INFRASTRUCTURAL GLOBALIZATION: LIGHTING THE CHINA COAST, 1860s–1930s

Bickers, Robert

doi:10.1017/s0018246x13000010

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…To summarize, private organizations made a significant contribution to enhancing navigational safety in premodern Japan, but they often failed to provide a lighthouse despite a strong need for one. Public provision of lighthouses after the opening of the country might have compensated for the shortcomings of the market and contributed to underpinning the globalization process, as discussed by Bickers () in relation to the Chinese experience.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lighthouse Provision in Premodern Japan

Saito¹

2019

Economic Inquiry

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We investigate how lighthouses were provided in premodern Japan, with a specific focus on the role of the private sector. Using national survey data on lighthouses collected by the government in 1883, we find that lighthouses constructed by the private sector in the Edo period (1603−1868) accounted for nearly 70% of lighthouses existing at the time of the survey and that there was no significant difference in technical features between private and public lighthouses. However, we observe that almost all private lighthouses were located at ports, and additional case studies indicate that the public authorities endorsed the operation of some lighthouses, which might have contributed to their profits and improved their long‐term survival. We also find that various factors, including the formation of merchant coalitions and whether users were identifiable, influenced whether a private organization could circumvent the free rider problem. (JEL H41, L97, N45)

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5. Bickers (2013) is a rare exception that examines the lighthouses along the coast of China. that explain the observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lighthouse Provision in Premodern Japan

Saito¹

2019

Economic Inquiry

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“…Following a series of “ocular inspections” in September 1947, Philippine authorities finally realised that the lighthouse had been “severely damaged” during the war and that it “had not been in operation” since 28 . As Robert Bickers has stated, “lighthouses stand out, that is their function,” but in the case of Taganak, the lack of a working light had allowed it to become shrouded and obscured (Bickers 2013: 447).…”

Section: Island Transfer and Lighthouse Disputementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Along the Chinese coast, imperial lighting had illuminated similarly perilous waterways and secured Western colonial shipping from Hong Kong to Shanghai and beyond since the 1860s. By 1948, over 300 lighthouses and other navigational beacons had been constructed in the region (Bickers 2013: 432). Similar patterns of imperial illumination occurred across maritime Southeast Asia, particularly around the Malay Peninsula.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dimming the Seas around Borneo: Contesting Island Sovereignty and Lighthouse Administration amidst the End of Empire, 1946–1948

Saunders

2019

TRaNS

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This article examines issues of island sovereignty and lighthouse administration in maritime Southeast Asia in the context of post-war decolonisation. It does so by demonstrating how lax and complacent colonial governance in British North Borneo led to the construction of a lighthouse on contested island territory. By the late 1940s these islands became the focal point of a regional dispute between the Philippines, North Borneo's colonial government, and the United Kingdom. While lighthouses were, in the colonial mind-set, deemed essential for illuminating the coasts and projecting order onto the seas, the Philippine government sought to renege on colonial-era obligations and wrest a new sense of post-colonial legitimacy.The legacy of the Turtle Island transfer was therefore significant in recalibrating imperial lighting in the Sulu Sea, as well as giving rise to a Philippine post-colonial authority that was characterised by an acknowledgement of indigenous Suluk maritime heritage. Similarly, it reflected an extension of previous instances of transnational disputes in the region, where the island shoal had been simultaneously claimed and administered by the United States, the United Kingdom and the historical Sulu Sultanate. While the lighthouse remained destroyed, and the seas dimmed, by mid-1948 the Turtle Islands had attained a new post-colonial and transnational status. Utilising a range of archival sources, memoirs and published material, this article sheds light on an under-examined period of Southeast Asian history.

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“…13 Just as infrastructure 'facilitated the physical incorporation of China into wider networks and circuits as well as its alignment with developing international norms' (as Robert Bickers argues), so too did the camera. 14 At the same time, several of the essays focus closely on individuals. 15 The borderland between the private and the public is an unstable one in these essays, in which a photograph may constitute both a captured personal moment and a valuable official or scientific resource, but in which the radical solipsism of the snapshot is also subverted by its capacity to generate surprising empathies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%