SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Since the 1990s, historians have explored the relationship between environment and labour in Europe, North America, and Latin America. Only since the 2010s, however, has there been a growing body of similar scholarship concerning Asia and Africa. This chapter surveys this burgeoning field to highlight the similarities and differences between Global North and South, while also offering conceptual and methodological suggestions. First, the chapter reviews how colonialism and colonial modernity have shaped labour and environment through several themes: alienation, knowledge, health, subjectivity, and resistance. Next, it considers how energy history is a particularly productive space to think about how labour and environment are tied together but separated in effect, requiring multiscalar analysis. The final section offers a case study to illustrate these themes in the history of the Nigerian oil industry. The chapter offers the conclusion that the timing of the colonial and postcolonial periods makes labour and environment of special relevance to these regions, distinct from histories of Europe and the Americas. It also highlights plurality across multiple spaces and questions the applicability of Euro-Atlantic concepts. By foregrounding languages and epistemologies of these regions, there is great scope to change existing knowledge of how labouring bodies relate to the world.