Since the post-war era, labour relations and working conditions have been shaped by computerization and digitalization, laying the groundwork for today’s digital industries. The 59th ITH-Conference examined these historical developments by analysing labour struggles and knowledge regimes surrounding computerization within their specific contexts, considering both the impact of technological development on workers and, conversely, how workers and other stakeholders shaped these developments. The conference focused on several crucial aspects: the impact of predigital concepts, the role of structural inequalities, evolving narratives about computer technology and work, and associated hopes and fears about the future. Through local case studies from Western nations, the Global South, and former Soviet states, the conference aimed for a genuinely global perspective on these issues.

In their keynote, MAR HICKS (Virginia) demonstrated how the histories of labour, computing, and gender are fundamentally interconnected. Women’s significant roles in British computing during the 1940s-60s – initially promoted as cheap labour for machines – faded as computers became management tools and thus masculinised work, leading to a significant loss of qualified female talent. Examining broader ties between labour and computing through examples like the Ministry of Pensions’s mainframes for benefits administration, and cases of systemic discrimination, including civil servant Jonathan Ferguson, whose gender reassignment in 1958 revealed gender-based pay disparities and early transphobic algorithmic bias, Hicks traced how today’s issues of AI bias and marginalisation in the tech industry have deep historical roots. Their analysis emphasised the necessity of incorporating gender, trans- and queer studies into computing history to address these persistent power imbalances.

JAMIE WOODCOCK (London) examined the relationship between video games, industry and labour, focusing on the UK. He highlighted how games reflect processes of social negotiation between resistance and consent. The gaming industry’s unique characteristics include the exploitation of workers’ passion, with many employees being gamers themselves, through “crunch time”. This constant overwork, part of the industry’s professionalisation process, creates a self-perpetuating dynamic that systematically excludes those unable to endure, particularly people with care responsibilities, often women. Unionisation in the industry – barely conceivable until then – gained momentum in 2018, with the international “Games Worker Unite” forming before national or regional unions, reflecting alternative ways of organizing collective power and addressing workers’ needs.

Digital technologies have enhanced economic and communication networks between Lebanon and its global diaspora since the 1990s, as demonstrated by EUGENE SENSENIG (Zouk Mikael), though his research was limited by Lebanon’s current political situation. These digital connections – spanning out-of-country voting, commerce, cultural and artistic exchange, and community organising – enable diasporic communities to engage with partisan organisations, civil society, and business sectors, while addressing systemic challenges like corruption and sectarianism. However, digital spaces also have become arenas for inclusion and exclusion debates, particularly regarding the status of different immigrant groups.

The emergence of the 1980s digital workforce within increasingly globalised and flexible capitalism reshaped intersectional inequalities across class, gender, and ethnicity, as ILSE LENZ (Bochum) analysed. Comparing Japan and Germany, she revealed how distinct national gender cultures influenced feminist organising. Both countries developed a hegemonic narrative that transformed the male breadwinner into a “digital champion” – the German “computer wizard” and the Japanese “company warrior” – while women and migrants were relegated to peripheral labour market positions. However, Lenz highlighted skilled female and male workers in data processing and digital communication in newly industrialised countries since the 1990s. In both countries, feminist networks formed coalitions through public service unions, publications and conferences, challenging gender orders within the capitalist, neopatriarchal system. She concluded that while regional digitalisation disparities were receding in globalised capitalism, other disparities grew. Gender and ethnic inequalities were reorganised in digitalisation, with women entering as workers, not just housewives or consumers, but within increasingly globalised and precarious employment relations.

JAROSLAV ŠVELCH (Prague) discussed the programming labour and entrepreneurial ambitions in 1980s Czechoslovak amateur hobby computer clubs. They formed a male-dominated counterpart to the predominantly female, professional and state-driven computer sector. The self-taught amateurs wrote software for private usage, like games, often distributing their products for free. Seeking recognition and financial gain, clubs like Prague’s Club 602 acted as quasi-startups and had to find creative and concealing ways to distribute their software, due to the restrictions of socialist economy and politics. After 1989, these former amateurs founded computer-companies in the course of privatisation, which explains the de-feminisation of the computing-industry since the 1990s. While contributing to Czechoslovakia’s computing evolution, the clubs faced inclusivity and political challenges.

ANNA BAUMANN (Berne) examined the 1980s Swiss office computerisation debates, which highlighted gendered concerns. Unions and labour institutions viewed Video Display Units as health threats, particularly to (potential) mothers, while men’s fertility wasn’t discussed. This focus on the female body contributed to the gendered corporality of screen work, reinforcing the disadvantage of women in the workplace. Similarly, debates about telework, mirroring those in West Germany, centered on the notion of working from home, thus focusing on the dual burden on mothers. These discussions illustrated how gendered narratives shaped the evolving landscape of work and technology, as Baumann noted. Like Hicks, she advocated for a computing history that integrates technology with social issues, emphasising feminist interventions as part of the negotiations about the future of work and to prevent framing women as deficient in digitalised workplaces.

For Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, CHRISTIANE BERTH (Graz) showed how the technical vision of the future and actual practice of the computerised office diverged. Based on computer magazines from the region, she analysed how company executives promised new efficiency and connection through computers, yet their introduction led to workplace destabilisation and anxiety among employees: During the 1980s debt crisis, they worried about their ability to operate the devices and feared becoming redundant. Additionally, computer advertising reinforced existing colonial and gender roles, as the computer was supposedly useful for everyone: the female secretary and the male manager. Notably, the computer itself was discursively constructed as female, portrayed as a friend and unconditional supporter.

Between 1950 and 1975, computer technology, apartheid state politics, and changing global labour markets shaped South African office environments, as BRIDGET KENNY (Johannesburg) demonstrated. The “technopolitics” were closely intertwined with the apartheid state while also responding to simultaneously changing global labour markets. In South Africa’s modernity discourse, work, qualification, “race”, future, and nation overlapped. Initially, this meant computer access was exclusively “white” until the 1960s, used also for monitoring of the Black population. The connotation of simple, potentially automated computer work became detached from discussions about qualification and accessibility in the 1960s. Only from the 1970s did opportunities arise for Black people to work with computers.

TIM SCHINSCHICK (Braunschweig) examined how 1980s schools from Baden-Wuerttemberg, the West German state that claimed a pioneering role in this matter, approached the challenge of preparing “tomorrow's workers” for the predicted information society. Early curricula integrated computer science into other subjects as mathematics, with an emphasis on practical skills. Amid uncertainties about future needs, teaching equipment, and teacher qualifications, schools found support from companies backed by conservative politicians. These companies provided teacher training and computers, hoping to shape future workers and customers. However, this corporate involvement sparked controversy, with teachers' unions criticizing the neglect of socio-economic implications, ultimately turning computer education into a political battleground over the future of work.

IBM’s 1964 African Education Centre in Nigeria and France’s 1984 program at École Normale Supérieure in Dakar, Senegal, were the focal points of ANNA KATHARINA OSTERLOW (Paris) analysis of Global North’s computer training initiatives in Africa. While IBM’s public goal was training a “future technical avant-garde” of government officials and high-level workers, their internal strategy focused on creating new markets and establishing government connections. France’s later initiative aimed to boost its computer industry’s global competitiveness while addressing domestic unemployment. Though their motives differed, both projects promoted the vision of creating a new type of worker: the creative, highly qualified computer professional. Both stakeholders presented these initiatives as pathways to national development and independence, though this view faced criticism in both African countries.

By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, WALPURGA FRIEDL and ERNST LANTHALER (Linz) studied Austrian digitalisation debates between 1970 and 2000. Their analysis of over 500 articles, from two opposing publications – the worker-oriented “Arbeit und Wirtschaft” and the employer-focused “Die Wirtschaft” – utilised multivariate statistics to map the discourse space. This revealed tensions between technocracy versus social policy, and optimisation versus flexibilisation. Both publications, despite their initially opposing viewpoints, gradually shifted their stance towards embracing flexibilisation. This convergence, the researchers concluded, demonstrated the growing hegemony of neoliberal thinking in digitalisation debates.

The rise and fall of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) from the late 1970s to early 1990s illustrated a shift in software development approaches, as TIMO LEIMBACH (Aarhus) argued. Facing worker shortages and a software crisis, companies in Japan, the USA, and Europe, backed by their governments, sought to streamline software development through CASE tools. These tools were designed to standardise the development process from planning to coding, combining automation of certain tasks with technical support for others using a waterfall approach. However, this rigid methodology failed to meet expectations, leading to CASE's quiet demise. The 1990s saw a paradigm shift towards agile development, emphasising human collaboration over structured processes. This transformation highlighted a crucial lesson: successful software development must centre on people and teams, rather than attempting to technologically control the development process.

The struggles of digital transformation came to light in MICHELE SANTORO’s (Rome) examination of Italy's National Institute of Social Insurance between 1948 and 1971. As the key administrator of Italy's welfare state, the Institute – staffed by officials from both ministries and trade unions – faced increasing pressure to modernise its data processing systems. The introduction of an automated data processing system to replace punch cards in the 1960s promised greater efficiency and cost savings. However, this modernisation created significant tension within the organisation. Staff members worried about job security and the demands of retraining, while the management pushed for technological advancement. The case study reveals how the Institute had to carefully balance the imperative for technological modernisation against employees' concerns and established work practices.

