TY  - BOOK
AU  - Kupferschmidt,Uri M.
TI  - The Diffusion of “Small” Western Technologies in the Middle East: Invention, Use and Need in the 19th and 20th Centuries 
T2  - Studies on Modern Orient
SN  - 9783110777192
AV  - HD30.22 .K874 2023
U1  - 338.5024658 23
PY  - 2023///]
CY  - Berlin, Boston
PB  - De Gruyter
KW  - Economic history
KW  - Managerial economics
KW  - 19. und 20. Jahrhundert
KW  - Erfindungen
KW  - Industrialisierung
KW  - Konsumgüter
KW  - Nahost
KW  - RELIGION / Islam / History
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - consumer goods
KW  - differential diffusion
KW  - globalization
KW  - imperial expansion
N1  - Frontmatter --; Preface --; A note on transliteration --; Contents --; Introduction --; 1 Who needed department stores in Egypt? --; 2 On the diffusion of “Small” Western technologies and consumer goods in the Middle East --; 3 The social history of the sewing machine in the Middle East --; 4 Leapfrogging from typewriter to personal computer in the Middle East --; 5 From Ibn Haitham to Abou Naddara and Al-Misri Effendi: eyeglasses in the Middle East --; 6 Did the piano have a chance in the Middle East? --; Bibliography --; List of Figures --; Index of proper names --; Index of geographical names --; Index of subjects; restricted access; Issued also in print
N2  - In recent years we have become interested in the diffusion of “small” Western technologies in the countries of the Middle East during the 19th and 20th centuries, the era of Imperialism and first globalization. We postulated a contrast between “small” and “big” technologies. Under the latter category we may understand railway systems, electricity grids, telegraph networks, and steam navigation, imposed by foreign powers or installed by connected local entrepreneurs. But many “small” Western technologies, such as sewing machines, typewriters, pianos, eyeglasses, and similar consumer goods, which had been developed and manufactured in Europe and America, were wanted, and willingly acquired by the agency of individual users elsewhere. In a few cases, however, the inventions had to be adapted, or were overstepped, and even delayed. Some were adopted as social markers or status symbols only by elites who could afford them. Processes of adoption and diffusion therefore differed according to cultural settings, preferences, and needs. Social and cultural historians, and social scientists, not only of the Middle East, will find in this collection of essays a new approach to the impact of Western technological inventions on the Middle East
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110777222
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9783110777222
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9783110777222/original
ER  -