Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman World

Koenraad Verboven is professor of Ancient History at Ghent University. He has published extensively on social and economic history, including a recent edited volume,Ownership and Exploitation of Land and Natural Resources in the Roman World. (OUP, 2015)Christian Laes is professor of Latin and Ancient History at the University of Antwerp and adjunct professor at the University of Tampere. He has published five monographs and over seventy international contributions on the socio-cultural history of Roman and Late Antiquity.Contributors are: Seth Bernard, Sarah Bond, Miko Flohrl, Miriam Groen-Vallinga, Cameron Hawkins, Claire Holleran, Christian Laes, Catharina Lis, Jinyu Liu, Elizabeth Murphy, Hugo Soly, Laurens Tacoma, Nicolas Tran, Koenraad Verboven and Arjan Zuiderhoek.

• ContentsPrefaceAbbreviations of Ancient SourcesAbout the Authors1 Work, Labour, Professions. What’s in a Name?Koenraad Verboven and Christian Laes<2 Sorting Out Labour in the Roman Provinces: Some Reflections on Labour and Institutions in Asia MinorArjan Zuiderhoek3 Contracts, Coercion, and the Boundaries of the Roman Artisanal FirmCameron Hawkins4 Workers in the Roman Imperial Building IndustrySeth G. Bernard5 Getting a Job: Finding Work in the City of RomeClaire Holleran6 The Value of Labour: Diocletian’s Prices EdictMiriam J. Groen-Vallinga and Laurens E. Tacoma7 Roman Workers and Their Workplaces: Some Archaeological Thoughts on the Organization of Workshop Labour in Ceramic ProductionElizabeth A. Murphy8 Constructing Occupational Identities in the Roman WorldMiko Flohr9 Guilds and the Organisation of Urban Populations During the PrincipateKoenraad Verboven10 Group Membership, Trust Networks, and Social Capital: A Critical AnalysisJinyu Liu11 Currency and Control: Mint Workers in the Later Roman EmpireSarah Bond12 Ars and Doctrina: The Socioeconomic Identity of Roman Skilled Workers (First Century BC–Third Century AD)Nicolas Tran13 Work, Identity and Self-Representation in the Roman Empire and the West-European Middle Ages: Different Interplays between the Social and the CulturalCatharina Lis and Hugo SolyBibliographyIndex of SubjectsIndex of Places and Geographical Names Index of Personal Names

"Despite the highly specialized nature of the subject matter as surveyed above, the volume represents a valuable contribution to scholarship by offering an updated guide to a complex field."Josaphat Tam in BMCR 2017.10.29''The papers highlight the variability of labour forms employed, and how firms, social networks and administrative institutions affected the organisation of labour. As such, the volume advocates more nuanced understandings of how social contexts affected economic performance – without necessarily ascribing a positive role to social institutions in lowering transaction costs. (...) In this sense, thiscollection of essays forms a welcome addition to the scholarly debate.'' Tymon de Haas, Clio 2018.1.002