Transcultural Mediators, Strategies and Entangled Modernities. Transportation and Infrastructure in the Imperial Ports of Odessa and Varna in 19 century

该项目的目标是通过分析19世纪蒸汽运输系统的建立以及与之相关的基础设施，重建黑海地区的跨奥斯曼互动。敖德萨和瓦尔纳港口城市关键人物的传记和实用的跨文化调解策略将是研究的核心。蒸汽航运运输系统的发展对其他类型的运输基础设施，如铁路、公路、邮政和电报的建立以及贸易、银行和保险部门的发展产生了累积效应。在瓦尔纳，这涉及会计和贸易法律，在敖德萨，这涉及船长、机器操作员和其他专业人员的教育。它还导致了新的外交关系的引入，如领事馆或国际公司的分支机构。本研究将分为三个部分。第一个问题反映了这两个港口城市作为跨帝国的知识转移和跨区域网络的作用。第二部分将瓦尔纳和敖德萨港口作为19世纪奥斯曼帝国、俄罗斯帝国及其他地区的跨文化、商业和政治影响中心。最后，第三部分也是最重要的部分分析了由于跨文化的实践和经验而导致的黑海蒸汽运输系统的制度化。本研究将遵循文化史与传记研究领域中历史与现代性纠缠的方法论框架。方法包括对原始资料的解释分析；规范性文件、日记、信件；照片档案的视觉分析；网络分析。该项目是基于两个航运公司的案例研究和四个传记。案例研究包括俄罗斯航运贸易公司的建立和进一步发展：1856年俄罗斯第一家股份制航运公司RS&TC。然后转到奥斯曼/保加利亚案例，调查了1862年在伊斯坦布尔建立的第一家私人航运贸易公司普罗维登斯。分析的传记将是RS&TC的创始人、海军上将尼古拉·a·阿尔卡斯（Admiral Nikolay A. Arkas）和瓦尔纳普罗维登斯公司（Providence company）的创始人彼得·彼得罗夫（Petar Petrov）。此外，该项目将遵循瓦尔纳运输基础设施制度化的主要人物，犹太兄弟Tedeschi的传记。假设是，尽管俄罗斯和奥斯曼帝国之间存在差异，但由于移动玩家的努力，蒸汽航运的制度化是可能的。因此，他们的跨文化调解努力、被公认为普世的西方知识的翻译实践及其网络将成为分析的主题。

The objective of the project is to reconstruct the trans-Ottoman interactions in the Black sea region by analysing the establishment of the steam shipping transportation system in the 19th century and the infrastructures related to it. Biographies and practical intercultural mediation strategies of key figures in the port cities of Odessa and Varna will be central for the study.The development of the steam shipping transportation system had a cumulative effect upon the establishment of other types of transport infrastructures such as railways, roads, post and telegraph, as well as for the development of trade, banking and insurance sectors. In the case of Varna this concerned accounting and trade law, or in the case of Odessa the education of captains, machine operators and other specialists. It also led to the introduction of new diplomatic relations such as consulates or international companies branches.The research will be divided into three parts. The first one reflects upon the role of the two port cities as trans-imperial places of transfer of knowledge and transregional networks. The second one contextualizes Varna and Odessa ports as centres of cross-cultural, commercial and political influences in the Ottoman, in the Russian Empire and beyond during the 19th century. Finally, the third and most important part analyses the very institutionalization of the steam shipping transportation system in the Black sea as a result of transcultural practices and experiences.The study will follow the methodological frame of the entangled histories and modernities in the field of cultural history and biography studies. The methods include interpretative analysis of original sources; normative documents, diaries, letters; visual analysis of photo archives; network analysis. The project is based on two case studies of shipping companies and four biographies. The case studies include the establishment and further development of the Russian Shipping and Trade Company: RS&TC in 1856, the first joint-stock shipping company in Russia. Then it moves to the Ottoman/Bulgarian case, which investigates the establishment of the first private Shipping Trade Company Providence in 1862 in Istanbul. The biographies analysed will be of the creator of RS&TC, Admiral Nikolay A. Arkas, and of the creator of the Providence company, Petar Petrov, in Varna. Furthermore, the project will follow the biographies of the leading figures for the institutionalization of transport infrastructures in Varna, the Jewish brothers Tedeschi. The hypothesis is that the institutionalization of steam shipping, in spite of the differences between the Russian and the Ottoman Empires, is possible as a result of efforts of persons who act as mobile players. Therefore, their intercultural mediation efforts, practices of translation of the accepted as universal Western knowledge and their networks will be subject of the analysis.