Visions of a Digital Nation

Market and Monopoly in British Telecommunications

Jacob Ward

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English

MIT Press
12 March 2024

Technology: general issues

"Why the privatization of British Telecom signaled a pivotal moment in the rise of neoliberalism, and how it was shaped by the longer development and digitalization of Britain's telecommunications infrastructure.

Why the privatization of British Telecom signaled a pivotal moment in the rise of neoliberalism, and how it was shaped by the longer development and digitalization of Britain's telecommunications infrastructure.

When Margaret Thatcher sold British Telecom for e3.6 billion in 1984, it became not only, at the time, the largest stock flotation in history, but also a watershed moment in the rise of neoliberalism and deregulation. In Visions of a Digital Nation, Jacob Ward offers an incisive interdisciplinary perspective on how technology prefigured this pivot. Giving due consideration to the politicians, engineers, and managers who paved the way for this historic moment, Ward illustrates how the decision validated the privatization of public utilities and tied digital technology to free market rationales.

In this examination of the national and, at times, global history of technology, Ward's approach is sweeping. Utilizing infrastructure studies, environmental history, and urban and local history, Ward explores Britain's nationalist and welfarist plans for a digital information utility and shows how these projects contested and adapted to the ""market turn"" under Margaret Thatcher. Ultimately, Visions of a Digital Nation compellingly argues that politicians did not impose neoliberalism top-down, but that technology, engineers, and managers shaped these politics from the bottom up."

By: Jacob Ward
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262546294
ISBN 10: 0262546299
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 12 March 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii ABBREVIATIONS xi INTRODUCTION 1 I PLANS 1 THE ORIGINS OF THE DIGITAL VISION 27 2 PLANNING THE DIGITAL FUTURE: MODELS AND MARKETS 53 II PROJECTS 3 MONOPSONY IN THE MACHINE: SUPPLIERS, LABOR, AND TELEPHONE EXCHANGES 85 4 WHO KILLED OPTICAL FIBER? DREAMS OF THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY 115 III PLACES 5 MARTLESHAM HEATH: NOSTALGIA, FUTURITY, AND IT PARKS 149 6 THE NORTH ATLANTIC: TECHNOLOGY, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND LIBERALIZATION 171 7 THE CITY OF LONDON: FINANCING BT’S PRIVATIZATION 199 CONCLUSION 221 NOTES 231 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 INDEX 309

Jacob Ward is Assistant Professor in the History Department and Science, Technology and Society Studies Research Program at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University. He is coeditor of Histories of Technology, the Environment and Modern Britain.