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Campus Condorcet
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Anglais
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Vianney Escoffier (Réalisation), Elena Vezzadini (Organisation de l'évènement)
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cnrs
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Droit commun de la propriété intellectuelle
Citer cette ressource :
EHESS. (2026, 28 mai). A fragmentary labour history of lift (elevator) workers in Johannesburg, South Africa , in CROSSING METHODOLOGIES IN AFRICAN LABOUR HISTORY. [Vidéo]. Canal-U. https://www.canal-u.tv/178224. (Consultée le 3 novembre 2026)
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A fragmentary labour history of lift (elevator) workers in Johannesburg, South Africa

Réalisation : 28 mai 2026 - Mise en ligne : 18 juin 2026
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Descriptif

Bridget KENNY, University of the Witwatersand 
A fragmentary labour history of lift (elevator) workers in Johannesburg,
South Africa
South Africa offers a deep and rich tradition of labour history (Freund 1984;
Freund 2013). In particular, there has been extensive work done on its mining
economy and the migrant labour system which explained both the formation of
South Africa’s racist coercive labour regime and its particular development of
capitalism. Secondly, much research has been dedicated to histories of trade
union organising: craft unions organising white immigrants, industrial unions
organising both black and white workers through the 1940s, and, independent
black trade unions organising black workers from the 1970s. These traditions
used well-documented trade union archives, state archives, oral histories and
the engaged histories of the labour activist-scholars themselves, who were often
involved within the trade union movements. This paper discusses my current
project about lifts (elevators) as affective urban infrastructure in Johannesburg.
I consider the sources I have used to document various forms of lift labour that
ensured that the technology was installed, maintained, repaired and driven.
Unlike much previous labour history, this work does not have a single trade
union archive or even state location from which to source information. I have
had to glean what I can about the nature of the work from fragments from
multiple archives and interviews. This presentation thinks about the strengths
and weaknesses of a fragmentary labour history focusing on categories of
workers not often examined.

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