Ricky Wichum
+41 44 632 75 08
ricky.wichum@history.gess.ethz.ch
Current Projects
Research Interests
- History of Computing
- Sociology of (In-)Security
- Social Theory
New Publications
Biography
Ricky Wichum received his PhD from the University of Freiburg (2015) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS) in Lüneburg before joining ETH Zurich. As a sociologist who teaches the History of Technology, he is particularly interested in the coevolution of technology and society. In his first book, "Biometrie. Zur Soziologie der Identifikation" (2017), Ricky examines biometric identification technologies as a promise to solve control problems of liberal societies. The monograph "Simulation for All. Supercomputing in Stuttgart" (2021) (with David Gugerli) analyzes how supercomputing has evolved through continuous reconfiguration of computing, science, industry, and politics.
Ricky Wichum has published in the field of security research, e.g., about contemporary diagnoses of postmodern insecurities or on Michel Foucault's security dispositif. In the History of Computing, an essay on the emergence of digital federalism (with David Gugerli) has been published.
Ricky was a Junior Fellow at MECS (2013/14) and received a grant from the FAZIT Stiftung to finish his doctoral thesis (June 2014-February 2015). In January 2017, he was an academic guest at the Chair of History of Technology, ETH Zurich. From November 2017 - December 2020, Ricky was a research associate at the Collegium Helveticum (fellow period on "Digital Societies"). In April 2022, he was an academic guest at the Department for Communication, University of Copenhagen. In the Fall Semester of 2023, Ricky was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society (CSTMS) at the University of California, Berkeley.
Publications (Selection)
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Ricky Wichum:
Der Computer als Maschine in Niklas Luhmanns Systemtheorie der Verwaltung der 1960er Jahre.
In: Soziale Systeme 25 (1)
2020, 226 – 233.
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Ricky Wichum, Daniela Zetti (Hg.):
Zur Geschichte des digitalen Zeitalters.
Geschichte des digitalen Zeitalters.
Wiesbaden:
Springer VS
2022.
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Ricky Wichum, Daniela Zetti:
Transformation. Die Erfahrung der Ankündigung von Wandel und Veränderung.
In: Ricky Wichum, Daniela Zetti (Hg.):
Zur Geschichte des digitalen Zeitalters.
Wiesbaden:
Springer VS
2022, 1 – 11.
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David Gugerli, Ricky Wichum:
Supercomputing and the emergence of digital federalism.
In: Paolo Bory, Daniela Zetti (Hg.):
Digital Federalism - Information, Institutions, Infrastructures (1950–2000).
Basel:
Schwabe
2022, 117 – 140.
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Ricky Wichum:
Bürokratie.
Niklas Luhmann: Theorie der Verwaltungswissenschaft (1966).
In: Monika Wulz, Max Stadler, Nils Güttler, Fabian Grütter (Hg.):
Deregulation und Restauration. Eine politische Wissensgeschichte.
Berlin:
Matthes & Seitz
2021, 90 – 103.
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Ricky Wichum:
Auf der Schwelle. Die Systemtheorie Niklas Luhmanns, die Kybernetik und der Computer um 1970.
In: Alfred Nordmann, Alexander Friedrich, Petra Gehring, Christoph Hubig, Andreas Kaminski, Alfred Nordmann (Hg.):
Steuern und Regeln. Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie 2019 /.
Baden-Baden:
Nomos
2019, 85 – 101.
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Ricky Wichum:
Verwaltungsrecht und Automation um 1960.
In: Dennis-Kenji Kipker, Matthias Kopp, Peter Wiersbinski, Jan-Christoph Marschelke, Falk Hamann, Martin Weichold (Hg.):
Der normative Druck des Faktischen: Technologische Herausforderungen des Rechts und seine Fundierung in sozialer Praxis.
Stuttgart:
Franz Steiner Verlag
2019, 69 – 87.
