Europa als Gegenstand der Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte lässt sich nicht ohne einen genauen Blick auf regionale Ressourcen und globale Entwicklungen denken. Die verschiedenen Beiträge des Bands widmen sich diesem Programm auf dem Weg einer Analyse verschiedener (regionaler und nationaler) Industrialisierungspfade, Arbeitsmärkte und Arbeiterbewegungen. Sie bieten exemplarische Untersuchungen zu bisher mitunter vernachlässigten Branchen und Unternehmen in ihren regionalen, nationalen, europäischen und globalen Verflechtungen. Dabei werden stadt- und regionalgeschichtliche Perspektiven, vor allem aber auch Fragen der Industriekultur systematisch einbezogen, um etwa Chemnitz und Sachsen als wichtige Kerne einer regionalen, deutschen und globalen Industriegeschichte herauszuschälen und wiederzuentdecken. Die Beiträge greifen Themen, Fragen und Forschungsperspektiven von Rudolf Boch als europäisch und global denkenden Wirtschafts- und Sozialhistoriker auf, dem der Band zum 65. Geburtstag gewidmet ist.

Rudolf Boch taught as Professor of Economic and Social History from 1994 to 2018 at Chemnitz University of Technology. In 1993/94 he was a Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and in 1992/93 he represented the chair of Prof. Dr. Lothar Gall at Goethe University, Frankfurt Main, as interim professor. From 1983 to 1993 he worked as a university assistant and lecturer at the University of Bielefeld. His research focuses on the history of the global economy in the 19th and 20th centuries, the economic and social integration of Europe since the 18th century, the economic and social history of Saxony as well as the history of entrepreneurs and companies. Yaman Kouli is currently Feodor-Lynen-Fellow (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) and works in Paris. As visiting researcher at the UMR SIRICE, a cooperation of the universities Sorbonne I and IV and the CNRS, he is currently finishing his second book on European integration before 1914. From 2011 to 2018, he was research assistant at the Chemnitz University of Technology. His fields of research are the economic history of Poland, the knowledge based economy and European integration since 1870. Timo Luks is research and teaching assistant at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen. Between 2009 and 2016, he has been scientific staff member at the chair for economic and social history at the Chemnitz University of Technology. His research interests cover industrial history, the history of social engineering, the history of capitalism and police history. He authored and co-authored several books and articles on these topics, e.g. »Der Betrieb als Ort der Moderne. Zur Geschichte von Industriearbeit, Ordnungsdenken und Social Engineering im 20. Jahrhundert« (2010); »GELD. Katalog zur Sonderausstellung des Staatlichen Museums für Archäologie Chemnitz« (as co-author, 2016). Gisela Mettele holds a Chair in Gender History at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany, since 2010. Before that she was a Lecturer in Urban History at the University of Leicester (UK). From 2005-2007 she worked at the German Historical Institute in Washington D.C. and served as its acting director in 2007. From 1994-2005, she was research assistant at the Chemnitz University of Technology. She also held a Senior Fellowship at Harvard University, USA, (1999-2000). Her fields of research are Transnational Religious History, History of Cities and Urbanization, History of Civil Society, Romanticism. Manuel Schramm, Privatdozent (senior lecturer) at the Chemnitz University of Technology; studied history, political science and sociology in Goettingen, Freiburg, Dublin, and Berlin; M.A. 1997 at the Freie Universitaet Berlin; Ph.D. 2002 at the University of Leipzig; Habilitation 2007 at the Dresden University of Technology; fellow at the German Historical Institute Washington in 2006; visiting scholar at the Institute for European Studies, Harvard University, in 2013, and at the Central European University, Budapest, in 2015.