Dissertation Research: Driving Forces: Technology, Temporality

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Since the mid-nineteenth century, social theorists have regarded the train as a central agent of punctuality, social synchronization, and standardized timekeeping. While such accounts may indeed reflect the development of railway systems in Western Europe and North America, they also reflect the Western-centered focus of the history of technology. Conversely, riding a train today in many places in the ex-colonial world makes it hard to reconcile such assertions of modern punctuality with what happens on the ground. Despite the fact that this difference in temporal praxis between the West and non-West impacts many aspects of daily life, from productivity and business-culture to political stability, the problem has never been studied in a historically specific setting. Looking at Egypt between 1869 and 1939, this Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant in the History of Technology seeks to answer a socio-technical question: what is it about railway systems that makes them agents of punctuality in certain contexts and not in others? Preliminary research suggests that the construction of an Egyptian railway by British engineers generated unique standards of colonial timekeeping which were less stringent than practices prevalent in Britain at the period. Based on research in archives and libraries in Egypt and London, this dissertation will be the first history of technology in colonial Egypt. The project pushes us to consider the technological aspect of colonialism, a dimension which has so far been missing from our understanding of how Egypt was colonized, and also from most understandings of colonialism generally. The proposed research has several merits. It will open for discussion the possibility that current, less stringent temporal practices in the post-colonial world are not simply culturally oriented; rather, they may be attributed to techno-political historical circumstances. The dissertation links the study of technology and the study of colonialism, cutting across disciplinary divides. Regarding timekeeping as a contested socio-technical practice and colonialism as a technological, rather than just political project, this dissertation enriches recent literature about techno-politics with a case study that examines the connection of technology and politics on the uniquely large scale of the nation state and empire. By de-centering Science and Technology Studies' Western focus, this dissertation gives a voice to hitherto neglected social and ethnic groups and experiences. Further, once published in book form, this dissertation promises to be an attractive pedagogical tool for explicating large-scale questions of techno-politics.