Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
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    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

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Thursday 13 April 2023 11.00 - 13.00
M-6 TEC01 The Social Impact of Infrastructure in Southeastern Europe, 1900-1970
C32
Network: Science & Technology Chair: Evguenia Davidova
Organizer: Brigitte Le Normand Discussant: Evguenia Davidova
Malte Fuhrmann : Petitioning for Penetration: Railway Populism from Below in Turn-of-the-Century Bulgaria
Following the establishment of Bulgaria in 1878, its elites were eager to demonstrate their national sovereignty in many fields, including infrastructural policy. In the initial decades, the policy on railway infrastructure was dominated by three maxims: indigenization, external colonization, and popularization. The first two come as little surprise: Driving out ... (Show more)
Following the establishment of Bulgaria in 1878, its elites were eager to demonstrate their national sovereignty in many fields, including infrastructural policy. In the initial decades, the policy on railway infrastructure was dominated by three maxims: indigenization, external colonization, and popularization. The first two come as little surprise: Driving out the foreign railway companies Bulgaria had inherited from the Ottoman Empire seemed a welcome task to demonstrate that the new government served not global capital, but the national common good; attempting (but ultimately failing) to connect the Principality with Bulgarians beyond its borders served to demonstrate its commitment to a national Reconquista. However, a third phenomenon has so far largely been ignored. The Bulgarian National Library houses numerous petitions by locals for railway access to previously unconnected parts of the country. Exploiting the new regime’s eagerness to prove itself as executor of the popular will, these petitions managed to harness the regime’s limited resources to their particular interests.
The paper will examine these pamphlets, reconstruct their discursive strategies and their authors’ social background. In this way, it will demonstrate loopholes in the standard narrative of a glorious act of national self-determination and reveal agency from below in the infrastructure sector instead. (Show less)

Luminita Gatejel : Turning Wetlands into “Productive” Land: River Bank Engineering in Interwar Romania
Romanian authorities always regarded the Danube’s wetlands with suspicion, often complaining that their economic potential remained untapped. In addition, health authorities critically eyed the wetlands as a constant source of infectious disease. Thus, turning wetlands into farmland became an important state building measure that aimed at improving the food security ... (Show more)
Romanian authorities always regarded the Danube’s wetlands with suspicion, often complaining that their economic potential remained untapped. In addition, health authorities critically eyed the wetlands as a constant source of infectious disease. Thus, turning wetlands into farmland became an important state building measure that aimed at improving the food security of the country and the health of the population. State actors commissioned engineers and other scientists to design draining schemes. These scientists, although following the lead of political authorities, perused their own interests and priorities in the area. Their projects often disrupted the lives of the communities that had learned to adapt to the Danube’s environment. This paper examines how the wetlands of the Danube became a battleground of conflicting agendas pursued by government officials, scientists and villagers. (Show less)

Brigitte Le Normand : The Meeting of the Local, the Regional, and the Global: Urban Planning and Infrastructure in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, 1945-1970
After the Second World War, the border that had previously cut through the urban fabric, separating Italian Rijeka and Yugoslav Sušak, was dismantled, and the reunification of the city by the Yugoslav Partisans was celebrated as a popular victory. A new piece of infrastructure symbolically celebrated the repairing of ... (Show more)
After the Second World War, the border that had previously cut through the urban fabric, separating Italian Rijeka and Yugoslav Sušak, was dismantled, and the reunification of the city by the Yugoslav Partisans was celebrated as a popular victory. A new piece of infrastructure symbolically celebrated the repairing of the urban fabric, combining a square with a bridge. Yet, in a longer perspective, infrastructure development in Rijeka was used to promote the city as a regional and global hub for Yugoslavia’s maritime trade, to the detriment of the citizen’s enjoyment of the city. This paper analyses urban planning in Rijeka in the first 25 years after the war to examine the relationship between the technological social. It examines masterplans and other planning documents, plans for realized and cancelled interventions into the urban fabric, media discourse on infrastructural projects, and instances of popular dissatisfaction with the city’s development. (Show less)



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