International network for the comparative history of occupational structure
The international network for the comparative history of occupational structure (INCHOS) was launched in late 2007 by Dr Leigh Shaw-Taylor (University of Cambridge) and Professor Osamu Saito (Hitotsubashi University). This followed on from a session at the International Economic History Association meeting in Helsinki in 2006 and a very successful workshop on occupational structure hosted by Hi-Stat at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo in September 2007.
The aim of INCHOS is to develop a genuinely comparative history of occupational structure by using a common occupational coding system and common methodologies to ensure commensurable results. Our interest is not in a particular period but on the long-run process of industrialization which means that the focus is on different time periods in different countries.
A further meeting is planned (Cambridge, Summer 2009). This is intended to lead to volume edited by Shaw-Taylor and Saito which will have two parts: a series of country chapters and a set of thematic essays cover topics such as by-employments, female occupations, the importance of the tertiary sector and so on. At the moment the network consists of scholars working on a number of Asian and European scholars. We hope to both widen and deepen the geographical coverage over time. In the longer run it may be possible to make commonly coded datasets available on the INCHOS website.
Papers on the history of occupational structure
- Osamu Saito and Tokihiko Settsu, 'Unveiling rural by-employment patterns and its implications for national income estimate in the early phases of Japan's industrialization'
- Erik Buyst, 'Changes in the occupational structure of Belgium: New estimates for the 1846-1910 period'
We hope to add further papers in the near future.
Participating researchers
INCHOS is coordinated by Osamu Saito and Leigh Shaw-Taylor.
The following scholars are currently participating in INCHOS:
| Working on Belgium | Erik Buyst |
| Working on Bulgaria | Martin Ivanov |
| Working on Britain | Amy Erikson, Leigh Shaw-Taylor and E.A. Wrigley |
| Working on Germany | Paul Warde |
| Working on India | Yoshifu Usami |
| Working on Indonesia | Daan Maarks |
| Working on Japan | Osamu Saito |
| Working on the Netherlands | Danielle van den Heuvelle, Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk. Marco van Leuven, Ineeke Maas |
| Working on Spain | Natalia Mora-Sitja |
| Working on Sweden | Maria Agren, Rosemarie Fiebranz |
| Working on Taiwan | Liu I Ling and Tadayoshi Taniguchi |
| Other participants | Steve Broadberry |