ACTA HISTRIAE

The Role of Ironmaking in a Premodern Rural Community

Janez Mlinar — 2026-06-30

Using the example of the Weissenfels lordship, attention is drawn to some social and economic processes that took place until the mid-seventeenth century and were a consequence of mining, especially of the production and processing of iron. After the end of the medieval colonisation process, in the sixteenth century, there was a social stratification of peasantry and the formation of the peasant proletariat. This class man- aged to ensure its existence by participating in ironmaking processes. The production
of iron became in the first half of the seventeenth century the most important economic
sector in the Weissenfels lordship. The more intensive activity also had a strong envi- ronmental impact, especially due to the increased need for wood and charcoal.

Migrations and Identities in Ironmaking in the Slovenian Territory during the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Gašper Oitzl — 2026-06-30

Migrations were of crucial importance for the development of ironmaking in the Slovenian territory during the Late Middle Ages and the transition to a professional industry, as they facilitated the transfer of new technologies. The main direction of
migration came from the northern Italian area. Migrations had a significant impact
on the social structure in the vicinity of the emerging ironmaking centres. They also influenced identity processes. In addition to linguistic and ethnic identities, a profes- sional identity also emerged.

Mining as Maritime History?

Sabine Rutar — 2026-06-30

The author traces the twentieth-century history of the coalmine in Sečovlje in northwestern Istria, with a focus on the early Cold War. Methodologically, she connects the Lefebvrian concept of place with the territory–place–scale–network (TPSN) framework proposed by Bob Jessop, Neil Brenner, and Martin Jones. During the scarce four decades of the mine’s existence (late 1930s– early 1970s), its history was defined, on the one hand, by volatile political borders, while on the other hand, it was marked by the environmental border between the land and the sea, as the coal was extracted in the immediate vicinity of the saltpans that Sečovlje and Piran are famous for.

On the Side of Production Waste

Andrea Negro — 2026-06-30

This article explores the toxic legacy of the 1946 Italo-Belgian agreement that sent thousands of Italian workers into Belgian coal mines, many of whom later suffered from severe occupational diseases. Drawing on the author’s doctoral research on the return of sick miners from Belgium to Italy, it focuses on the long-term bodily, social, and institutional consequences of mining work after the decline of the Belgian coal industry. Through two case studies – one centred on a widow in Liège seeking posthumous recognition of her husband’s illness, the other on socially engaged occupational physicians in Slavia Friu- lana/Beneška Slovenija, the Slovenian-speaking area of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the article examines how medical knowledge, diagnostic practices, and com- pensation systems could reproduce or challenge migrant workers’ exclusion.
Combining oral history, medical and judicial documents, and sources from associations and welfare institutions, it argues that occupational health was not only a field of suffering, but also a terrain of conflict over recognition, responsibility, and justice. Ultimately, it shows how medicine could become part of a broader dynamic of social discard, but also a tool for resisting it.

“A Coal Stain Is Hard to Remove”

Resul Babaoğlu — 2026-06-30

This article analyses the socio-political situation of Turkish mining and mine workers through humor or caricature magazines published between 1960 and 1980 by using the corpus linguistics method. The corpus linguistics method, which is widely used in linguistics, enables qualitative data to be digitally segmented and analysed in different ways. Coal shortages, rising prices and endless queues became the defining struggles for the urban middle class, workers, civil servants and shop- keepers, giving rise to a “survival humor” that exposed class divides in fuel access.
Cartoons revealed miners’ unsafe conditions and occupational diseases and showed their powerlessness before employers. They also criticized government mining policy and patronage networks and debated the nationalization of mines and the role of foreign companies. Beyond economics, coal scarcity was portrayed as eroding traditional culture and morality, affirming humor’s enduring role as social critique.

Visual Economy of Sameness

Jan Babnik — 2026-06-30

Throughout Slovenia’s history, across the various historical periods of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes through Yugoslav Socialism to the Slovenian Liberal republic—photoreportages have consistently portrayed miners and mining labor through a homogeneous visual style characterized by direct, unassuming photography. This article examines how such depictions functioned within shifting political and ideological contexts, focusing on the intersection of visual representation and socio-mythological construction.
Drawing on Marx’s concept of the commodity form, Barthes’s theory of naturaliza- tion and myth, and structuralist notions of symbolic exchange, the study employs socio-semiotic analysis to reveal how the imagery of miners gave rise to a “visual economy of sameness.” This visual economy abstracted labor into standardized sym- bolic forms, reinforcing dominant ideological narratives and shaping public memory across historical periods. The article argues that the persistent reduction of miners to emblematic visual signs served as a powerful means of constructing the desired collective identities of different socio-political periods.