Infrastructural Development, Corruption, Xenophobia, and Colonization in Central and Southeastern Europe

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-90-485-7727-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 302 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 601 g

Reihe: Central European University Press

Infrastructural development is most often understood as shorthand for the arrival of ‘modernity’, both holding the promise of prosperity, and carrying with it the threat of disruption. The present volume examines historical attitudes to the infrastructural revolution that transformed Central and Southeastern Europe in the long nineteenth century, homing in on the scandals and controversies that shaped national and transnational debates alike. Historicizing vocabularies of contestation brings to light a conceptual nexus: the entanglement between infrastructure, xenophobia, corruption, and colonization. Fears that ‘corrupting’ foreign Others would gain ‘colonial’ ascendancy through the conduits of infrastructure, capital, and expertise were a recurring feature of public debates. Yet other permutations of these terms were also possible, making this nexus an all the more relevant lens for reassessing this formative moment for empire- and nation-building in the region. Theoretically innovative and empirically rich, the volume aims to reshape our understanding of how infrastructure acted as a flashpoint for political and cultural reflection.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Marton, Silvia

Sorescu, Andrei-Dan

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Researching Infrastructural Development, Corruption, and Colonization in Central and Southeastern Europe: An Introduction I – Conceptual Framework 1. On Hegemony and Connectivity: A Short History of Infrastructure-Political Struggles and their Discourses 2. Transportation Infrastructure and Corruption Scandals 3. Writing the History of Critical Infrastructures: Some Conceptual Remarks 4. The Infrastructural Power of the “Colonial” as a Concept Part II – (Transportation) Infrastructure, Corruption Debates, and Colonization 5. Accusations of Tyranny: Mobilizing the Ottoman Imperial Past in Service of West European Informal Empire in the Early Greek State 6. British Investors and the “Kustendjie Harbor Dues Issue” 7. Steel and Wood: Railway Construction and Rent-Seeking 8. Hoping and Coping: Local Anxieties and Railway Development in Romania 9. Regional Competition, Economic Interests, and Military Stumbling-Blocks in the Making of the Moldavian Railway Network 10. Conduits of Violence: Railway Infrastructure and Student Antisemitism in Interwar Romania Index

Über Autor(innen)

Silvia Marton is associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, and senior researcher at the New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest. Her scientific interests include the history and sociology of political corruption, and nation-state building in Central-South-East Europe. She is principal investigator of “Transnational histories of ‘corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850)” (ERC-2022-AdG no. 101098095).

Andrei-Dan Sorescu is a cultural and intellectual historian of nineteenth-century Europe, with a focus on Romania in a transnational context. His current research interests include the role of self-comparison in nation-building, the historical semantics of the “colonial”, the transnational and global dimensions of antisemitism, and the critical study of temporalities.