Abstract
This chapter examines radar-based media practices at the beginning of the 1940s using the case study of two data infrastructures. The co-operative production and presentation of centralised Air Situation Pictures in British and German ‘operations rooms’ and their material conditions are praxeologically investigated, based on Harold Garfinkel’s Sociological Theory of Information. The case study shows how the infrastructuring of data flows developed in media practice before computerized methods. For that reason, the chapter analytically changes the axiom of the Actor-network theory of ‘follow the actor’ to ‘follow the data’, based on a historical tracing of ‘chains of co-operation’. The contribution thus provides an utilisation of the perspectives of Science and Technology Studies to media historiography. With this praxeological perspective on information processing, it becomes clear how the systematic, material, but also architectural infrastructure of signal and data paths was a necessary condition for the problem of producing the Air Situation Picture, which had to be solved co-operatively. The analysis of chains of co-operations shows that sequentiality, which is associated with the decomposition of the complex task of producing and visualising Air Situation Pictures, was bound to different actors: While the British system involves more human decision making (especially filtering), the German command post strongly deals with the specific material operations of the map (including combining, marking, scaling and disseminating).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The missing link between the topological and topographic dimension is a fundamental conceptual problem within ANT (see Schüttpelz, 2007, p. 39) that can be resolved by a praxeological perspective.
- 3.
This is from the recollections of Eileen Younghusband, who worked as a ‘filterer officer’ at Fighter Command Headquarters in Bentley Priory: ‘This was a team operation […] the plotters, raid orderlies and tellers responsible for the display and forwarding of the information from the Radar Station, to the Controller who identified the tracks; the Filter Officer who supervised the action on the table and who was in constant contact with all the Radar Stations; and the Filterer Officer whose job was to interpret, collate and correct the information instantly into tracks of all aircraft approaching or leaving our shores’ (Royal Air Force, 2015, p. 6).
- 4.
According to the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force), after 1940 ‘radar operators’ were almost exclusively women, which is why in the MIT volume the standardised ‘radar operator’ is explicitly referred to as ‘she’ (e.g. Bowden, 1947, p. 227).
- 5.
These posts were originally exclusively staffed by men. During World War II, women were also trained as ‘filterer’ or ‘filterer officer’ (Royal Air Force, 2015, p. 6).
- 6.
The material basis for this information was again plotting. This was done in the Observer Posts Centre similar to Bentley Priory and the group and sector headquarters with arrow symbols on a ‘plotting table’, which were marked either red, yellow or blue according to five-minute phases. The individual observer posts reported by telephone to the centre. From the sighting of aircraft to the forwarding of the plot to Fighter Command Headquarters could take only about forty seconds. For the structure of the Royal Observer Corps and its plotting method, (see Wood, 1961, p. 152 ff).
- 7.
On the method of operation of radar stations for dark night fighting, (see Hoffmann, 1968, p. 40).
- 8.
Just as the Dowding System experienced infrastructural changes, which are not part of this chapter, the chain of co-operation for the production and display of ASPs in the Divisional Command Post ‘Diogenes’ is also variant, as it was subject to changes when the reporting hierarchy was updated in favour of new institutional structures. Due to the availability of material, we decided to unfold the co-operative chain of operations for the end of the year 1943.
- 9.
While the documentation of the co-operative chain of the Dowding System was only carried out with regard to radar data and could thus be numbered ‘1’, ‘2’ etc., for the example ‘Diogenes’ we use a differentiation into ‘A1’, ‘A2’, etc. for the radar data and ‘B1’, ‘B2’, etc. for the listening and observer messages of the separately running co-operative chain.
- 10.
It was not until 1944 that the German side began to send radar reports as well as reports from listening and observer posts via the ground observers’ network rather than directly to the division command post.
References
Air Ministry. (1941). The battle of Britain: August–October 1940. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Biermann, K., & Cielewicz, E. (2006). Flugplatz Döberitz. Geburtsort der militärischen Luftfahrt in Deutschland. Berlin: Christoph Links.
Bowden, B. V. (1947). Radar in the RAF fighter command. In L. Ridenour (Ed.), MIT radiation laboratory series Vol. 1: Radar system engineering, (pp. 226–228). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bowden, B. V. (1985). The story of IFF (Identification Friend or Foe). Physical Science, Measurement and Instrumentation, Management and Education – Reviews, IEE Proceedings A, 132(6), 435–437.
