Technology, engineering and modernity in Turkey: the case of road bridges between 1850 and 1960

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2010
Örmecioğlu, Hilal Tuğba
Almost all the sources on modernism originate material transformations in Western world to industrial revolution while mental ones to enlightenment. In all these narrations, technology, engineering, and modernism are considered as correlated. Besides these concepts, the everyday life rituals that were naturally constructed in the historical process also strengthen this attitude. Then, what are the meanings of the same concepts in a country that experience a reverse process instead of the modernization through industrialization? How new technologies had adapted to local circumstances of an unindustrialized country? While having these questions in mind, this study intends to identify the role of engineer and to reflect on the importance of technology on Turkish modernization project, hence, this dissertation is an historical inquiry into the role played by new building technologies and civil engineering. It covers a broad period extending from late Ottoman to 1960. Among many prestigious building types of engineering such as silos, dams, harbors, factories, railroad etc. that also became popular representations of development, prosperity and modernity, the bridges have been focused on with a particular emphasis because of both their importance for engineering and construction of transportation networks.

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Citation Formats
H. T. Örmecioğlu, “Technology, engineering and modernity in Turkey: the case of road bridges between 1850 and 1960,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2010.