Segnalo dissertazione recentemente difesa all'università di Eindhoven, su argomenti cari a questa lista. https://pure.tue.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/217797547/20221019_Sanvitale_hf.pd...

Può interessare anche l'uso di archivi digitali come l'archivio Primo Moroni e Grafton9.

Federico

== Abstract ==

Emotions and politics are often considered an hindrance to technological development. Even more, technology is promised to simplify political processes, and to overcome emotional distress. Yet, after a century of these promises, the contemporary world looks more politically complex and emotionally demanding than ever. What if we change perspective, by looking at our tech-centered world from other dimensions of human experience? In this PhD dissertation, I show that “emotions,” “technology,” and “politics” are always profoundly interrelated, by presenting an in depth historical investigation of the role played by emotions in the re-politicization and de- politicization of computer technologies in Cold War Italy (1965-1990). I developed a novel methodological and conceptual approach centered on the notion of “Technopolitical Resonance,” to understand how emotions contributed to make specific technopolitical configurations more or less popular through history. This approach provides an actor-centered framework to investigate emotions’ significance in the History of Technology, currently lacking in the field. It is based on literature from the History and Anthropology of Emotions, stressing the epistemic and performative significance of emotions. The dissertation is centered on the reproduction and the rejection of a technopolitical configuration which I call “the Black Box Entanglement”. This configuration, I claim, relied on the “fear of falling behind” in the Cold War to promote computer use, and their design as “black boxes,” that users could not study nor modify. The dissertation critically analyzes the diffusion of black-boxed computers as a de-politicizing design choice, because the design process includes only a limited number of actors, namely the engineers and software developers, thus reducing the space for democratic participation. The dissertation also offers a critical perspective on “fear of falling behind” as a de-politicizing discourse on the societal significance of computers, because it flattens the political debate favoring a phenomenological approach (how can technology solve our problem? -Because it certainly will) over a dialectical one (why will technology -and not something else- solve our problem?). Several re-politicizing counter-narratives are also analyzed, based on different emotions (i.e. hope, anger, pride) and different political visions on the societal significance of computers and their design.

