Thesis on punched card defended

A small piece of cardboard with holes in it. A punched card is nothing more than that but the little card is of great importance to the way we deal with complicated issues like taxes and VAT.

Originally the punched card was a temporary solution when it was invented in the States in 1890, when there was no permanent organization to take care of societal tasks like a census.

Later this technology was used during the First World War where it was of utmost importance to be able to survey the use of raw materials and production.

In his thesis
“From Describing to Mobilising: Shaping Punched Card Systems and Western Society 1880-1945” Assistant Professor Lars Heide does not focus on the technology as much as on the importance of the punched card in the development of organizations and society:

“The punched card itself is just cold technology and had it not been invented something else would have. The card needs to be used by an organization in order to work and the interesting point is how the punched card has been a tool for administrations to become more ambitious and has made them take on much greater responsibility and more complicated jobs”, Lars Heide says.

One of Lars Heide’s main conclusions has been that the punched card was not significant in creating societies, but it made complicated social tasks solvable, thereby contributing to societal change from the early 1800’s to the Second World War.

Lars Heide has an MA in History and Mathematics from Århus University (1978) and a PhD in History from Odense University (1990).

The US has been dominating the IT business for a long time, but they got this advantage by not having a good organizational system that could handle a census e.g. The thesis claims that US companies dominated the punched card business which was a precursor to computers, because of organizational problems in the US and state subsidies. The American producers dominated the technological development, however, European producers also contributed significantly.

Time and place

23.03 at 13.00

CBS, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg

Lokale: Deloitte Auitoriet S.10

Everyone is welcome