Bishop, E A (1997) Talking shop: Egyptian engineers and Soviet specialists at the Aswan High Dam. PhD thesis, University of Chicago, USA.
Abstract
One might think that Soviet specialists extended their influence over the Egyptian engineers in the context of the Aswan high dam project, after all, he who pays the piper call the tune. Soviet specialists believe this project would be an opportunity for them to demonstrate the achievements of Soviet production culture. However, their attempt to develop Aswan as a branch of Soviet production culture was thwarted for reasons which reveal a great deal about that culture. Egyptian concepts of technology, and of the technical elite's responsibilities, were conditioned by engineers' experiences in a cotton-cultivating environment, and under colonialism. While Egyptian engineers rejected some of the Anglo-Indian colonialist statements about the Nile, they appropriated other colonialist concepts of Nile control, and built upon colonialist means of mathematical modeling with the introduction of enhanced statistical models that relocate variation in the Nile flood from the Orient, and identified it with other sources of variation in the natural world. Soviet concepts of technical authority were drawn from ideas about managers' authority within the enterprise and in the community at large. It was within the sense that there was a Soviet industrial enterprise and a distinctive Soviet production culture that the Soviet technical intelligentsia found its voice. The means of expression which Soviet specialists considered appropriate to themselves as wielders of technical authority were melded with means of expression considered appropriate to the managerial cadre. By the end, Soviet production culture in Egypt could not deliver what Soviet production culture within the USSR had been represented as producing. When Aswan high dam project goals were not met in a timely manner, Egyptian engineers redeveloped the project, transferring many of the functions of Soviet specialists to Egyptian engineers from the private sector. The final irony was that these Egyptian engineers not only replaced Soviet production culture at the high dam construction site, but they represented Soviet Hydroproject plans and designs for the structure as their own.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Khalidi, R |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Egypt; construction site; culture; dam construction; dam project; private sector |
| Index terms: | engineer, private sector, statistical model, Egypt, mathematical modelling, construction site, manager, colonialism, dam construction, dam project, variation |
| Subjects: | profession, work location, data science, contractual condition, sociology, industry analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, practitioner, analytical methods, Geography, infrastructure engineering |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Contract Administration, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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