Apprenticeship or vocational training is a subject of lively debate. Economic historians tend to see apprenticeship as a purely economic phenomenon, as an incomplete contract in need of legal and institutional enforcement mechanisms. The contributors to this volume have adopted a broader perspective. They regard learning on the shop floor as a complex social and cultural process, to be situated in an ever-changing historical context. The results are surprising. The authors convincingly show that research on apprenticeship and learning on the shop floor is intimately associated with migration patterns, family economy and household strategies, gender perspectives, urban identities and general educational and pedagogical contexts.

Bert De Munck is Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, where he teaches social and economic history of the early modern period, history and social theory, and European ethnology and heritage. His research focuses on the history of craft guilds, social capital and vocational education.

List of Figures and Tables Preface

IntroductionChapter 1. Learning on the Shop Floor in Historical PerspectiveBert De Munck andHugo Soly

PART I: BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOUSEHOLD

Chapter 2. Apprentices, Servants and Other Workers: Apprenticeship in JapanMary Louise Nagata

Chapter 3. From School to Workshop: Pre-training and Apprenticeship in Old Regime FranceClare Crowston

PART II: BETWEEN CONTRACT AND PRACTICE

Chapter 4. Apprenticeship and Guild Control in the Netherlands, c.14501800Karel Davids

Chapter 5. Construction and Reproduction: The Training and Skills of Antwerp Cabinetmakers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesBert De Munck

Chapter 6. Learning by Brewing: Apprenticeship and the English Brewing Industry in the Late Victorian and Early Edwardian PeriodJonathan Reinarz

PART III: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS

Chapter 7. Silk Weaver and Purse Maker Apprentices in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century ViennaAnnemarie Steidl

Chapter 8. Social Mobility and Apprenticeship in Late Medieval FlandersPeter Stabel

Chapter 9. Apprentices in the German and Austrian Crafts in Early Modern Times: Apprentices as Wage Earners?Reinhold Reith

ConclusionChapter 10. Reconsidering Apprenticeship: AfterthoughtsSteven L. Kaplan

Notes on Contributors Index