Burzan, N., & Hitzler, R. (2016). Materiale Analysen als methodenplurales Konzept. In N. Burzan, R. Hitzler, & H. Kirschner (Eds.), Materiale Analysen. Methodenfragen in Projekten (pp. 1–10). Wiesbaden: Springer.
Diehl, H. (1943). Denkschrift über die Entwicklung der Boden-Führungsorganisation der Nachtjagd, ihre Vor- und Nachteile, Aufbauforderungen und Vorschläge für das Jahr 1944. In K. O. Hoffmann (Ed.), LN. Geschichte der Luftnachrichtentruppe Band I – Der Weltkrieg. Teil 1: Der Flugmelde- und Jägerleitdienst 1939–1945, (1968) (pp. 399–403). Neckargemünd: Kurt Vowinckel.
Everett, R. R. (Ed.). (1983). Annals of the history of computing. Special Issue: SAGE (Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), 5(4).
Garfinkel, H. (1951). “Memo # 2: Organizational Behavior Project, October 4, 1951: Some Problematical Areas in the Study of Communicative Work” (Harold Garfinkel Archive, Newburyport, Folder “Miscellaneous Reactions to Communicative Tactics”).
Galland, A. (1984 [1953]). Die Ersten und die Letzten. Jagdflieger im Zweiten Weltkrieg (12th ed.). München: Wilhelm Heyne.
Garfinkel, H. (1963). A conception of, and experiments with, ‘trust’ as a condition for stable concerted actions. In O. J. Harvey (Ed.), Motivation and social interaction (pp. 187–238). New York: Ronald Press.
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Garfinkel, H. (1996). Notes comparing two analytic formats of occasion maps of way finding journeys: ‘Documentary’ and ‘essentially procedural’, unpublished manuscript, University of California, Los Angeles, 24 February.
Garfinkel, H. (2008a [1951]). Memo # 2: Organizational Behavior Project, October 4, 1951: Some problematical areas in the study of communicative work. In A. W. Rawls (Ed.), Toward a sociological theory of information (pp. 248–265). Boulder: Paradigm Publications.
Garfinkel, H. (2008b [1952]). Memo # 3: Organizational behavior project, April 17, 1952. In A. W. Rawls (Ed.), Toward a sociological theory of information (pp. 101–225). Boulder: Paradigm Publications.
Godt, B. (2003). Aspekte der Radarentwicklung und -anwendung im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Konstanz: Hartung-Gorre.
Goodwin, C. (2018). Co-operative action. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hägerstrand, T. (1970). What about people in regional science? Papers of the Regional Science Association, 24, 7–21.
Hägerstrand, T. (1982). Diorama, path and project. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 73, 323–329.
Haigh, T. (2012). The IBM PC: From beige box to industry standard. Communications of the ACM, 55(1), 35–37.
Haworth, L. J. (1947). Aids to plotting and control. In L. Ridenour (Ed.), MIT radiation laboratory series Vol. 1: Radar system engineering (pp. 218–225). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Heilmann, T. A. (2016). Zur Vorgängigkeit der Operationskette in der Medienwissenschaft und bei Leroi-Gourhan. Internationales Jahrbuch Für Medienphilosophie, 2(1), 7–30.
Hoffmann, K. O. (1968). LN. Geschichte der Luftnachrichtentruppe Band II – Der Weltkrieg. Teil 1: Der Flugmelde- und Jägerleitdienst 1939–1945. Neckargemünd: Kurt Vowinckel.
Kittler, F. (1996). The history of communication media. CTheory. https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/view/14325. Accessed 1 July 2023.
Kittler, F. (2001). Computer graphics: A semi-technical introduction. Grey Room, 2, 30–45.
Kline, R. R. (2015). The cybernetics moment: Or why we call our age the information age. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Knop, C. (2018). Der PC stirbt einen schönen Tod. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 January, 24.
Kumbruck, C. (1999). Angemessenheit für situierte Kooperation – Ein Kriterium arbeitswissenschaftlicher Technikforschung und -gestaltung. Münster: LIT.
Latour, B. (1993 [1991]). We have never been modern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. (1995). The ‘Pedofíl’ of Boa Vista: A photo-philosophical montage. Common Knowledge, 4(1), 145–187.
Latour, B. (1999). Pandora’s hope: Essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. New York: Oxford University Press.
Leroi-Gourhan, A. (1980). Hand und Wort. Die Evolution von Technik, Sprache und Kunst. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Maye, H. (2010). Was ist eine Kulturtechnik? Zeitschrift Für Medien- und Kulturforschung, 1(1), 121–135.
