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American ideals and models feature prominently in the master narrative of post-war European consumer societies. This book demonstrates that Europeans did not appropriate a homogenous notion of America, rather post-war European consumption was a process of selective appropriation of American elements

Part 1: IT Policy ; International audience ; In the 1950s and 1960s computers became part and parcel of the great modernization project – the creation of the modern welfare state. The ability to control and rationalize provided by the digital technology proved indispensable for the expanding public sector as well as for trade and business. At the turn of the decade, the effects of the new technology on Swedish society became increasingly apparent. This paper examines the debate on computer and politics in Sweden during the 1970s and the 1980s. It particularly discusses two issues that were hotly debated: integrity and jobs. The debate was occupied with the centralized solutions and systemic effects large-scale computing implied. In this debate computing technology was perceived as a threat, but at the same time there was a widely shared belief amongst debaters that it was possible to take control of the technology.

Part 5: Users and Systems Development ; International audience ; By using the UTOPIA-project as an example, this paper highlights the role of the Nordic labor movement in technological change and underlines that there are different incentives for technological change. While corporations developing technology usually pursued increased efficiency in production, the UTOPIA-project aimed at other, alternative goals such as translating social values regarding job skills, quality of work, and quality of products into new computer hardware and software for the graphic industries. In the larger context, the UTOPIA-project can be seen as an attempt by the labor movement to revitalize and realize the old dream of industrial democracy by designing computing technology.

This final report contextualizes, describes, and evaluates the project "From Computing Machines to IT," which was carried out during 2007–8 as a collaboration between the Swedish Computer Society, the Division of History of Science and Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), and the National Museum of Science and Technology. The project aimed to create, collect, preserve, and disseminate sources on how computing shaped and transformed Swedish society between 1950 and 1980. For this purpose, it adopted a user-centered perspective on the history of computing. In the project, more than 160 interviews were conducted, almost 50 witness seminars were arranged, and about 230 autobiographies were acquired with the help of traditional questionnaires as well as an Internet-based collection of memories (the Writers' Web). The created sources consist of more than eight thousand pages of text. All in all, nearly seven hundred people contributed with their stories. The contacts with these people generated, in turn, several donations of archival records, artifacts, movies, and photographs. In this final report, it is noted that a shift toward a more elaborated user perspective has followed with the growing interest in the recent historiography of computing to understand "how computing has changed the world." Also discussed in the report is how the user concept has been understood by scholars, and it is pointed out that the literature on users fails to acknowledge two categories of users: those not involved in technological invention and innovation, and those empowered by government or corporations with the authority to adapt technology to fit their needs. It is argued that mainly the latter group, which is denoted "elite" users, has had the power to shape major historical transformations. It is concluded that the project mainly has aimed to document the actions of elite users. Earlier international documentation efforts in the history of computing are, furthermore, surveyed, and it is pointed out that these have ...

American ideals and models feature prominently in the master narrative of post-war European consumer societies. Some claim that the American way of life ultimately gained hegemony in Europe. The authors of this book assert that a crucial dimension is missing from the claim of American hegemony - namely, the realities of European power, and the often-complex actions taken by Europeans. In this volume, scholarship from different European countries demonstrates that Europeans maintained myriad views of America; Europeans did not appropriate a homogenous notion of America. The chapters illustrate how, by distinguishing between product and process innovations enables, patterns of appropriation become apparent. The contributors to this volume demonstrate that American elements - from models to practices to technologies - were more prominent in European process innovations than in product innovations. And, ultimately, post-war European consumption is best described as a process of selective appropriation -rather than the wholesale acceptance or rejection - of American ideals and models.