Novedad editorial: Peripheral Flows: A Historical Perspective on Mobilities between Cores and Fringes

Simone Fari e Massimo Moraglio (eds.), Peripheral Flows: A Historical Perspective on Mobilities between Cores and Fringes. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016).

Book Description

The main purpose of the eleven contributions to this volume is to reconsider and re-assess the role of cores and peripheries in shaping modern socio-technical systems. From this perspective they explore a terrain of highly complex systems mainly operating on the so-called Western model: Railways, telegraphs, motor vehicles and airports were, in fact, all born in classic cores areas in the West and then spread out into the peripheries. The approach in itself is not new, but this volume has managed to bring out interestingly innovative elements and viewpoints. The contributors are not content with the traditional definitions of peripheries and flows, but tend to put them to the test, revise them and eventually offer critiques. The result is a tempering of the monolithic and traditional concept of a one-way transfer. No longer, therefore, a simple and linear act of adoption, but a recourse to adaptation – changes in meaning, use and perception. The volume is a starting point for future explorations on the subject of science and technology studies and takes part in a wider discussion of globalisation, global and transnational history.


Table of contents

Acknowledgements  

Introduction 
The Function of Flows between Cores and Peripheries 
Simone Fari and Massimo Moraglio 

Part I Mapping the Field 

Chapter One  
A Proposal to Hybridise Communication and Mobility Research Agendas 
Gabriele Balbi and Massimo Moraglio 

Chapter Two  
The Affirmation of Semi-Periphery: A Case-Study on Greek Automobility, 1930-2000 
Alexia-Sofia Papazafeiropoulou 

Chapter Three  
Re-Assessing Portuguese Coachbuilding and Motor Taxicabs in the Early 20th Century 
José Barros Rodrigues and Maria Paula Diogo 

Part II Between Cores 

Chapter Four  
Constructing European Centres and Peripheries through Railway Corridors: The Case of Greece 
Irene Anastasiadou 

Chapter Five  
89mm from Europe: Mediating Railway Mobility on Russia’s Western Peripheries 
Sławomir Łotysz

Chapter Six  
The Circulation and Reception of Mobility Technologies: The Construction of Buenos Aires’s Underground Railways
Dhan Zunino Singh 

Part III Linking Peripheries

Chapter Seven 
Motor-vehicle Insurance Policy in Spain after 1962: Is Peripherality So Crucial? 
Leonardo Caruana de las Cagigas 

Chapter Eight  
Colonial Centres and Peripheries: Low-cost Roads and Portuguese Engineers in the 1950s
M. Luísa Sousa 

Chapter Nine  
From Streamlined Agriculture to the Air City: Is the New Early Post-War American Airport a Moderniser of the Periphery? 
Victor Marquez Part IV Linking Information 

Chapter Ten  
Telegraphs and Railways between Centrality and Marginality 
Simone Fari 

Chapter Eleven  
The Centrality of Peripheral Nodes for Global Flows: The Portuguese Case 
Ana Paula Silva 

List of Contributors