Uma década de Congressos Nacionais de Electricidade (1923-1930) : Ambiente, percepções e representações

Abstract

The economical, financial and commercial circumstances generated by World War I (1914-1918) boosted, in industrialized countries and also in growing economies on the brink of industrialization, debate and consideration on energetic strategies and available options. This discussion gave primal role and attention towards electricity and its problematic, which surfaced admixed with more global conceptions about development and modernization. In Portugal, by the 1920's, the four National Congress of electricity, that took place in the most important cities of the nation - Lisbon (1923), Oporto (1924), Coimbra (1926) and Braga (1930) - where events of technical, economical and social nature that revealed grand dynamism as manifestations of that contradictory. Thus, this study seeks to give answer to three goals of analysis, specifically: Characterize and explain the environment, the perceptions and representations produced in those Congress; Interpret possible continuities and discontinuities of some portuguese economical theories and their influence; Assess the degree of realism, utility and range of the indentified problems and their respective presented solutions