Áreas 2022, N. 43
Ir a Estadísticas
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
- PublicationOpen AccessManaging miners’ health : occupational diseases, scientific management and workers’ life in the Italian mines of Peñarroya (1920-1950)(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2022) Sanna FrancescaThe implementation of practices to protect miners’ health was slowly formalized in Europe beginning from the end of the 19th century. The legal pathway was equally long in all countries, especially in relation to the recognition of companies’ liability in the emergence of pathologies related to workplace morbidity . As there were no precise regulations and no medical agreement on the interpretation of certain diseases, health in the mine remained an ambiguous matter for mining companies, especially in relation with psycho-physical selection of workers and qualification of labour. In the interwar period, the problem of occupational health in the mines became more urgent, worsened by the introduction of scientific management and new extractive technologies. As showed by Paul André Rosenthal, silicosis became and it’s still today a global problem, both geographically and conceptually. In this paper we focus on the case of Italian mines of Pertusola, the Italian subsidiary of the greater group Peñarroya, which became one of the biggest European mining and metallurgical corporations in the first part of the 20th century. At the crossroads between the value of health and that of performance at work, a space was opened for the development of practices, tools, measures, and techniques to act on both performance and occupational health, via the materiality of the human body. By the analysis of the firm strategy and initiatives, this paper aims at clarifying the transformation of occupational health in a managerial issue.
- PublicationOpen AccessSafety, exploitation of labour and industrial relations in an Italian mine in the 20th century(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2022) Turbanti, AdolfoItalian mine activity has never been comparable to that in the most important industrialised countries. The lack of minerals has always been one of the greatest problems hindering industrial development. However, in the first half of the twentieth century and until the ‘70s, mineral extraction was a significant part of the national economy, employing many thousands of workers. More specifically, at first copper mines, later mainly pyrite ones, represented the basis for the development of Montecatini, the big Italian chemical monopoly. The Ribolla lignite mine, in the southern part of Tuscany, was also owned by the Montecatini Company. The mine had a remarkable development during the Second World War and 1,200 miners still worked there in May 1954. The 1954, May 4th disaster in that mine is one of the worst mine accidents ever happened in Italy. The firedamp explosion caused 43 deaths and was matter of huge controversy and debate among trade unions and left political parties on the one hand and the Montecatini Company on the other. Before the disaster, the Miners’ Union had reported serious safety problems with regard to working methods. A deeper insight into the event began to emerge only many years later. In particular, studies based on part of the documents made available from the trial against Montecatini were published in 2005. After the disaster, Montecatini was forced to adopt safety measures and to invest money to improve the working conditions, particularly ventilation in the tunnels. However, the mine’s life had come to an end and some years later it was closed. My study will show how the mining company, trade unions, political parties and local governments acted after the mining disaster. For example, how industrial relations changed in the still open mines. In a social environment dominated by the Left, the Montecatini had to abandon the authoritarian behaviour, which was probably derived from the fascist era. The Left, on the other hand, had to renounce the most radical elements of its programmes, such as the nationalization of the mines.
- PublicationOpen AccessTrabajo y enfermedad : relaciones en litigio (España, siglo XX)(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2022) Cohen, Arón; Fleta, AgustínEl concepto de accidente de trabajo, y aún más el de enfermedad profesional, no designan realidades que se impongan invariablemente por su sola denominación. El reconocimiento de un “nexo” entre trabajo y enfermedades ha sido en todas partes mucho más tímido y dificultoso que el de los accidentes propiamente dichos. Con el objetivo puesto en los riesgos de enfermar “con ocasión o por consecuencia del trabajo”, una muestra de un millar de sentencias judiciales, repartidas entre 1936 y 1983, comprueba el peso de inercias estructurales y se detiene en los signos de inflexión, en función de la evolución de la legislación de referencia, pero también de sus interpretaciones por los tribunales y de su contexto. Como expresión normalizada de hechos sociales (los riesgos del trabajo para la salud de quienes lo realizan), el “riesgo profesional” es un objeto en construcción, en un proceso más contradictorio que lineal.
- PublicationOpen AccessLa minería del fosfato en la cuenca minera de Extremadura, 1856-1956(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2022) Martínez Milán, Jesús M.Aunque la presencia de fosfato en Cáceres (España) se conocía desde el siglo XVIII, no fue hasta mediados del siglo XIX, con el descubrimiento del superfosfato simple, cuando Extremadura se convirtió en uno de los principales centros exportadores de fosfato de Europa, hasta que a finales de la centuria se pusieron en marcha nuevos yacimientos de fosfato en Estados Unidos y África que relegaron al fosfato cacereño a un segundo plano. En este trabajo abordamos el estudio de la minería del fosfato en España, analizando las características de sus yacimientos y la evolución de las explotaciones mineras. En él destacamos la paradoja de que, a pesar de contar con yacimientos de fosfatos, España fue un país en el siglo XX netamente importador de mineral de roca fosfática.
- PublicationOpen AccessNuevas contribuciones al análisis de los efectos ambientales y sociales de la minería en la Europa del Sur(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2022) García Gómez, José Joaquín; Martínez Soto, Ángel; Pérez de Perceval Verde, Miguel Ángel