Sparkling, Plowing and Urbanizing

This book presents a history of mechanization and electrification from the viewpoint of the periphery, that is, from the aspects of the agrarian countryside, the South-Eastern Europe, the developing countries, etc., focusing on agrarian communities in Greece. It is also a comparative research on the respective changes between centre and periphery, through their interaction with modernity, technology and market, in the face of crises and business cycles. With this inquiry, we aim to discuss popular conceptions of civilization and technical progress, e.g. lighting, communications, mechanization etc.; to research the available resources for an appraisal of the penetration of modern technology into countryside. We also intend to criticize the presumed transition from a closed or semi-closed economy to the commercialization and the shaping of an internal market; this critique focuses on historical thresholds, such as the after-war conflicts and transformations. Actually, a complete approach to such questions should also include a study of: a) the commercial and maritime exchanges, b) the agrarian nexus to mechanization and industrialization, i.e. mechanical engineering industry, c) the energy-production transformation, d) the centre-periphery contradiction, and e) the proposed answers to economic depression. Thus, it may also involve a comparative research on the respective changes and mutual influences between centers and peripheries