Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:45:47.673Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Material Politics of Infrastructure Networks Infrastructure Design and Territorial Transformation in Belgium, 1830–40s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2021

Greet De Block Open the ORCID record for Greet De Block [Opens in a new window]
Greet De Block*
Affiliation:
Centre for Urban History/Urban Studies Institute, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
*
Email: greet.deblock@uantwerpen.be
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article delves into the processes of territorial transformation by foregrounding the material dimension of infrastructure. The entry of the research is infrastructure network design and planning. We will trace the concepts of territorial transformation inscribed into the material layout of large technical systems by analyzing the discourse of engineers and policy makers involved in the conception of infrastructure networks. In so doing, the material politics of infrastructure networks will be studied: How did engineers and policy makers design infrastructure to generate a specific territorial transformation? Moreover, how did technological plans hold the idea that one could influence modernization processes by means of a territorial transformation instigated by infrastructure? The neutral status of technology is thus fundamentally challenged by showing that engineers, in association with policy makers, were essential actors in the planned transformation of the territory as they organized infrastructure networks according to specific ideas relating spatial and societal transformation. The article focuses on two decades after the independence of Belgium (1831), when engineers conceived comprehensive networks of rails, waterways, and roads. The material politics of two major public works initiatives will be analyzed: (1) the centrally positioned railway network that connected all industrial centers within the territory as well as with the markets of neighboring countries, positioning Belgium into Europe as international turntable, and (2) a network of roads and canals in peripheral, so-called unproductive, regions that had to integrate these regions within national borders, and indeed extend these borders, as well as buffer and govern the side-effects and risks generated by the accelerating industrialization in the central parts of the nation.

Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 45 , Special Issue 2: From State-Building to European Integration: The Role of the Railway Network in the Territorial Integration of Europe, 1850–2020 , Summer 2021 , pp. 341 - 362
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Social Science History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archival Sources

Anonymous (1848) Loi sur le défrichement des terrains incultes du 25 Mars 1847. Recueil des documents et des discussions. T Lesigne.Google Scholar
Blum, (1832) “Chemin de fer du Havre à Marseille, par Paris, et de Strasbourg et Bale à Nantes.” Le Globe, April 3.Google Scholar
Briavoinne, (1839) De l’industrie en Belgique. Sa situation actuelle. Causes de décadence et de prospérité. Eugène Dubois.Google Scholar
Chevalier, M. (1832) Politique Européenne. Articles extraits du Globe. Au bureau du Globe.Google Scholar
Chevalier, M. (1843) Essais de politique industrielle. Souvenirs de voyage. France, République d’Andorre, Belgique, Allemagne. Librairie de Charles Gosselin.Google Scholar
