Hacking Europe
From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes
Editors: Alberts, Gerard, Oldenziel, Ruth (Eds.)
- Describes how local hacker communities across Europe appropriated the computer and forged new cultures around it
- Explores the mediating actors instrumental in introducing and spreading the cultures of computing around Europe
- Highlights the role of mischief, humor, and play in hacker culture
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- About this book
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Hacking Europe traces the user practices of chopping games in Warsaw, hacking software in Athens, creating chaos in Hamburg, producing demos in Turku, and partying with computing in Zagreb and Amsterdam. Focusing on several European countries at the end of the Cold War, the book shows the digital development was not an exclusively American affair. Local hacker communities appropriated the computer and forged new cultures around it like the hackers in Yugoslavia, Poland and Finland, who showed off their tricks and creating distinct “demoscenes.” Together the essays reflect a diverse palette of cultural practices by which European users domesticated computer technologies. Each chapter explores the mediating actors instrumental in introducing and spreading the cultures of computing around Europe. More generally, the “ludological” element--the role of mischief, humor, and play--discussed here as crucial for analysis of hacker culture, opens new vistas for the study of the history of technology.
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“The wealth, diversity and international character of the contributions makes the volume an extraordinary insightful and entertaining read … . Given the popularity of approaches towards social (co-)construction of technology, one can hope that the assembled contributions will spur a stronger interest in the history of home computers, their social meanings, and the subcultures that arose around them. In this domain, this volume will always remain a milestone.” (Gleb J. Albert, European History Quarterly, Vol. 46 (1), 2016)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Hacking Europe
- Book Subtitle
- From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes
- Editors
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- Gerard Alberts
- Ruth Oldenziel
- Series Title
- History of Computing
- Copyright
- 2014
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag London
- Copyright Holder
- Springer-Verlag London
- eBook ISBN
- 978-1-4471-5493-8
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-1-4471-5493-8
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-1-4471-5492-1
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-1-4471-7069-3
- Series ISSN
- 2190-6831
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VIII, 269
- Number of Illustrations and Tables
- 22 b/w illustrations
- Topics