Infrastructural Development, Corruption, Xenophobia, and Colonization in Central and Southeastern Europe

Infrastructural development is most often understood as shorthand for the arrival of ‘modernity’, both holding the promise of prosperity, and carrying with it the threat of disruption. The present volume examines historical attitudes to the infrastructural revolution that transformed Central and Southeastern Europe in the long nineteenth century, homing in on the scandals and controversies that shaped national and transnational debates alike. Historicizing vocabularies of contestation brings to light a conceptual nexus: the entanglement between infrastructure, xenophobia, corruption, and colonization. Fears that ‘corrupting’ foreign Others would gain ‘colonial’ ascendancy through the conduits of infrastructure, capital, and expertise were a recurring feature of public debates. Yet other permutations of these terms were also possible, making this nexus an all the more relevant lens for reassessing this formative moment for empire- and nation-building in the region. Theoretically innovative and empirically rich, the volume aims to reshape our understanding of how infrastructure acted as a flashpoint for political and cultural reflection.

Silvia Marton is associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest, and senior researcher at the New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study, Bucharest. Her scientific interests include the history and sociology of political corruption, and nation-state building in Central-South-East Europe. She is principal investigator of “Transnational histories of ‘corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850)” (ERC-2022-AdG no. 101098095).

Andrei-Dan Sorescu is a cultural and intellectual historian of nineteenth-century Europe, with a focus on Romania in a transnational context. His current research interests include the role of self-comparison in nation-building, the historical semantics of the “colonial”, the transnational and global dimensions of antisemitism, and the critical study of temporalities.