== Preface (and acknowledgments) ==

How I learned to stop worrying, and love the history of technology

I am at home in Bologna, working on my doctoral project about the history of computing. My partner, a software developer, is playing a part in unfolding this history from the other room. Our house is full of computer parts, computer books, and conversations about computers. What a modern couple we are, how fit for the Computer Age! But, every now and then, our day is interrupted by a computerized voice, which neither of us has programmed. “Linea 37” it says. It comes from an automatic speaker, announcing this bus’s arrival at the stop down in the street. Bus 37 is not like any other bus in Bologna. It is a memento, a window into a past which I have not lived, but can’t be forgotten. On August 2, 1980, bus 37 was temporarily converted into a hearse. At 10:25 that morning, a bomb exploded in Bologna’s central train station, killing 85 people and wounding hundreds. Bus 37 was used to transport the victims’ bodies to the morgue. Far from being an isolated episode, the Bologna Massacre was the most recent event in a decade-long period of bombings and other violent acts perpetrated by Neo-fascist groups, with the more or less tacit approval of the Italian secret services and armed forces. This was the so-called “Strategy of Tension,” aimed at destabilizing Italian public morale in order to shift the government to the farright. Today, most historians agree that such a plan had no chance of success, and this was already clear to many people at the time. However, the deaths caused by these attacks were very real, and disturbing events undeniably took place during the period known as the “Italian first republic” (1948-1994). Bus 37’s arrival has interrupted my work, so I decide to take a break and read something about the present. “Facebook broke democracy!” claim news outlets reporting on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, or some other wrongdoing by Mark Zuckerberg’s company. When 10 years ago the “Arab Spring” prompted an opposite claim, that social media could “make” democracy, a terrible delusion was around the corner. The Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Arab Spring delusion have indeed something in common: people lost sight of extremely complex societal and political processes in favor of a technology-centered, de-politicized vision. But, if it was true that a website could “break” or “make” a democracy, then perhaps our democracies were not so strong in the first place. This would make it even more imperative to address such events from a political, not technological perspective. What if it is never technology, but always politics that makes or breaks democracies? This dissertation is grounded in the idea that we, European scholars and citizens, 1 need to repoliticize public debates on technology, otherwise we will never be able to mend our democracies— which, if not broken, are certainly crooked. The word “politics” has acquired a negative connotation nowadays. You should not “discuss politics” at dinner parties, and take care not to look “too political” at work. But this word has been in our vocabularies for centuries, and the concept it describes has existed even longer. The fact that we don’t talk about politics, won’t make it disappear: only make it more difficult to understand how it works. And this is a problem for democracy, because if political processes are not based on transparency, and accountability, and participation, then perhaps we are not in a functioning democracy. Even in settings devoted to political decision making, technology-related choices seem to lack a coherent and explicit political rationale. European Union policymakers dream of “technological sovereignty,”2 but they also produce a “Digital Economy and Society Index” 3 which generically drives greater use of digital technologies, regardless of their provenance and software license. Things are no better when we look at grassroots political movements: recent years have seen the emergence of a transnational environmentalist movement, famously exemplified by the Fridays For Future activists, and a feminist “fourth wave” has apparently begun. However, technology-critical movements today are the Cinderella of grassroots politics, and the “fourth feminist wave” is one example: in the 1990s, the combination of feminism and technology meant cyborgs and selfmanaged servers, whereas now it means #hashtags on corporate-managed social media. Is this a feminist Arab Spring, or will the change last longer in this case? And I am still into “third wave” feminism: what does this make me? Am I already a #boomer, 4 in my early 30s? I start wondering, anxiously. But bus 37 is here again, shifting my thoughts back to the past. Had the Bologna massacre happened today, there would be hundreds of pictures and videos (and hashtags) about the event. The trials might have been over in a few years, with all the additional evidence available on Instagram. Perhaps my fourth wave feminist sisters are right, I am a #boomer. Maybe I should learn to stop worrying, and start loving Mark Zuckerberg. No, I should not. Because if there is something that all generations of feminists have in common is a unique emotional attitude, described by Sara Ahmed in her “Killjoy Manifesto.” 5 And this attitude is not exclusive to feminists: every individual wishing to engage critically with societal and political issues must be prepared to cause some degree of joy-killing. During my research, I encountered many killjoys. They critically examined “this circularity of illusions-delusions which follows each technological cycle, probably from the wheel to the steam machine, electricity, and automation.” 6 Killjoys who challenged the idea that a computer could “make” or “break” democracy, and therefore debated how to use this technology without falling for yet another “depressingly uninspiring”7 utopian (or dystopian) plan. Killjoys who knew very well that the Computer Age was the same “Age” when bombs exploded inside train stations, and bus 37 became a hearse. At times, I even felt overwhelmed by my sources: historical actors knew much more than me, about both politics and technology. Despite being so knowledgeable, they failed to produce a long-lasting repoliticization of computer debates: what made me think I could be more successful? While entangled in this unsolvable question, I also learned one certainty, as the Killjoy Manifesto’s 5th principle states: “I am not willing to get over histories that are not over.” There is a political and emotional history of the Computer Age which is certainly not over. It is a fragmented history, because the actors who made it were at times in conflict with each other. But it is also a contiguous history: these actors often had the same feelings and the same thoughts about computers’ political significance. It is a Resonant history, as I call it in this dissertation. Recomposing this history, looking at emotions as a shared space of understanding, is what I can add to the knowledgeable debates and analysis of the past. No, Facebook did not break democracy, and it won’t fix it. Forgetting is what broke democracy. And politics is what can fix it. Today we have many expectations about digital technologies, but sometimes we find comfort in these expectations to avoid tackling difficult and uncomfortable political issues. The road to the re-politicization of computer debates seems long and impervious, however we already have the intellectual and practical tools to aid us with this process. This is why I learned to stop worrying, and start loving the history of technology. *** Whereas learning how to love the history of technology was a very enjoyable process, I often wondered whether the history of technology would love me back, and this has been a frequent source of methodological anxieties and theoretical conundrums. I started this PhD project as a trained anthropologist. This proved to be an asset because I was drawn to actors and sources that are currently under-represented in the history of computing. But I frequently asked myself how the personal engagement required in anthropology could be reconciled with the distancing from historical actors often required by historiography. I am thus very grateful for the support and the encouragement I have received from my PhD promotor Erik van der Vleuten, my supervisor and initiator of the “Fearful technologies” project Karena Kalmbach, and my co-supervisor, Andreas Spahn. They provided stimulating questions and insights, while leaving me free to explore my own path and interests. I could not have asked for better mentors. Doctoral committee members Paul Edwards, Anna Guagnini, Ruth Oldenziel, and Valérie Schafer provided constructive and critical comments which greatly improved this manuscript. My first encounters with the research field happened during my years as a master student at the University of Bologna: I will always be grateful to Anna Guagnini and Giuliano Pancaldi, for introducing me to the fascinating world of the History of Science and Technology. The History Lab at Eindhoven University of Technology did the rest, providing engaging conversations and perspectives. I would like to thank Ruth Oldenziel, Mila Davis, Frank Veraart, Harry Lintsen, Eric Berkers, Jonas van der Straeten and Jan Korsten for the History Lab reading seminars (as well as the coffee breaks), and for their insights in studying, researching, and teaching the History of Technology. Through the Eindhoven History Lab I had the opportunity to discuss my work with colleagues who offered valuable comments on my drafts and research plans: Dick van Lente, Peter Norton, Arwen Mohun, Frank Schipper. A special mention to my PhD colleagues in the History Lab, Patrick Bek and Henk-Jan Dekker, with whom I shared the incredible adventure that is achieving a PhD (and during a pandemic!). Patrick’s intellectual insights and emotional support have been particularly important in the final months, when it seemed the project would never end.

