ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

From Understanding to Acceptance: The Case of ALGOL 68 and Software Engineering

• In Event: CTRL ALT SHIFT. Expériences, Knowledge, Activism, Methods - 4

English Abstract

Understanding and accepting new technologies – whether a specific algorithm, a new concept or a new methodology – are closely intertwined: technologies that are not understood are unlikely to be accepted, and acceptance often depends on the strategies used to communicate them. This paper examines how such dynamics unfolded in the late 1960s through a case study of two innovations promoted by a long- standing working group of computer experts: the programming language ALGOL 68 and the emerging methodology of Software Engineering. I argue that the group’s many years of collaboration were crucial, not only because they generated shared expertise, but because they provided continuous opportunities to test, refine, and develop strategies for explaining, debating, and persuading. These practices – from constructing examples and illustrations to shaping publication formats and organizing promotional events – helped, in effect, to attain knowledge about the technologies being designed, clarifying their conceptual foundations, and resolving disagreements. Developed initially to enable the group members to understand one another, these methods later informed how they presented ALGOL 68 and Software Engineering to the wider community and, importantly, fed back into the technologies’ own conceptual development. The study thus shows that the collaborative processes within scientific communities can play a formative role in both the acceptance and the very development of new technologies.

Author

• Amelie Mittlmeier, LMU Munich