Clapeyron, E., Lamé, G., Flachat, E., and Flachat, S. (1832) Vues politiques et pratiques sur les travaux publics de France. Everat.Google Scholar
Delacroix, S.-C. (1860) Défrichement des terrains incultes dans la Campine belge et les autres contrées de la Belgique: Rapport à S. E. le Ministre de l’agriculture, du commerce et des travaux publics. Impr. Nationale.Google Scholar
de Laveleye, A. (1831) “Chemin de fer d’Anvers à Cologne. Influence du chemin sur le développement du commerce et de l’industrie.” Moniteur belge, December 1.Google Scholar
De Puydt, R. (1834) “Développemens [sic] de la propositions de M.R. De Puydt relative à un emprunt de 16 millions pour être affectés à la construction de routes.” Documents parlementaires, March 6.Google Scholar
De Puydt, R. (1834) “Remi.” Moniteur belge, March 12.Google Scholar
De Puydt, R. (1836), “Rapport de la commission des travaux publics, Sur la proposition d’un emprunt de fr. 6,000,000, à consacrer à l’exécution de routes, présenté par M. R. De Puydt.” Documents parlementaires, February 18.Google Scholar
Discailles, E. (1892–95) Charles Rogier (1800–1885) d’après des documents inédit. Lebègue.Google Scholar
Discailles, E. (1908) Un diplomate belge à Paris de 1830 à 1864. Hayez.Google Scholar
Frère-Orban, (1847), 2e kamer der Staten-Generaal, Wetsontwerpen, verslagen enz—Session of 5 February 1847.Google Scholar
Frère-Orban, (1847), 2e kamer der Staten-Generaal, Wetsontwerpen, verslagen enz—Session of 9 February 1847.Google Scholar
Guillery, H. (1843) “Annales des travaux publics. Documents scientifiques, industriels ou administratifs, concernant l’art des constructions, les voies de communication et l’industrie minérale.” Annales des travaux publics de Belgique (1): 1–10.Google Scholar
Kümmer, U. (1845) Défrichement des bruyères de la Campine: Mémoire sur l’intervention projetée du gouvernement. Devroye.Google Scholar
Kümmer, U. (1850) Rapport adressé à M. le Ministre de l’Intérieur, par l’ingénieur Kümmer, sur les résultats obtenus à la suite de l’intervention de l’Etat, pour la création de prairies irrigables dans la Campine, pendant les années 1847 à 1849 inclusivement. Devroye.Google Scholar
Kümmer, U. (1851) Création de prairies irrigables et établissement d’une colonie agricole dans la Campine: Rapport adressé à m. le Ministre de l’intérieur, sur les résultats obtenus, pendant l’année 1850 inclusivement, à la suite de l’intervention de l’état. Devroye.Google Scholar
Ministère de l’intérieur (1850) Défrichement des terrains incultes. Exécution de la loi du 25 mars 1847. Annexe n°8. Devroye.Google Scholar
Nothomb, Jean-Baptiste (1843) Moniteur belge, September 23.Google Scholar
Perrot, E. (1844) Des chemins de fer belges. M. Hayez.Google Scholar
Rogier, C. (1834) Moniteur belge, March 17.Google Scholar
Rogier, C. (1868) “Letter to Michel Chevalier, 22 January 1868.” State Archives _ Collection Charles Rogier.Google Scholar
Simons, P., and De Ridder, G. (1833a) Mémoire à l’appui du projet d’un chemin à ornières de fer, à établir entre Anvers, Bruxelles, Liège et Verviers, destiné à former la 1er section de la nouvelle route d’Anvers à Cologne, rédigé en exécution des ordres de M. le Ministre de l’Intérieur. De Vroom.Google Scholar
Simons, P., and De Ridder, G. (1833b) Mémoire de M. l’ inspecteur Vifquain. Réplique des ingénieurs (Brussels, 1 September 1833).Google Scholar
Simons, P., and De Ridder, G. (1839) Le chemin de fer belge, recueil des mémoires et devis pour l’établissement du chemin de fer d’Anvers et Ostende à Cologne avec embranchement de Bruxelles et de Gand aux frontières de France, troisième édition. Lacrosse et Cie.Google Scholar

