This volume takes a fresh look at the notion of 'wage-workers'. The contributors suggest that the idea of a 'pure' working class should be reconsidered and examine specific South Asian and Latin American case studies. A large part of the working class in the so-called third world and also in the main capitalist countries is either free (but coerced through non-economic means) or does hidden work labour e.g. as formally self-employed producers. By rethinking the fundamental assumptions of 'classical' labour and working-class history, the volume contributes to the development of a non-eurocentric historiography.