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For many years, the research field of labour history was primarily concerned with the industrialised working classes in the western world. During the last 20 years, the field has reorientated itself in response to the global and colonial turns. The strict distinction between free labour and chained slavery has been replaced by a wider understanding that also focuses on forms of informal labour in the Global South or the various types of debt bondage and indentured labour. In his lecture, Prof. Dr Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam) gives an introduction into the more recent development of labour history.