Introduction Europe Materializing? Toward a Transnational History of European Infrastructures

From Myths to Markets

“…Belief in a myth shapes the concepts which become a part of reality and practice [Badenoch, 2010]. In his analysis of the myths of European maps, Alexander Badenoch argues “it is not about how or whether maps ‘lie’ or misrepresent material reality”, it is that the myth shapes the conceptualizations of space which then become “a part of the ‘reality’ of infrastructures” [ ibid.…”

“…In an attempt to answer these questions, this article seeks to explore the space between beliefs and market outcomes by investigating the impact of cultural myths on institutional emergence and production outcomes. The term myth is here defined as “taken for granted” beliefs [Hobwbawm and Ranger 1983: 283, 263], which are not lies, but rather imaginative patterns of interpretation [Migley 2014: 1] that bind people together [Sorel 1950] and become “a part of the ‘reality’ of infrastructures” [Badenoch 2010: 53]. I argue that ideas such as cultural myths influence the distribution of power between actors, motivate political action, and shape market institutions.…”

Rethinking legacies in internet history: Euronet, lost (inter)networks, EU politics

“…It has only been an initiative to act as a catalyst for the national PTTs, to stimulate the development of own networks and to achieve European standardization ("European Commission opens news offensive," 1981) Euronet, as a technological project and catalyst of technical standardization, I believe, cannot be seen independently from Euronet as a product and legacy of the much longer political project of European integration and collaboration. Put differently, technological integration through X.25 supported political integration by making national data and communication networks "signify in terms of Europe" (Badenoch & Fickers, 2010). Once this objective was completed, Euronet ceased to exist; not its physical infrastructure, but the political project of integrating national networks into a European internet unified through X.25.…”

Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and the Eurosceptic Tradition in Britain

“…Their recourse to the idea that European integration is ‘the price of peace’ (Blair 1998) points up the transnational resonance of the official history the EU likes to tell about itself—the story of Europe leaving its dark days behind it and journeying to an enlightened future (see the ‘history’ segment of its website—Europa undated). This is why political cartoonists and the individual politicians they lampoon favour journey metaphors about the EU (Daddow 2004, 63–67), particularly trains and related symbolism for the onward march of the EU (Badenoch and Fickers 2010, 1; on journey metaphors more generally see Charteris-Black 2006, 198–201, 207–209). The idea that the EU is heading for a bright future enables uncomfortable national military pasts to be ‘contained’ as viable explanations of historical change in support of an overarching metanarrative that suggests, in the long-run, it was all for the greater good.…”