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Show all publications
Teaching
ETH Zurich (in German)
Webclass Introductory Course History of Technology (Fall Semester 2024)
Digital Nature and the Naturality of the Digital (Spring Semester 2024)
Digital Government since 1950 (Spring Semester 2023; with David Gugerli)
Student Colloquium for Master´s Thesis (Spring Semester 2022; Spring Semester 2021; with Eleonora Sammarchi)
Introduction to the History of Technology: Concepts and Current Debates (FallSemester 2021; with Rachele Delucchi)
Theory and Methodology of History and Philosophy of Knowledge (FallSemester 2021; with Rachele Delucchi)
A History of Personal Computing (Spring Semester 2021; with Mirjam Mayer)
Digital Humanities – Computing in the Humanities (Autumn Semester 2020)
WebClass Introductury Course History of Technology 3.0 (FallSemester 2019; with Gisela Hürlimann)
Factory, Laboratory, or Platform? Organizing High Performance Computing since the 1960s (Spring Semester 2019; with
David Gugerli)
Search Histories. Digging into Web Histories (FallSemester 2018; with Daniela Zetti)
Privacy in the Digital Society (Spring Semester 2018)
Conference Papers and Invited Talks (Selection)
- Identity, Statehood, and Computer Sciences. A History of the Social Security Number in Switzerland (1960-1980), STS/HST Working Group, Center for Science, Technology, Medicine, and Society (CSTMS), University of California, Berkeley, 8 November 2023
- From Service Provider to European Infrastructure. A History of a High-Performance Computing Center (1996-2007), talk at the panel "Universities as locally situated knowledge - making infrastructures embedded in perpetually changing global political economies: Changing practices at departments, institutes, labs, and universities - III (co-organized by Sharon Traweek and Knut Sorensen), Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Los Angeles, 26 October 2023
- Federalism in the Digital Realm: The Political Knowledge of Computer Science, 14th Annual Conference of the Special Interest Group in Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS), Online-Edition 2.0, 21 September 2023
- The Emergence of Bargaining Zones. Digital Information Systems in the Swiss Federal Administration (1960-1990), TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology, TU München, 28 November 2022
- Information Systems. Digital Statehood and the Transformation of the Digital (1960-1990), Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, 27 April 2022
- Public Data and Personal Computers. The Emergence of a Personal Computing Culture in the Swiss Federal Administration, ca. 1980 (with Mirjam Mayer), 6th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing, 28 October 2021 (peer-reviewed paper)
- Bodies and Biometrics. The Machine-Readable Body: a critique, workshop "Rethinking Digital Myths. Mediation, Narratives and Mythopoiesis in the Digital Age", USI Lugano, 30 January 2020
- Sovereignty and Simulation - The Politics of a High-Performance Computing Center, Bauhaus Digital Masterclass, University of Weimar, 5 December 2019
- Accessing the Supercomputer - Interfaces between the Supercomputer and its Users, talk at the panel "Between organism and machines. Interfaces of humans, machines and animals in the 20th century", Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, 2019 (24-27 October 2019), Milan, 26 October 2019
Organization of Workshops and Conferences (Selection)
- "Digital Democracy Sphere. A forum for ETH researchers across disciplines studying democracy in the digital age", Workshop Series in the Spring Semester 2023, ETH Zurich (co-organized with Margarita Boenig-Liptsin)
- IDEA League Summer School "Trajectories of Technology", 5-9 September 2022, RWTH Aachen (with Gabriele Gramelsberger and Daniela Zetti)
- IDEA League Summer School "Infrastructures of Science", 13-17 July 2020, Filzbach, ETH Zurich (with Daniela Zetti and Gabriele Gramelsberger)
- Workshop Research Network “Computer, Administration, and History, Vol. 4”, 20-21 November 2019, ETH Zurich (with Nick Schwery)
- International Conference “Agent Cultures and Zombielands. Fields, Fictions, and Futures of Agent-Based Modeling”, 23-25 June 2016, Institute for Advanced Study on Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS), University of Lüneburg (with Sebastian Vehlken)
