A Historical Comparison of European (German) Railway System with East Asian (Japanese) one under the First Globalization - with respect to railway integration and technical development

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03837
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Banzawa Ayumu 大阪大学, 経済学研究科, 教授 (90238238)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 経済史 / 経営史 / 西洋史(ドイツ史） / 鉄道史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I carried out a socio-historical study of the railway industry in the German-speaking countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and have shown that political changes led to major changes in the behaviour of German-speaking railway engineers, who were technical bureaucrats in both the narrow and broad sense.　In this study I focused the German National Railway (Deutsches Reichsbahn) in the first half of the twentieth century . As an economic history study, I have also investigated the relationship between German railways' particularism and the national economy since the 19th century, with a focus on the Bavarian State Railways. Based on this research, we have published an enlightening monograph.

Free Research Field

経済史・経営史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

20世紀前半のドイツ社会の変動のなかに鉄道という技術体系を居続けることで、「普遍的」「一般的」な技術とその担い手が政体や社会通念の変化に応じて技術選択をおこなうという社会史的事実を浮き彫りにし、またそのことが本来的に普遍的・不変的であるべき社会秩序の解体に貢献する事態につながるという歴史的経験（ナチス・ドイツ体制下の国鉄）を明らかにすることができた。歴史学・社会經濟史学・経営史学における事実発見と整理の学術的意義とともに、この点を一般をも読者対象とする著作で主張した点に、社会的意義を見出すことができよう。