A Light Bulb in Every House
The Istanbul General Electric Factory and American Technology Transfer to Turkey
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4843578 |
|---|---|
| Authors | T E Tunc (0000-0002-2922-3916), Gokhan Tunc (0000-0002-8307-1060) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 749-774 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Technology and Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/tech.2022.0108 |
| PMID | 35848238 |
| OpenAlex | W4285682261 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
In 1946, Turkish entrepreneur Vehbi Koç signed an agreement with the U.S. firm General Electric to build and operate its first light bulb factory in the Near/Middle East, in Istanbul. This private joint venture introduced new manufacturing techniques, business practices, and consumer habits to Turkey, opening channels of postwar technological exchange. Closer examination of the GE-Koç partnership reveals that during the early Cold War, the transfer and embedding of American technologies in Turkey was a politically complicated process of innovation that required constant adaptation. Fraught with unforeseeable obstacles, it also required cautious negotiation with multiple transnational actors. The story of the GE-Koç partnership thus adds a new dimension to historical understandings of the Turkish Cold War experience and the Americanization of the region. It illustrates how transferring a nonmilitary, soft-power, domestic technology-the light bulb-played a significant role in Turkish-American relations and therefore contributes to studies of U.S. Cold War diplomacy through transnational investment in innovation
Americanization · Cold war · Diplomacy · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Factory (object-oriented programming) · General partnership · Management · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Social science · Sociology · Turkish · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · Engineering · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |