Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:8th Nov '07
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£53.99(9780415560610)
In this book David Wittner situates Japan’s Meiji Era experience of technology transfer and industrial modernization within the realm of culture, politics, and symbolism, examining how nineteenth century beliefs in civilization and enlightenment influenced the process of technological choice.
Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, Wittner argues that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Choice of technique was based on the ability of a technological artifact to import Western "civilization" to Japan: Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. Technological artifacts could also be used as instruments of political legitimization. By late the Meiji Era, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might.
A fresh and engaging re-examination of Japanese industrialization within the larger framework of the Meiji Era, this book will appeal to scholars and students of science, technology, and society as well as Japanese history and culture.
'Wittner's overall framework remains valid and offers a fresh way of looking at Japanese industrial and technological development - in cultural-political terms - during the critical opening decades of the modern era.' - Steven Ericson, Monumenta Nipponica 63:2
ISBN: 9780415433754
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 570g
222 pages