CSEAR French Reading Group

HOST: Maxence Postaire Location: Online

Abstract: A few decades ago, the last French penal colony was closed. For hundreds of years, prisoners were sent to the other side of the world to work. For the organizers of these prisons, forced labor had two objectives: to make a profit from the prisoners’ work and to offer society the rehabilitation of these people. Accounting played an important role in achieving these objectives. It made it possible to link the rehabilitation of convicts to their work by creating a measure of the profitability of forced labor by quantifying the effects of a collective moralization. It also allowed for the measurement of the profitability of each prisoner. To discuss the role of accounting in the valuation of forced labor, we will have the pleasure of welcoming Antoine Fabre, lecturer at Paris Dauphine. On March 31, this topic will be at the center of the discussions. A meeting not to be missed!

Articles :

• Fabre A. (2021), Rendre les travaux forcés profitables pour l’État: le calcul de coût dans les bagnes de Guyane au XIXe siècle, Comptabilité(S) Revue d’histoire de comptabilités, vol. 14
• Fabre A., Labardin P. (2019), Foucault and social and penal historians. The dual role of accounting in the french penal colonies of the nineteenth century, Accounting History Review, vol. 29, n°1, p. 1-37

Fri 31 Mar 2023 TIME: 15:00H CET BST

Please contact Maxence Postaire (postaire.maxence@hotmail.fr) if you would like to attend