Expertise and policy-making

Main actors, debates and outcomes in the making of the Portuguese railway network (1850–90)

Bibliographic Data

ID10249310
AuthorsHugo Silveira Pereira (0000-0002-7706-2686, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal; University of York, UK, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume42
Issue1
Pages58-80
Publication date2021-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Transport History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5266 • E-ISSN: 1759-3999
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0022526620908585
OpenAlexW3016190688
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited7

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Portugal built the main branches of its railway system. In this paper, I will use technical and military reports, parliamentary debates and sundry bibliography to analyse the influence of the different stakeholders. I investigated the expectations, priorities and agendas of engineers, army officers, policymakers and lobbyists in the design of the Portuguese railway network. I argue that historiography about Portuguese railways usually considers the rationale behind their discussion as entirely technological and focuses mainly on their outputs, taking railways for granted, or black-boxed. However, the planification of large transportation systems depends on the sociotechnical context and on hierarchies of power of their time. I will show that experts (mostly engineers) played a decisive role in the planning of the network, but a large part of its design was due to non-technical issues, including political machinations, budgetary constraints and corporative lobbying

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Economics · Historiography · Management · Political science · Politics · Portuguese · Power (physics · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · Historical Education and Society · History · History, Culture, and Diplomacy · Law · Transport and Economic Policies

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access