two publications. One entitled The ILO and the Quest of Social Justice, 1919-2009, published in English, French and Spanish, explores the history of the Organization and reviews its role and strategies in the last 90 years on themes central to its mandate: rights at work, the quality of work, social protection, employment and poverty reduction, a fair globalization and decent work. The other, Edward Phelan and the ILO: The life and views of an international social actor, offers a portrait of a major ILO’s figure, who played a pivotal role in the birth and initial development of the Organization and was the fourth Director of the Office (and first Director-General) at a specially critical time (1941-1948).
Alongside these publications, a number of draft papers have been written by historians and ILO officials on particular issues or time periods in the ILO’s history. They represent the first step towards a “working paper series” of high quality articles.
The Project contributed so far to two academic conferences. The first one was organized by the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam and Ghent University on “The ILO: Past and Present”, in Brussels in October 2007. A publication of the conference papers is under preparation.
In May 2009, the Project, in collaboration with the University of Geneva, supported the organization of a three-day Academic Colloquium on “Transnational Social Policies. Reformist networks and the International Labour Organization (1900-2000)”, that took place at the University of Geneva and in the ILO Headquarters. More than thirty high quality contributions were presented by scholars from various countries of Europe and the Americas. (See also under “News”.) The publication of two volumes on the basis of the presentations made is being considered due to the quality and the variety of the contributions. A book proposal has already been prepared and sent to an academic international publisher. Another one is under preparation.
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