References

Aerts, E., Beaud, C., and Stengers, J., eds. (1990) Liberalism and Paternalism in the 19th Century, Tenth International Economic History Congress. Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Agnew, J. (2010) “Still trapped in territory?” Geopolitics 15 (4): 779–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atack, J., Bateman, F., Haines, M., and Margo, R. (2010) “Did railroads induce or follow economic growth? Urbanization and population growth in the American Midwest, 1850–1860.” Social Science History 34 (2): 171–97.Google Scholar
Bess, M. (2014) “Routes of conflict: Building roads and shaping the nation in Mexico, 1941–1952.” The Journal of Transport History 35 (1): 78–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Björkman, L., and Harris, A. (2018) “Engineering cities: Mediating materialities, infrastructural imaginaries and shifting regimes of urban expertise.” International Journal for Urban and Regional Research 42 (2): 244–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Block, G. (2011) “Designing the nation: The Belgian railway project, 1830–1837.” Technology and Culture 52 (4): 703–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Block, G. (2016) “Ecological infrastructure in a critical-historical perspective: From engineering social territory to encoding natural topography.” Environment and Planning A 48 (2): 367–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Brulle, D. (1967) “Les chemins de fer belges, Charles Rogier et l’état.” Les annales de l’économie collective (1): 25–93.Google Scholar
Desportes, M., and Picon, A. (1997) De l’espace au territoire. L’aménagement en France. XVIe-XXe siècles. Presses de l’école nationale des ponts et chaussées.Google Scholar
Divall, C. (2003) “Railway imperialisms, railway nationalisms,” in Burri, Monika, Elsasser, Kilian T., and David, Gugerli (eds.) Die Internationalität der Eisenbahn 1850–1970. Chronos-Verlag: 195–209.Google Scholar
Divall, C., and Revill, G. (2005) “Cultures of transport: Representation, practice and technology.” The Journal of Transport History (26): 99–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Divall, C., and Revill, G. (2006) “No turn needed: A reply to Michael Freeman.” The Journal of Transport History (27): 144–49.Google Scholar
Ficek, R. (2016) “Imperial routes, national networks and regional projects in the Pan-American Highway, 1884–1977.” The Journal of Transport History 37 (2): 129–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. (2007) Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France. 1977–1978. Trans Michel Senellart. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gandy, M. (2014) The Fabric of Space: Water, Modernity, and the Urban Imagination. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, I., and Martí-Henneberg, J. (2010) “The railways, urbanization, and local demography in England and Wales, 1825–1911.” Social Science History 34 (2): 199–228.Google Scholar
Guldi, J. (2012) Roads to Power: Britain Invents the Infrastructure State. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, D. (2000) Spaces of Hope. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Høgselius, P., Kaijser, A., and van der Vleuten, E. (2015) Europe’s Infrastructure Transition: Economy, War, Nature. Palgrave Macmillan UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martí-Henneberg, J. (2017) “The influence of the railway network on territorial integration in Europe (1870–1950).” Journal of Transport Geography (62): 160–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCants, A., Eduardo, B., Cordeiro, J., and Lourenco, P., eds. (2011–13) Railroads in Historical Context: Construction, Costs, and Consequences, Volumes I–III. EDP.Google Scholar
Merriman, P. (2007) Driving Spaces: A Cultural-Historical Geography of England’s M1 Motorway. Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mom, G. (2003) “What kind of transport history did we get? Half a century of JTH and the future of the field.” The Journal of Transport History (24): 121–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moraglio, M. (2017a) Driving Modernity: Technology, Experts, Politics, and Fascist Motorways, 1922–1943. Berghahn Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moraglio, M. (2017b) “Seeking a (new) ontology for transport history.” The Journal of Transport History 38 (1): 3–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mukerji, C. (2009) Impossible Engineering: Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pereira, H. (2018) “Introduction—New Insights and Perceptions on Railway History.” HoST—Journal of History of Science and Technology 12 (1): 23–30.Google Scholar
Picon, A. (1992) French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Picon, A. (2002) Les saint-simoniens. Raison, imaginaire et utopie. Belin.Google Scholar
Schwartz, R. (2010) “Rail transport, agrarian crisis, and the restructuring of agriculture: France and Great-Britain confront globalization, 1860–1900.” Social Science History 34 (2): 229–55.Google Scholar
Stengers, J. (1968) “Leopold Ier et le chemin de fer d’Anvers au Rhin,” in Mélanges offerts à G. Jacquemyns. ULB, Institut de sociologie: 573–99.Google Scholar
Swyngedouw, E. (2015) Liquid Power: Contested Hydro-Modernities in Twentieth-Century Spain. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrant, R. (2002) “Chaos in Ovid’s Metamorphoses and its Neronian influence.” Arethusa (35): 349–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilborghs, E. (1987) “Een nieuwe bestemming voor de woeste gemeentegronden: een onderzoek naar het lot van de gedurende 1834-1884 geprivatiseerde gemeentegronden in de Antwerpse Kempen.” (PhD diss., University of Leuven).Google Scholar
Tollebeek, J. (2010) “At the crossroads of nationalism: Huizinga, Pirenne and the Low Countries in Europe.” European Review of History: Revue europeenne d’histoire 17 (2): 187–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Acker, M. (2014) From Flux to Frame. Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
van der Vleuten, E., and Kaijser, A. (2005) “Networking Europe.” History and Technology (21): 21–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Ginderachter, M. (2019) The Everyday Nationalism of Workers: A Social History of Belgium. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Vanhaute, E. (2011) “From famine to food crisis: What history can teach us about local and global subsistence crises.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (1): 47–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vanthemsche, G. (1998) De paradoxen van de staat. Staat en vrije markt in historisch perspectief. VUBPRESS.Google Scholar
Weber, E. (1977) Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of rural France, 1870–1914. Chatto and Windus.Google Scholar
Witte, E. (1985), Le Moniteur belge, le Gouvernement et le Parlement pendant l’unionisme: 1831–1845. Moniteur belge.Google Scholar
Witte, E. (2005) “La construction de la Belgique (1828–1847),” in Dumoulin, Michel, Vincent, Dujardin, Emmanuel, Gerard, and Mark Van, den Wijngaert (eds.) Nouvelle histoire de Belgique. 1: 1830–1905. Complexe.Google Scholar
Wittman, R. (2010) “Space, networks and the Saint-Simonians.” Grey Room (40): 24–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeller, T. (2007) Driving Germany: The Landscape of the German Autobahn. Berghahn.Google Scholar