Organising Computing Work: Data Processing at the Swedish Defence Research Agency in the Mainframe Era
Doktorsavhandling, 2025
The era of mainframe computers laid the foundation for the digitalisation of Sweden. This thesis explores Swedish computing during the period 1955–1975 by analysing how computing work was conducted, organised, and conceptualised at two data processing centres, that were based on IBM mainframes and belonged to the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOA). The formation and consolidation of scientific computing, with its strong relationship to military research, represented a process that occurred on multiple levels: from political visions of neutrality and modernity to the daily organisation of punched cards, paper result lists, and personnel. The focus on computing work enables analysing various computing tasks, ranging from scientific labour to systems programming, as well as the gendered and class-dependent hierarchies separating these different tasks and the political visions that conditioned them. I combine analyses of archival documents relating to the daily administration and overall regulations of these centres with oral history and studies of media coverage.
My analysis of overarching political goals through contingent work routines shows how the Cold War political landscape in Sweden enabled computing work practices and professions to form. I argue that the prioritisation of military research in the mainframe era resulted in complex data processing centres dominated by data flows in constant need of organisation. Computing work at FOA was organised according to principles of rationality, automation, and abstraction, which in turn shaped the rise of scientific computing in Sweden. By tracing computing work in Sweden, the thesis expands the emerging field of work-oriented computing history, which has thus far primarily focused on the US and the UK. Moving beyond histories of individual computing policies and domestic computer industries, while broadening the scope of what constitutes computing work, this thesis offers new ways of understanding Swedish computing history.
My analysis of overarching political goals through contingent work routines shows how the Cold War political landscape in Sweden enabled computing work practices and professions to form. I argue that the prioritisation of military research in the mainframe era resulted in complex data processing centres dominated by data flows in constant need of organisation. Computing work at FOA was organised according to principles of rationality, automation, and abstraction, which in turn shaped the rise of scientific computing in Sweden. By tracing computing work in Sweden, the thesis expands the emerging field of work-oriented computing history, which has thus far primarily focused on the US and the UK. Moving beyond histories of individual computing policies and domestic computer industries, while broadening the scope of what constitutes computing work, this thesis offers new ways of understanding Swedish computing history.
FOA
computing work
data processing
Sweden.
military research
scientific labour
mainframe era
IBM
Computing history
Vasa A, Vera Sandbergs allé 8
Opponent: Professor Jon Agar, Dept. of Science & Technology Studies, University College London, UK
Författare
Julia Ravanis
Chalmers, Teknikens ekonomi och organisation, Science, Technology and Society
I takt med att en allt större del av världen och vardagen har blivit digital, har omfattningen och betydelsen av det digitalas historia också ökat. Datorhistoria är inte bara en historia om maskiner, utan också om politik, kultur, språk – och mänskligt arbete. Faktum är att det alltid har krävts arbete för att få en dator att göra någonting. Den här avhandlingen handlar om det arbete som några av Sveriges datorpionjärer utförde på Försvarets forskningsanstalt (FOA) under åren 1955–1975. Det var en tid när datorer fyllde upp hela rum och data tyngde ner lådor, skrivbord och axlar. Det var kärnvapenprogrammens och rationaliseringsandans tid.
Avhandlingen visar hur den svenska prioriteringen av militär forskning under det tidiga kalla kriget villkorade framväxten av arbetsrutiner och yrkesidentiteter inom vetenskaplig databehandling. De stora statliga investeringarna i FOA:s datateknik ledde till komplexa datacentraler, vars dataflöden och arbetsfördelningar ständigt behövde organiseras. På FOA var de organisatoriska ledorden rationalitet, effektivisering och automatisering – och därmed formades bilden av datorn som ett abstrakt system, i behov av logisk ordning snarare än materiell omsorg.
Detta var ett avgörande steg i digitaliseringens historia – när det materiella, erfarenhetsbaserade datorarbetet doldes bakom systematisk och teoretisk programmering – vilket hade en stor inverkan på frågor om genus, klass och kunskap. Det här är historien om hur det gick till.
Avhandlingen visar hur den svenska prioriteringen av militär forskning under det tidiga kalla kriget villkorade framväxten av arbetsrutiner och yrkesidentiteter inom vetenskaplig databehandling. De stora statliga investeringarna i FOA:s datateknik ledde till komplexa datacentraler, vars dataflöden och arbetsfördelningar ständigt behövde organiseras. På FOA var de organisatoriska ledorden rationalitet, effektivisering och automatisering – och därmed formades bilden av datorn som ett abstrakt system, i behov av logisk ordning snarare än materiell omsorg.
Detta var ett avgörande steg i digitaliseringens historia – när det materiella, erfarenhetsbaserade datorarbetet doldes bakom systematisk och teoretisk programmering – vilket hade en stor inverkan på frågor om genus, klass och kunskap. Det här är historien om hur det gick till.
As an increasing portion of our world and everyday lives has become digital, there has also been an increase in the scope and significance of digital history. Computer history is not only a history of machines but also of politics, culture, language – and human efforts. Getting a computer to do something has always required work. The thesis focuses on the work of some of Sweden’s computing pioneers at the Swedish Defence Research Institute (FOA) during the period 1955–1975. This was at a time when computers took up entire rooms and when boxes, desks and shoulders were weighed down by data. This was the era of nuclear weapons programmes and rationalisation.
The thesis shows how Sweden’s prioritisation of military research during the early Cold War conditioned the emergence of work routines and professional identities in scientific data processing. The massive government investments in FOA’s computer technology resulted in complex data centres, whose data flows and divisions of labour were in constant need of organisation. The organisational keywords at FOA were rationality, streamlining, and automation – which is why the computer came to be viewed as an abstract system in need of logical order rather than material care.
This represented a decisive step in the history of digitalisation – when material, experience-based computing was hidden behind systematic and theoretical programming. This, in turn, had a great impact on questions related to gender, class, and knowledge. This is the history of how all of this transpired.
The thesis shows how Sweden’s prioritisation of military research during the early Cold War conditioned the emergence of work routines and professional identities in scientific data processing. The massive government investments in FOA’s computer technology resulted in complex data centres, whose data flows and divisions of labour were in constant need of organisation. The organisational keywords at FOA were rationality, streamlining, and automation – which is why the computer came to be viewed as an abstract system in need of logical order rather than material care.
This represented a decisive step in the history of digitalisation – when material, experience-based computing was hidden behind systematic and theoretical programming. This, in turn, had a great impact on questions related to gender, class, and knowledge. This is the history of how all of this transpired.
Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)
Historia och arkeologi
ISBN
978-91-8103-225-3
Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska högskola. Ny serie: 5683
Utgivare
Chalmers
Vasa A, Vera Sandbergs allé 8
Opponent: Professor Jon Agar, Dept. of Science & Technology Studies, University College London, UK