Prior to this International Convention, the National Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia (mNACTEC) already organised another two conferences examining the topic of worker accommodation: Jornades sobre l’habitatge obrer a Catalunya [Conference on worker housing in Catalonia] (2002) and Congrés sobre l’habitatge obrer i les colònies industrials a la Península Ibèrica [Congress on worker housing and industrial colonies in the Iberian Peninsula] (2005). mNACTEC edited and published the proceedings of both these congresses in 2008.
Subsequently, different works have been published and conferences organised on this topic, especially under the supervision of TICCIH:
- De la vivienda obrera a la vivienda de protección oficial, organised by TICCIH-Spain in 2014 in Parla (Madrid).
- The publication in French of Villages ouvriers et villes-usines à travers le monde, a collective volume which includes 250 examples of worker villages around the world, published by APIC and Université de Savoie-Mont Blanc in 2016.
The two conferences in Terrassa, the congress in Parla and the publication mentioned above illustrate how it is still necessary to produce a comprehensive inventory and assessment of the current situation, of the examples and testimonies surviving from centuries of industrialisation.
The aim is for the topics examined in this Congress to go beyond mere fieldwork, incorporating other disciplines including the history of science and technology, sociology, architecture, urban planning and economic and social history.