During my PhD project, I also had the opportunity to attend workshops, summer schools, and conferences. Three of these were particularly important for shaping this dissertation and I am indebted to the organizers and participants. I am particularly grateful to Martina Hessler and Bettina Hitzler for the workshop “The Multifacted Relationship between Fear and Technology,” held at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in October 2018, and the resulting publication; to Valérie Schafer and Paul Edwards for the insights gained at the Tensions of Europe summer school “Towards Digital Science and Technology Studies: Challenges and Opportunities,” held at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) at the University of Luxembourg in June 2019; to Aristotle Tympas for the Tensions of Europe workshop “Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Algorithms, Internet of Things, Social Media, Automation, Robotics and Cybernetics: Historical and STS Perspectives from Mediterranean/Southern/Southeastern Europe,” held online in June 2021, as well as our conversations on the history of computing. I would also like to thank Anna Åberg, Andreas Marklund, Anique Hommels (and again Karena Kalmbach) for the panels on technology and crises we organized during Tensions of Europe conferences. Not only historians helped to shape my work. The Technology, Innovation and Society group at Eindhoven University of Technology provided a welcoming and stimulating environment during my PhD studies. The Thursday seminars offered very valuable interdisciplinary exchanges, as did the many informal gatherings with PhD and postdoc colleagues at TU/e. I am especially indebted to Ankit, Darja, Edgar, Matthew, Minha, Tanja and our visiting colleagues from abroad, Aske and Michal. My pre-doctoral years have been equally important for this dissertation. Professor Davide Domenici was the first to show me there was an incredibly fascinating world beyond the histoire événementielle I had been studying before taking his classes. This is the first dissertation I have written without his supervision. Other fundamental learning came from classes by Ivo Quaranta (Cultural and Medical Anthropology), Luca Jourdan (Social and Political Anthropology), Cristiana Natali and Gateano Mangiameli (Research Methodology). Furthermore, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people and institutions who provided oral accounts and source materials for this dissertation. Paola Manacorda, Fiorella De Cindio, Filippo Demonte, IBM labor unionists Francesco Fiaccadori, Alfio Riboni, Giovanni Talpone, Valeria Bernardi and Renato Pomari, all graciously agreed to be interviewed, sharing precious information on Italy’s history of computing. I am grateful to the many archivists and cultural institutions that provided materials: staff at Archivio Gramsci Emilia-Romagna; Archivio RSU IBM; Centro di documentazione dei movimenti “F. Lorusso – C. Giuliani”; Centro Studi Libertari – Archivio Giuseppe Pinelli; Archivio Grafton9; Biblioteca Libertaria Armando Borghi; Biblioteca “Elio Xerri” – Circolo Anarchico “C. Berneri.” Deserving a special mention is Nicola, at Centro Lorusso – Giuliani, whose captivating enthusiasm and commitment made it very difficult to move on to a different archive. A researcher’s life is not only about doing research. Writing about your research is an equally fundamental task. It would be much more difficult for you to understand this manuscript if it wasn’t for the amazing editing work done by Val Kidd. I am also indebted to Anne Schuler, who introduced me to English academic writing. TIS secretariat support was fundamental to avoid succumbing to the intricacies of university regulations: thank you Letty Calame, Sonia Parker, and Iris Houx for your support and your patience. There is one emotion that most researchers share: a love of knowledge. I had the privilege to meet many people who encouraged and nurtured my love of knowledge. I would like to acknowledge, and honor some of those who saw the beginning of this research project but not its end. Professor Maria Maddalena Mené introduced me to Natalia Ginzburg and to cultural geography (I now realize this was the first step toward my anthropology degree). Professor Lucio Carugno taught me how to find the beauty and relevance of literary texts from the past. My uncle, professor Mario Bressan, did not succeed in turning my love for science into a chemistry degree, but he might have found some resonance in this PhD dissertation and I would have loved to discuss it with him. My grandmother, Gloria Papa, an expert in literature and an excellent writer: she would have been a great PhD candidate, if she had had the opportunity. My mother, Fabrizia Arduini, who always found time to take me to the public library as a kid, and loved this research project. Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my family and friends, for their enduring patience, love, and encouragement. My family gave me great support over these years, especially my father, Alberto Sanvitale, my aunts, Alessandra and Sylvia Arduini, my cousin Elena Caputi, my “fairy godmothers” Annamaria Properzi, Laura Florani and Stefania De Carlo. Gaia, Giacomo, Giorgia, Margherita, Marta: you are “my people,” as Dr. Cristina Yang would say. Thank you for being such amazing human beings and friends. Barbara, Cristina, Noemi: our conversations on technology, politics, and feminism nurtured my intellectual life, as much as our friendship nurtured my days. Andrea, Mirna, Mauro, Nicola (and the other players mentioned here): thank you for our amazing Dungeons&Dragons adventures. With you I learned how it feels to have a class enemy and what can be achieved with the right party. About my real-life political education, there are too many people I should be thanking: from Pavia to Bologna, from the Wikiverse to the Fediverse, I have learned and grown a lot thanks to you—and hopefully helped to bring about some societal change in the process. Finally, my partner Cek, software developer, but also my sci-fi literature advisor and technical consultant. We went from a long-distance relationship to being stuck in the same apartment together during lockdown. I could imagine no better person by my side in these beautiful but also difficult years. Thank you for enduring my 24/7 listening to Italian political songs or Blondie, and for making sure I always had my morning coffee.