It is frequently contended that present-day working conditions and wagelessness are analogous to those experienced during the severe economic downturn of the 1930s. Using methods of historical sociology, Professor Lisa Adkins explores oral and manuscript testimonies of those who lived through the period to test the claim that the conditions of the present, and especially those associated with work, are comparable to those of the Great Depression.

Professor Lisa Adkins is Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Sydney and an Academy of Finland Distinguised Professor (2015-19).

A Family Standing Outside a Tin Shack Called Wiloma during the Great Depression, New South Wales. c. 1932 (detail), nla.cat-vn6247387, courtesy Fairfax Syndication