Technology and Globalisation

Description

This book examines the role of experts and expertise in the dynamics of globalisation since the mid-nineteenth century. It shows how engineers, scientists and other experts have acted as globalising agents, providing many of the materials and institutional means for world economic and technical integration. Focusing on the study of international connections, Technology and Globalisation illustrates how expert practices have shaped the political economies of interacting countries, entire regions and the world economy. This title brings together a range of approaches and topics across different regions, transcending nationally-bounded historical narratives. Each chapter deals with a particular topic that places expert networks at the centre of the history of globalisation. The contributors concentrate on central themes including intellectual property rights, technology transfer, tropical science, energy production, large technological projects, technical standards and colonial infrastructures. Many also consider methodological, theoretical and conceptual issues. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Technological Encounters: Locating Experts in the History of Globalisation (David Pretel, Lino Camprubí)....Pages 1-26 The Historical Roots of Modern Bridges: China’s Engineers as Global Actors (Dagmar Schäfer)....Pages 27-39 Indigenous Resistance and the Technological Imperative: From Chemistry in Birmingham to Camphor Wars in Formosa, 1860s–1914 (Ian Inkster)....Pages 41-74 Global Engineers: Professional Trajectories of the Graduates of the École des Arts et Manufactures (1830s–1920s) (Darina Martykánová)....Pages 75-104 Re-Designing Africa: Railways and Globalization in the Era of the New Imperialism (Maria Paula Diogo, Bruno J. Navarro)....Pages 105-128 The Global Rise of Patent Expertise During the Late Nineteenth Century (David Pretel)....Pages 129-157 Networks of American Experts in the Caribbean: The Harvard Botanic Station in Cuba (1898–1930) (Leida Fernandez-Prieto)....Pages 159-187 Breaking Global Standards: The Anti-metric Crusade of American Engineers (Hector Vera)....Pages 189-215 Statistics as Service to Democracy: Experimental Design and the Dutiful American Scientist (Tiago Saraiva, Amy E. Slaton)....Pages 217-255 The Bona Fide Contracts: An Engineering Company in Wartime Shanghai, 1937–1945 (Carles Brasó Broggi)....Pages 257-282 Dutch Irrigation Engineers and Their (Post-) Colonial Irrigation Networks (Maurits W. Ertsen)....Pages 283-312 Engineers and Scientist as Commercial Agents of the Spanish Nuclear Programme (Joseba De la Torre, M. d. Mar Rubio-Varas, Gloria Sanz Lafuente)....Pages 313-340 Engineers’ Diplomacy: The South American Petroleum Institute, 1941–1950s (María Cecilia Zuleta)....Pages 341-370 Epilogue: Technology’s Activists and Global Dynamics (Ian Inkster)....Pages 371-388 Back Matter ....Pages 389-394