Azúcar y carrileras en la industrialización del Valle del Cauca

Abstract

In this work we examine the social process of appropriation of technological knowledge - related both with the production of sugar and the construction of railroad-, in the Colombian south-western region that constitutes the Department of Valle del Cauca. Such an appropriation had two central orientations: to sustain the economic and social development project of a new administrative region at the end of the 19th century and beginnings of the 20th century, and to propitiate the formation of a modern scientific and technological culture in the elites and intermediate strata that would constitute the leadership of the department. We show that the social history of technology is an privileged instrument to understand aspects of the general history such as the regional dynamics of economic development, the constitution of groups of power, and entrepreneurial mentalities. Finally, we suggest that this type of historical inquiries on the practices of technological appropriation in a specific sociocultural context, can contribute to identify viable options of politics of technological innovation.