Abstract:
From the hook to containerization. The dock workers in Genoa and Venice (1945-1969)
The goal of my research is to answer the following question: What were the occupational and social consequences of the containerization, in terms of the way dock labour forces were governed in Genoa and Venice?
The container revolution started in the United States and spread throughout the world. In the first part of my doctoral thesis, I show how I adopt the theoretical approach of the Global labour history and the international literature on the dock workers history.
In the second and third parts, I narrate the history of longshoremen in Genoa and Venice. From IIW the dock workers cooperative had been and very interesting institutions on cultural and political plane. I analyzed the technological innovation promoted by North American ship owners and I show the links between Italian harbors and North American ship owners or Asian waterfronts. The local-global dialectic is useful to avoid the placement of Genoa and Venetian ports in a purely historical nationalist framework, or in provincial narration.
