Visions of a Digital NationAuthor :
Paperback
Published : Tuesday 6 February 2024
Description
Why the privatization of British Telecom signaled a pivotal moment in the rise of neoliberalism, and how it was shaped by the longer development and digitalization of Britain’s telecommunications infrastructure.
When Margaret Thatcher sold British Telecom for £3.6 billion in 1984, it became not only, at the time, the largest stock flotation in history, but also a watershed moment in the rise of neoliberalism and deregulation. In Visions of a Digital Nation, Jacob Ward offers an incisive interdisciplinary perspective on how technology prefigured this pivot. Giving due consideration to the politicians, engineers, and managers who paved the way for this historic moment, Ward illustrates how the decision validated the privatization of public utilities and tied digital technology to free market rationales.
In this examination of the national and, at times, global history of technology, Ward’s approach is sweeping. Utilizing infrastructure studies, environmental history, and urban and local history, Ward explores Britain’s nationalist and welfarist plans for a digital information utility and shows how these projects contested and adapted to the “market turn” under Margaret Thatcher. Ultimately, Visions of a Digital Nation compellingly argues that politicians did not impose neoliberalism top-down, but that technology, engineers, and managers shaped these politics from the bottom up.
You may also like ...
by
Paperback
06 Feb 2024
Technology: general issues
€56.16
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Paperback
26 Oct 2023
Behaviourism, Behavioural theory
€18.71
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Hardback
10 Mar 2022
Behaviourism, Behavioural theory
€26.90
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Paperback
09 Apr 2018
European history
€17.55
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
Reviews