Wege in die digitale Gesellschaft: Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik 1955–1990
Christoph Bareither
Abstract
Wege in die digitale Gesellschaft provides a multi-layered insight into the computerization of the Federal Republic of Germany between 1955 and 1990 and thus dedicates itself to a significant void in contemporary research. The volume is not limited to a description of technical development, but rather, as the editor Frank Bösch explains in his helpful introduction, focuses on the complex relationship between the development of new digital technologies and ongoing social transformations. Accordingly, the contributors to the volume are primarily concerned with discourses and practices of computer use in social contexts. This would seem initially to open up a very broad—presumably too broad—field, which is why the volume deliberately not only focuses on the use of computers in public institutions and administrations, but also includes several essays on ‘alternative’ cultures of computer use. In his introduction, Bösch first gives an overview of the topic before outlining the emergence of German computer use in the slipstream of the USA, the changes in the world of work due to its ongoing computerization, and, finally, the utilization of the computer for techniques of control. Bösch uses his own study on the technical development of the company Volkswagen as his main example, but he also draws connections to the computerization of industrial sectors in the German Democratic Republic. While the volume, according to its title, clearly focusses on the FRG (and West Germany), the GDR (and East Germany) is repeatedly used to show complementary developments and opens up interesting junctions.