Amsterdam University Press has just published the final PhD thesis of the TIE-Project. Suzanne Lommers' Europe - On Air illustrates how people in broadcasting were debating issues ranging from institutionalizing radio to wireless and wired network construction. This book specifically acknowledges how the rivalries were solved between various systems like Radio Luxembourg and the International Broadcasting Union, the attempts to save Europe’s civilization amid the chaos of war and peace, and the creation and distribution of truly international programs as early as 1926. The people involved in these transnational broadcasting efforts had some crucial decisions to make in order to actively contribute to European unification.

Buy the book here.

On May 23rd 2012 Suzanne Lommers defended her PhD thesis entitled Europe - On Air. Her Commission consisted of prof. Arne Kaijser (KTH, Sweden), dr. Andreas Fickers (Maastricht), prof. Ruth Oldenziel (Eindhoven), dr. Tine de Moor (Utrecht) and dr. Erik van der Vleuten (Eindhoven). With her defense, the TIE Project has officially ended.

Lommers now works as one of the web editors of the Inventing Europe Virtual Exhibit and also takes care of the communications side of this project. She is particularly interested in the connection the Virtual Exhibit makes between cultural heritage collections, science, and a broader general audience.

Amsterdam University Press has just published Irene Anastasiadou's book Constructing Iron Europe: Transnationalism and Railways in the Interbellum. The book is based on her research done as a PhD candidate in the TIE project. Constructing Iron Europe demonstrates how during the interwar years key players saw railroads as instruments for building a transnational European community. Based on new archival research, Irene's book not only sheds light on patterns of internationalization of railways, but also explores the co-construction of the national and the European in the case of the Greek railways in the Interbellum period.

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The Journal of Contemporary History has published an article by Vincent Lagendijk, namely "‘To Consolidate Peace'? The International Electro-technical Community and the Grid for the United States of Europe". The paper is largely based on his PhD work and centres on the confluence of ideas about European integration and a European electricity network. The article shows, first, how ideas of European cooperation were conceived in both circles, and second, how the two came together in an alliance that brought the idea for European grid into the League of Nations (LoN) and International Labour Organization. Non-government organizations in the field of electricity acted as intermediary platforms, and close links between some engineers and politicians enabled a next step. It argues furthermore that such an alliance was made possible through a set of shared ideas, stressing technical networks as an extension of international politics, viewing ‘Europe’ as an obvious unit of optimization, and relying on a ‘technical’ approach rather than political consultation.

The 3rd issue of History and Technology of 2011 features a special issue, edited by Johan Schot and Frank Schipper. This introduction provides a conceptual exploration of infrastructural Europeanism from an institutional point of view, sketching an overview of the term ‘infrastructure’ and discusses the historiography on the important role infrastructures have played in globalization and the formation of the modern nation-state. In addition, the idea of infrastructural Europeanism draws on the governance turn in European integration studies, which has shifted scholarly attention from treaties and treaty-making to the study of day-to-day policies. The issue furthermore contains contributions by TIE-ers Irene Anastasiadou and Vincent Lagendijk, as well as Hans Buiter, Christian Henrich-Franke & Isabel Tölle, Pascal Griset & Valérie Schafer, and Léonard Laborie.

Palgrave just published Materializing Europe: Toward a Transnational History of European Infrastructures. The volume, edited by Alec Badenoch and Andreas Fickers, brings together the state-of-the-art on infrastructure studies from a historical and transnational angle. It is a dynamic volume, combining both full-fledged chapters as well short biographies. The book is direct outcome of the TIE-project with many contributions are from TIE-project members, as well as other infrastructure-history experts.

To catch a first glimpse, Palgrave made the table of contents and the introduction available through their website. Download them here for a preview. The book is on order at Palgrave.
 

The August issue of the journal Contemporary European History (volume 19) contains a review article by Christian Kleinschmidt, entitled "Infrastructure, Networks, (Large) Technical Systems: The 'Hidden Integration' of Europe". While exploring the latest publications related to European integration and infrastructure, he discusses books by Erik van der Vleuten (Networking Europe, edited with Arne Kaijser), Frank Schipper (Driving Europe), and Vincent Lagendijk (Electrifying Europe). With some minor critical notes, Kleinschmidt evaluates our work as very positive and significant.

Together with Sébastien Gardon and Arnaud Passalacqua, Frank Schipper edited a special issue of the Anglo-French journal Métropoles (December 2009). Entitled "Des mobilités urbaines à la ville mobile. Sur les traces des circulations urbaines", the special issue is dedicated to transnational aspects of urban mobility and their diverse local manifestations over time. Apart from contributing to the introduction - his first publication in French - Frank also contributed an article on traffic signs in the special issue entitled "Unravelling hieroglyphs". The open-source journal is available here.

Johan Schot and Frank Schipper have been awarded the Dr. Cornelis Lely Prize 2009 by The International Association for the History of Transportation, Traffic and Mobility for their paper ‘The role of experts, their beliefs and networks in European transport integration, 1945-1958’ at the T2M conference in Luzern Switzerland, 5-8 November 2009. The prize consists of €250 and a certificate.