In the final presentation, LUCAS SANTOS SOUZA (Niterói) analysed platformisation’s impact on food couriers in Rio de Janeiro. Since the 1980s, “motoboys” emerged as a grassroot-like, non-union subculture of male motorcycle couriers who, despite precarious conditions, developed strong solidarity, a common aesthetic and language, and perceived their work as autonomous and surveillance-free. In neoliberal rhetoric, the rise of delivery apps around 2016 promised flexibility, autonomy gains, and being one’s own boss. However, in practice, opaque order allocation and scoring systems by the apps led to a perceived loss of autonomy. Former “motoboys” and new couriers found themselves subject to algorithmic control and surveillance, while facing increasing risks and longer working hours.

“It was a rich conference,” as one audience member noted in the closing discussion – a sentiment widely shared. The conference brought together recurring themes of structural inequalities and labour struggles across national borders, offering valuable insights into the intersection of computing, technology, and society. By connecting these categories, the speakers illuminated the evolving relationships between labour dynamics and technological advancements, expanding the scope of labour history beyond traditional narratives. Several areas, however, would benefit from further exploration. Four key aspects deserve particular attention: First, while the conference greatly benefited from insights that transcended a European focus, the field would gain from an even broader range of perspectives, particularly from the Global South, former Soviet States, and East Asia. Second, incorporating other forms of labour – such as traditional industrial work, care work, and sex work – would offer a more comprehensive understanding of digital labour. Third, several underexplored connections, including rural areas and predigital notions that shaped digital technologies’ implementation, should be examined, along with the integration of environmental history into digitalisation discussions. Fourth, the label “new” requires critical reflection, as issues like resistance, discrimination, and labour struggles are not unique to digitalisation. Future research should focus less on novelty and more on the transformative processes at play. Overall, the conference highlighted digital labour history’s continued importance for addressing social and technological challenges, offering a foundation for future research.

Conference Overview:

Conference Opening

Therese Garstenauer (ITH President), Gerhard Bremm (Chamber of Labour of Upper Austria), Thomas Gegenhuber (City of Linz)

Keynote Lecture

Mar Hicks (Virginia): Rethinking Histories of Labour and Computing

Opening Lecture

Jamie Woodcock (London): Game Worker Solidarity: Mapping Collective Action in the Games Industry

Panel I: Knowledge Networks in the Digital Age
Chair and Comment: Stefan Müller

Eugene Sensenig (Zouk Mikael): Global Leveraging Lebanon – Digital Networks

Ilse Lenz (Bochum): Exclusions and Inclusions by Gender and Geopolitical Inequalities in the Transition to Digitalisation: Feminist Knowledge Production and Practices

Panel II: “Self-Made” Entrepreneurship and Home Computing
Chair and Comment: Gleb Albert

Jaroslav Švelch (Prague): Paramilitary Start-Ups: Programming Labour and Entrepreneurial Ambitions in 1980s Czechoslovak Hobby Computer Clubs

Panel III: Office Work and the Rise of the “Service Industry”
Chair and Comment: Julia Gül Erdogan

Anna Baumann (Berne): Personal Computers, Screen Work and Gendered Corporality: Telework in the 1980s

Christiane Berth (Graz): Gender, Technology, and Communication: Computerized Office Work in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s

Bridget Kenny (Witwatersrand): Computing Racial Capitalism: National Progress, Computer Technology and Office Work in South Africa, 1950 – 1975

Panel IV: Digital Literacy: Computer Education and Training for the “Future”
Chair and Comment: Michael Homberg

Tim Schinschick (Braunschweig): Teaching the Computerized Tomorrow. Requirements for and Training of the Teachers in Computer Education in Baden-Württemberg in the 1980s

Anna Katharina Osterlow (Paris): Training the Computer Literate Worker of the Future: Perspectives from Two Transnational Computer Projects in Senegal and Nigeria, 1964 – 1984

Walpurga Friedl / Ernst Langthaler (Linz): Negotiating Digitization: Narratives of Digital Labour in Austrian Employees’ and Employers’ Magazines, 1970 – 2020

Film screening (in German): “Umbruch” (1987) by Hans-Ulrich Schlumpf

Panel V: Automation Dreams and Fears: Computing and Programming in the 20th and 21st Century
Chair and Comment: Julia Gül Erdogan

Timo Leimbach (Aarhus): A Case for CASE – the Dream and Failure of Automated Software Development

Michele Santoro (Rome): Running by Machines? Automation, Labour Dynamics, and Institutional Reform at the National Institute of Social Insurance, 1948 – 1971

Panel VI: New Challenges and Old Problems? “Digital Platforms”: Delivery and Transportation
Chair and Comment: Martin Schmitt

Lucas Santos Souza (Niterói): Autonomy, Control Over Work and the Platformisation Process in the Delivery Industry in Rio de Janeiro

Concluding Debate
Gleb Albert, Julia Gül Erdogan, Michael Homberg, Stefan Müller, Martin Schmitt