Antti Silvast

Demoscene Platforms: A Case Study on the Adoption of Home Computers

This paper discusses the adoption of new technology by a hobbyist community known as the demoscene. The demoscene is chiefly a European community that originates from the mid-1980s and continues to exist even today. During its twenty years of existence, the demoscene has had to react to several changes in the field of information technology, in particular new hardware and software platforms. Based on the contemporary communication found in disk magazines and Internet forums we present case examples of the transitions and analyze the adoption processes. At large, the observations made serve as examples of the rich and unexpected ways in which the home computers were domesticated since the early 1980s.

Is pharmaceutical policy evidence-informed? A case of the deregulation process of nicotine replacement therapy products in Finland

OBJECTIVE This qualitative study aims to identify the key dimensions of the political argumentation in the debate leading up to the deregulation of nicotine replacement therapy products (NRT) in Finland in 2006. The deregulation was introduced by the Amendment of larger package of changes in medical legislation prepared in 2005. METHODS All publicly available documents of the legislative process introducing NRT deregulation and interviews of 12 Members of Finnish Parliament conducted in spring 2006 were analyzed by inductive content analysis. RESULTS NRT deregulation was introduced to decision-makers as a safe intervention to increase smoking cessation and thus provide public health benefits. However, a whole variety of other features were brought into debate: NRT characteristics, principle change in prevailing medical legislation, use of evidence and the political process. Finally, the expected public health benefits of the decision were not directly informed by any evidence. CONCLUSIONS This study provides an example of the use of public health benefits as justification for decision-making. However, the decision can include other aspects, less brought up in its preparation stage. Our study addresses the need for policymakers to critically evaluate the evidence, its suitability in decision-making context and raise awareness of the principles of evidence-informed policy-making.

Being at-risk or taking risks? Day-to-day experiences of electricity blackouts

During recent years, the risks of critical infrastructures failing have been in the foreground in many European and EU policies. This paper presents another viewpoint to these discussions: the day-to-day user experiences of actual failures. By presenting research findings from a study done of electricity blackouts in Finland, I aim to show that failures are complicated situations and people hardly agree on what to make of the risks and uncertainties that result. Two social theories will be employed for these results. First, new risks and uncertainties can be seen as imposing vulnerabilities and rendering people helpless. But second, risks and uncertainty can also be seen as an important part of everyday life. In the final chapter, the results are reflected on governing security of electricity supply. Here I claim that the varieties of risk responses should be also accounted for at the level of policies and regulation.

Multiple Users, Diverse Users: Appropriation of Personal Computers by Demoscene Hackers

The chapter deals with the domestication of technology from a hobbyist viewpoint. The authors discuss how a specific hobbyist group, the demoscene, adopted home computers over the past few decades. The demoscene—or just the scene, as its members called it—represents a European, technically-oriented, and creative community that has existed since the mid-1980s. Based on written primary sources from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, the authors highlight various aspects of the complex process of the computer’s adoption. They argue that the demoscene did not accept personal computers without criticism, even though members enjoyed strong ties to computers and developed high-level skills. The main themes guiding the analysis are the concept of a “scene,” referring to thematically-focused communities of technology users and the concept of a “script,” denoting the perceived possibilities for the use of new technology.

Crossing Borders: Social Sciences and Humanities Perspectives on European Energy Systems Integration

Our chapter brings together four Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) scholars into a conversation about their research and policy engagements, working within History, Political Science, Sociology, and Science and Technology Studies. We develop a socio-technical perspective and turn that into a conceptual tool pack, to interrogate and explore the emerging concept of Energy Systems Integration (ESI) with a special interest in European energy integration. Our contributions include, first, advancing the concepts of socio-technical energy system and seamless web for our research topics. Second, we open up select frameworks for ESI using the socio-technical perspective and highlight very different interpretations of systems integration terminologies and their effects. Third, the chapter explores of how the production of scale matters greatly for integrated energy systems, from a variety of infrastructural scales to urban, national, and supranational scales. The chapter rounds up by suggesting ideas for future interdisciplinary research between SSH researchers and designers of more integrated energy systems.

The rhythms of infrastructure

Technology organizes social life in different ways. This article focuses on the temporal ordering brought about by household energy technologies and the broader infrastructures upon which they depend. Such technology saves time, and the energy services so provided allow for comfort, flexibility and the independence from natural rhythms. While many such services are produced by distant infrastructures, the technology is neither invisible nor impermeable. On the contrary, our empirical results show that routinized human labour is needed to achieve comfort and convenience and to respond to the weather. Moreover, infrastructure failures, such as blackouts, create moments in which the rhythms of everyday life and the relationship between humans and technological systems are renegotiated. Surprisingly, the rhythms of heating work and those of sudden infrastructure failures are not only a source of inconvenience and trouble, but are also appreciated.