Rawls, A. W. (2008). Editor’s introduction. In H. Garfinkel (Ed.), Toward a sociological theory of information (pp. 1–100). Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Ridenour, L. N. 1(947a). The signal and its use. In L. N. Ridenour (Ed.), MIT radiation laboratory series Vol. 1: Radar system engineering (pp. 213–214). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Ridenour, L. N. (Ed.). (1947b). MIT radiation laboratory series Vol. 1: Radar system engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Robben, B. (2006). Der Computer als Medium. Eine transdisziplinäre Theorie. Bielefeld: transcript.
Rowe, A. P. (1948). One story of radar. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Royal Air Force. (2015). Those girls & their finest hour. Custodians of air power supplement. http://www.raffca.uk/cms/uploads/images/Docd/Those_Girls_And_Their_Finest_Hour.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2023.
Schüttpelz, E. (2006). Die medienanthropologische Kehre der Kulturtechniken. Archiv Für Mediengeschichte, 6, 87–110.
Schüttpelz, E. (2007). Ein absoluter Begriff. Zur Genealogie und Karriere des Netzwerkkonzepts. In S. Kaufmann (Ed.), Vernetzte Steuerung. Soziale Prozesse im Zeitalter technischer Netzwerke (pp. 25–46). Zürich: Chronos.
Schüttpelz, E. (2008). Der Punkt des Archimedes. Einige Schwierigkeiten des Denkens in Operationsketten. In G. Kneer, M. Schroer, & E. Schüttpelz (Eds.), Bruno Latours Kollektive (pp. 234–258). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Schüttpelz, E. (2010). Körpertechniken. Zeitschrift Für Medien- und Kulturforschung, 1(1), 101–120.
Schüttpelz, E. (2013). Elemente einer Akteur-Medien-Theorie. In T. Thielmann & E. Schüttpelz (Eds.), Akteur-Medien-Theorie (pp. 9–67). Bielefeld: transcript.
Schüttpelz, E. (2017). Die Erfindung der Twelve-Inch der Homo Sapiens und Till Heilmanns Kommentar zur Priorität der Operationskette. Internationales Jahrbuch Für Medienphilosophie, 3(1), 217–234.
Schüttpelz, E., & Gießmann, S. (2015). Medien der Kooperation. Überlegungen zum Forschungsstand. Navigationen. Zeitschrift für Medien- und Kulturwissenschaften, 15(1), 7–55.
Shannon, C. E. (1948a). A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379–423.
Shannon, C. E. (1948b). A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal, 27(4), 623–666.
Slayton, R. (2013). Arguments that count. Physics, computing, and missile defense, 1949–2012. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Thielmann, T. (2012). Taking into Account: Harold Garfinkels Beitrag für eine Theorie sozialer Medien. Zeitschrift Für Medienwissenschaft, 6, 85–102.
Thielmann, T. (2013). Digitale Rechenschaft. Die Netzwerkbedingungen der Akteur-Medien-Theorie seit Amtieren des Computers. In T. Thielmann & E. Schüttpelz (Eds.), Akteur-Medien-Theorie (pp. 377–424). Bielefeld: transcript.
Trenkle, F. (1987). Die deutschen Funkführungsverfahren bis 1945. Heidelberg: Alfred Hüthig.
Wieser, M. (2012). Das Netzwerk von Bruno Latour: Die Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie zwischen Science & Technology Studies und poststrukturalistischer Soziologie. Bielefeld: transcript.
Winkler, H. (2015). Prozessieren. Die dritte, vernachlässigte Medienfunktion. Paderborn: Fink.
Wood, D. (1961). The narrow margin: The battle of Britain and the rise of air power, 1930–1949. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wood, D. (1991). The dowding system. In H. Probert & S. Cox (Eds.), The Battle Re-thought: A Symposium on the Battle of Britain (pp. 3–10). Airlife Publishing. https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/Research/RAF-Historical-Society-Journals/Bracknell-No-1-Battle-of-Britain.pdf. Accessed 1 July 2023.
Zimmerman, D. (2004). Information and the air defence revolution, 1917–40. The Journal of Strategic Studies, 28(2), 370–394.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Borbach, C., Thielmann, T. (2023). Chains of Co-operation in the 1940s: Working on the Air Situation Picture. In: Gießmann, S., Röhl, T., Trischler, R., Zillinger, M. (eds) Materiality of Cooperation. Medien der Kooperation – Media of Cooperation. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39468-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39468-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-658-39467-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-658-39468-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)