This article summarizes the findings of the contributions collected in the special issue "The Technology of Information, Communication, and Administration-An Entwined History" dedicated to the accelerated mechanization and the later digitization of administrative information processing in the 20th century. It develops a conceptual framework around the notions of administration, process, information, media, and power that allow for situating the contributions within the broad field of interaction spanned by the materiality of hybrid administrative processes and the ideological dynamics in society. It suggests promising lines of research for further studies in the history of administration and information.
As administrators in the so-called information age, we are experiencing the transforming power of information and the rapidly developing techniques for its processing. As scholars, we are intrigued by the strong and manifold interaction that takes place between information, communication, technology, and administration. The entwined history of information and communications technology (ICT) and administration gives rise to a series of issues that are of interest both from a perspective of technology and administrative history, and from a more general social and cultural science viewpoint. Information processing is key to the efficient functioning of almost every institution, be it private or public. Institutions, such as firms or public agencies, are characterized by their more or less hierarchical organization, which is held together and reconstituted in daily practice by information and the communication of information. At the same time, institutions are also interconnected with their environment by information. Given that information is so crucial for internal structure and external dynamics, it is to be expected that growing information needs, increased information processing capacity, and faster communication flows will have far-reaching consequences for these information-dependent institutions. Behind this macro correlation connected with digitization, subtler effects are at work, affecting the form and character of information, that is, changing the materiality of the information handled by machines, persons, institutions, and networks in daily practice. This cultural-material aspect is crucial for a deeper understanding of the historical processes connected with the digitization of institutional information processing and has to be considered together with techno-political macro trends. In a hierarchical organization, it is the administrative units that are responsible for effective information processing. Historically, these "information machines" underwent thoroughgoing changes, in particular from the mid-19th century onward, when office technology began to mechanize clerical tasks. With the digitization of information processing after World War II, the 798987A ASXXX10.
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