Rethinking legacies in internet history

Euronet, lost (inter)networks, EU politics

Bibliographic Data

ID13118951
AuthorsNiels Kerssens (0000-0002-8564-8118, Utrecht University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume4
Issue1
Pages32-48
Publication date2019-12-13
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternet Histories (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2470-1475 • E-ISSN: 2470-1483
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/24701475.2019.1701919
OpenAlexW3004481087
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited35

Mainstream internet histories employ legacy perspectives to establish lineages of continuity that demonstrate how American pasts still operate in and affect our Internet present. This article rethinks legacies in internet history by positioning the notion of legacy systems as conceptual basis for a genealogical and non-teleological framing of internet history aimed to investigate lost network events as legacies of European pasts that persist and continue to affect our networked present. To demonstrate its historiographical value, I use the history of Euronet as a case in point, using a variety of primary and secondary sources, to argue that the legacy system of European cooperation and politics on which Euronet was imagined and built, persists within internet history through a variety of “successes” and “failures,” of which Euronet is only one

Archaeology · Framing (construction · Historiography · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Teleology · The Internet · Variety (cybernetics · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Cybernetics and Technology in Society · History · History of Computing Technologies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access