Society, Technology, and Culture, or How the Balkans Meet Modernity

In: Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century
Author:
Dobrinka Parusheva
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Chapter
Pages:
139–160
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657760022_007

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Abstract

The way the Balkans meet modernity is quite similar to the other European countries. The difference lies mainly in the timing of the first contact. Contact, in this case, means a process which lasted several decades during the nineteenth century rather than one single act. And since the railroads and trains were the widely acclaimed feature of the modern age, the discussion on modernization is offered in a form of a ‘train ride’, with three main ‘stops’ along the road: society (where an overall discussion about the main socio-economic characteristics of the Balkans’ nineteenth century is provided), technology (since technological innovations are a major aspect of the economic modernization process), and, finally, culture (an analysis of the modern economic culture and cultural appropriation is offered). This division is artificial and for the sake of presentation only – in reality, all three aspects are intricately intertwined. If one tries to summarize the Balkans’ meeting with modernity in one sentence, it would perhaps be the following: peasant societies faced modern ideas and technology and had difficulties in ‘swallowing’ them because of their established way of life, that is, their culture.

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Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century

Persons and Personalities as Agents of Modernization in the Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Space

Series:  Balkan Studies Library, Volume: 35
Cover Transforming Southeast Europe During the Long 19th Century
E-Book ISBN:
9783657760022
Publisher:
Brill | Schöningh
Print Publication Date:
06 Jun 2024
Front Matter
Part I Introduction
Part II Foreign Agents of Institutional Modernization in the Ottoman and the Post-Ottoman Urban Centres
Part III Agents of Social and Cultural Modernization: Tradition, Modernity, and Nation-Building in Imperial and Post-Imperial Context
Part IV Agents of Economic and Technological Modernization in the Ottoman Periphery
Back Matter

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