From Telematics to the Web: The Development of Digital Infrastructures and Cultures in Luxembourg (1970s-2010)

This research retraces Luxembourg's adaptation, adoption, and appropriation of the Internet and the Web from the early 1970s to 2010. The study starts in the 1970s with the "histories of networking" to analyze the impact of various computer networks that emerged in the European context.
The central aim of this dissertation is to examine the adaptation, adoption and appropriation of the Internet and the Web by Luxembourg, focusing on the role of geographical, spatial, economic, cultural and socio-demographic factors in shaping these processes. It also seeks to understand the specificities of the digital paths within the country.
The study explores the driving forces that have influenced the development of the Internet and the Web in Luxembourg and their impact, using a multifaceted approach, structured into three primary chapters. The first one explores the evolution of infrastructures, emphasizing the interplay between the adaptation of computer networks, the Internet, and the Web, along with the concomitant narratives. The second part focuses on the adoption of the Internet and the Web, analyzing it through the lens of domestication and democratization. The third chapter analyses the appropriation of the Web by professionals and amateurs, and how digital cultures have been shaped.
This study contributes to recent approaches to Internet histories by retracing and contextualizing political, economic, social, cultural, and spatial conditions under which technologies emerge and evolve. Its global and regional framework offers a nuanced understanding of the intricate evolution of the Internet and the Web.