The Profession of Computing, Past and Present of the Occupation of the Future: an International Comparison

The author provides an overview of the origins and development of the profes-sion of computing, one of the so-called new professions. This profile has been dis-regarded until now by historical research, with the exception of some limited stud-ies focusing on single countries and individual aspects of the profession. The au-thor describes the origins of the discipline of computing, making a comparison be-tween some key countries ‒ the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy ‒, both in the academic and economic fields. He focuses, then, on its evolu-tion into an autonomous discipline with its own identity, academic education path and professional skills and organizations. This analysis brings to light the unrelent-ing process of negotiation aimed at identifying a body of knowledge and securing a “professional jurisdiction” against other contiguous and traditional professions. The market has played a primary role in this field, with the increasing demand of computer professionals both in the public and private sector. Professional organi-zations, finally, were characterised by two different models: the Anglo-Saxon model, based on self-organization, and the Latin one, based on stronger public in-terventionism.

Keywords: Computing, computing profession, computer industry, computing high-er education, computing professional organization, international comparison.

Giorgio Tabani, L’informatico, passato e presente della professione del futuro: una prospettiva comparata in "MONDO CONTEMPORANEO" 3/2016, pp 93-127, DOI: 10.3280/MON2016-003003