Usurpers of Technology
Train Robbery and Theft in Egypt, 1876–1904
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8970064 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiaoyue Yasin Li (0000-0002-0118-4759, University of Michigan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 195-212 |
| Publication date | 2021-04-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020743820001221 |
| OpenAlex | W3156664077 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 40 |
This article examines banditry, embezzlement, and other insider crimes along Egyptian railway lines during a period when British officials exerted centralized control over the Egyptian railway and financial austerity had a negative impact on the rail sector. By exploring the motives and tactics of railway crimes, I posit that criminals, by making claims on and use of the technology outside the purview of state regulations, expressed their heterogeneous desires to redistribute social wealth, repurpose the technological promise of modern railways, and confound intentions of colonial governance. Using new archival materials, this article utilizes a bottom-up approach to examine grassroots activism, everyday knowledge, informal networks, and the social mores and norms that criminals harnessed to discern infrastructural vulnerabilities and elude surveillance from the colonial state. Ultimately, I contend that criminal acts uncovered social crises otherwise hidden under the shadow of the exterior prosperity and stability of late 19th-century Egypt
Austerity · Business · Colonialism · Corporate governance · Criminal law · Criminology · Economics · Economy · Embezzlement · Government (linguistics · Grassroots · Mores · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Prosperity · Sociology · State (computer science · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Finance · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure
The Middle East in the world economy, 1800-1914
The Promise of Infrastructure
Society must be defended
Primitive Rebels, Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries
The Long 1890s in Egypt
The Middle East in the World Economy 1800-1914
Crime of Nationalism
Reassembling the Social
Rule of Experts
Order or Justice
Science and Technology Studies (STS), modern Middle East History, and the infrastructural turn
Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820-1914
Noble Robbers, avengers and entrepreneurs
Spacetime and the Muslim Journey West
Modernization and British Colonial Rule in Egypt, 1882-1914
A New Materialism? Globalization and Technology in the Age of Empire
Positioning the Watch Hand
The Vernacular Journey
Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820-1914. A Study in Trade and Development
Peasants in Revolt
L'Egypte et Ses Chemins de Fer
Seismic Politics
The Politics of the Governed
People as Infrastructure
Brigands and State Building
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |