# Software studies

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Software_studies
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Software_studies.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_studies
> Source revision: 1328741301
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Field of study}}
{{For|technical approaches to software|Software engineering}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2020}}

'''Software studies''' is an emerging [interdisciplinary](/source/interdisciplinary) research field, which studies [software system](/source/software_system)s and their social and cultural effects. The implementation and use of [software](/source/software) has been studied in recent fields such as [cyberculture](/source/cyberculture), [Internet studies](/source/Internet_studies), [new media studies](/source/new_media_studies), and [digital culture](/source/digital_culture), yet prior to software studies, software was rarely ever addressed as a distinct object of study. To study software as an artifact, software studies draws upon methods and theory from the [digital humanities](/source/digital_humanities) and from computational perspectives on software. Methodologically, software studies usually differs from the approaches of [computer science](/source/computer_science) and [software engineering](/source/software_engineering), which concern themselves primarily with software in [information theory](/source/information_theory) and in practical application; however, these fields all share an emphasis on [computer literacy](/source/computer_literacy), particularly in the areas of [programming](/source/computer_programming) and [source code](/source/source_code). This emphasis on analysing software sources and processes (rather than interfaces) often distinguishes software studies from new media studies, which is usually restricted to discussions of interfaces and observable effects.

==History==
The conceptual origins of software studies include [Marshall McLuhan](/source/Marshall_McLuhan)'s focus on the role of media in themselves, rather than the content of media platforms, in shaping culture. Early references to the study of [software](/source/software) as a cultural practice appear in [Friedrich Kittler](/source/Friedrich_Kittler)'s essay, "Es gibt keine Software",{{sfnm |1a1=Kittler |1y=1993 |1pp=225–242 |2a1=Kittler |2y=1995}} [Lev Manovich](/source/Lev_Manovich)'s ''Language of New Media'',{{sfn|Manovich|2001|pp=xxxix, 354}} and [Matthew Fuller](/source/Matthew_Fuller_(author))'s ''Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software''.{{sfn|Fuller|2003|p=165}} Much of the impetus for the development of software studies has come from [video game studies](/source/video_game_studies), particularly platform studies, the study of video games and other software artifacts in their hardware and software contexts. [New media](/source/New_media) art, [software art](/source/software_art), [motion graphics](/source/motion_graphics), and [computer-aided design](/source/computer-aided_design) are also significant software-based cultural practices, as is the creation of new protocols and platforms.

The first conference events in the emerging field were Software Studies Workshop 2006 and SoftWhere 2008.<ref>{{cite web |year=2006 |title=Software Studies Workshop |url=http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/Seminars2/softstudworkshop |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327185154/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/Seminars2/softstudworkshop |archive-date=27 March 2010 |access-date=5 April 2020}}</ref><ref>[http://workshop.softwarestudies.com/ SoftWhere: Software Studies Workshop] San Diego 2008 conference website</ref>

In 2008,{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} [MIT Press](/source/MIT_Press) launched a Software Studies book series<ref>{{cite web |title=Software Studies&nbsp;– Series |url=http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/browse/browse.asp?btype=6&serid=179 |url-status=unfit |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=MIT Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803154024/http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/browse/browse.asp?btype=6&serid=179 |archive-date=3 August 2010 |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref> with an edited volume of essays (Fuller's ''Software Studies: A Lexicon''),{{sfn|Fuller|2008}} and the first academic program was launched, ([Lev Manovich](/source/Lev_Manovich), [Benjamin H. Bratton](/source/Benjamin_H._Bratton), and [Noah Wardrip-Fruin](/source/Noah_Wardrip-Fruin)'s "Software Studies Initiative" at U. California San Diego).<ref>[http://lab.softwarestudies.com/ Software Studies Initiative @ UCSD] official website</ref>{{verification needed|date=April 2020}}
 
In 2011, a number of mainly British researchers established ''Computational Culture'', an open-access peer-reviewed journal. The journal provides a platform for "inter-disciplinary enquiry into the nature of the culture of computational objects, practices, processes and structures."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/calendar/?id=4870|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419161041/http://www.gold.ac.uk/cultural-studies/calendar/?id=4870|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-04-19|title=Computational Culture: Double Book Launch and Launch of Computational Culture, a Journal of Software Studies|location=London |publisher=Goldsmiths, University of London|date=December 2011|accessdate=January 18, 2013}}</ref>

==Related fields==
Software studies is closely related to a number of other emerging fields in the [digital humanities](/source/digital_humanities) that explore functional components of technology from a social and cultural perspective. Software studies' focus is at the level of the entire program, specifically the relationship between interface and code. Notably related are [critical code studies](/source/critical_code_studies), which is more closely attuned to the code rather than the program,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://criticalcodestudies.com/wordpress |title=Critical Code Studies |website=criticalcodestudies.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117001643/http://criticalcodestudies.com/wordpress/ |archive-date=2008-01-17}} </ref> and platform studies, which investigates the relationships between hardware and software.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bogost |first1=Ian |last2=Montfort |first2=Nick |title=Platform Studies: A Book Series Published by MIT Press |url=http://platformstudies.com |website=Platform Studies |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kirschenbaum |first=Matthew |date=23 January 2009 |title=Where Computer Science and Cultural Studies Collide |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Where-Computer-Science-and/14806 |url-access=subscription |journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Society|Technology}}
* [Cultural studies](/source/Cultural_studies)
* [Digital sociology](/source/Digital_sociology)

==References==
===Footnotes===
{{reflist|22em}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book
|last=Fuller
|first=Matthew
|author-link=Matthew Fuller (author)
|year=2003
|title=Behind the Blip: Essays on the Culture of Software
|location=New York
|publisher=Autonomedia
|isbn=978-1-57027-139-7
}}
* {{cite book
|year=2008
|editor-last=Fuller
|editor-first=Matthew
|editor-link=Matthew Fuller (author)
|editor-mask={{long dash}}
|title=Software Studies: A Lexicon
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=MIT Press
|isbn=978-0-262-06274-9
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kittler
|first=Friedrich
|author-link=Friedrich Kittler
|year=1993
|title=Draculas Vermächtnis: Technische Schriften
|language=de
|location=Leipzig
|publisher=Reclam
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Kittler
|first=Friedrich
|author-link=Friedrich Kittler
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1995
|title=There Is No Software
|url=http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=74
|journal=CTheory
|access-date=19 January 2013
|archive-date=25 July 2019
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725203226/http://ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=74
|url-status=dead
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Manovich
|first=Lev
|author-link=Lev Manovich
|year=2001
|title=The Language of New Media
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=MIT Press
|isbn=978-0-262-13374-6
}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|35em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite book
|last=Bassett
|first=Caroline
|year=2007
|title=The Arc and the Machine: Narrative and New Media
|location=Manchester
|publisher=Manchester University Press
|isbn=978-0-7190-7342-7
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Berry
|first=David M.
|year=2008
|title=Copy, Rip, Burn: The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source
|url=https://archive.org/details/copyripburnpolit0000berr
|url-access=registration
|location=London
|publisher=Pluto Press
|doi=10.2307/j.ctt183q67g
|isbn=978-1-84964-455-6
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Berry
|first=David M.
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=2011
|title=The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age
|location=Basingstoke, England
|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan
|doi=10.1057/9780230306479
|isbn=978-0-230-24418-4
}}
* {{cite thesis
|last=Black
|first=Maurice J.
|year=2002
|title=The Art of Code
|type=PhD dissertation
|location=Philadelphia
|publisher=University of Pennsylvania
|oclc=244972113
|id={{ProQuest|305507258}}
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Chopra
|first1=Samir
|last2=Dexter
|first2=Scott D.
|year=2008
|title=Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software
|location=New York
|publisher=Routledge
|doi=10.4324/9780203942147
|isbn=978-0-203-94214-7
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Chun
|first=Wendy Hui Kyong
|author-link=Wendy Hui Kyong Chun
|year=2008
|title=On 'Sourcery,' or Code as Fetish
|url=https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:405433/
|journal=Configurations
|volume=16
|issue=3
|pages=299–324
|doi=10.1353/con.0.0064
|s2cid=53422082
|issn=1080-6520
|access-date=5 April 2020
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Hayles
|first=N. Katherine
|author-link=N. Katherine Hayles
|year=2004
|title=Print Is Flat, Code Is Deep: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis
|url=http://www.cws.illinois.edu/IPRHDigitalLiteracies/Hayles.pdf
|journal=Poetics Today
|volume=25
|issue=1
|pages=67–90
|doi=10.1215/03335372-25-1-67
|s2cid=16194046
|issn=1527-5507
|access-date=5 April 2020
|archive-date=11 January 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200111003905/http://www.cws.illinois.edu/IPRHDigitalLiteracies/Hayles.pdf
|url-status=dead
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Heim
|first=Michael
|author-link=Michael R. Heim
|year=1987
|title=Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing
|url=https://archive.org/details/electriclanguage00heim
|url-access=registration
|location=New Haven, Connecticut
|publisher=Yale University Press
|isbn=978-0-300-03835-4
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Kirschenbaum
|first=Matthew G.
|year=2004
|title=Extreme Inscription: Towards a Grammatology of the Hard Drive
|url=http://observatory.constantvzw.org/books/vol13_2_06.pdf
|journal=TEXT Technology
|issue=2
|pages=91–125
|issn=1053-900X
|access-date=5 April 2020
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kittler
|first=Friedrich A.
|author-link=Friedrich Kittler
|year=1997
|editor-last=Johnston
|editor-first=John
|title=Literature, Media, Information Systems: Essays
|location=Amsterdam
|publisher=Overseas Publishers Association
|isbn=978-90-5701-071-2
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Kittler
|first=Friedrich A.
|author-link=Friedrich Kittler
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=1999
|title=Gramophone, Film, Typewriter
|translator1-last=Winthrop-Young
|translator1-first=Geoffrey
|translator2-last=Wutz
|translator2-first=Michael
|location=Stanford, California
|publisher=Stanford University Press
|isbn=978-0-8047-3232-1
}}
* {{cite web
|last=Mackenzie
|first=Adrian
|year=2003
|title=The Problem of Computer Code: Leviathan or Common Power
|url=https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/mackenza/papers/code-leviathan.pdf
|location=Lancaster, England
|publisher=Lancaster University
|access-date=6 April 2020
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Mackenzie
|first=Adrian
|author-mask={{long dash}}
|year=2006
|title=Cutting Code: Software and Sociality
|journal=Internet Research Annual
|series=Digital Formations
|volume=30
|location=Oxford
|publisher=Peter Lang
|isbn=978-0-8204-7823-4
|issn=1526-3169
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Manovich
|first=Lev
|author-link=Lev Manovich
|year=2013
|title=Software Takes Command
|url=https://issuu.com/bloomsburypublishing/docs/9781623566722_web
|location=New York
|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic
|isbn=978-1-62356-672-2
|access-date=6 April 2020
}}
* {{cite web
|last1=Manovich
|first1=Lev
|author1-link=Lev Manovich
|last2=Douglass
|first2=Jeremy
|year=2009
|title=Visualizing Temporal Patterns in Visual Media
|url=http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/visualizing_temporal_patterns.pdf
|access-date=10 October 2009
|archive-date=7 October 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007143736/http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/visualizing_temporal_patterns.pdf
|url-status=dead
}}
* {{cite journal
|last=Marino
|first=Mark C.
|year=2006
|title=Critical Code Studies
|url=https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/critical-code-studies/
|journal=Electronic Book Review
|issn=1553-1139
|access-date=6 April 2020
}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Montfort
|first1=Nick
|author1-link=Nick Montfort
|last2=Bogost
|first2=Ian
|author2-link=Ian Bogost
|year=2009
|title=Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System
|title-link=Racing the Beam
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=MIT Press
|isbn=978-0-262-01257-7
}}
* {{cite book
|last=Wardrip-Fruin
|first=Noah
|author-link=Noah Wardrip-Fruin
|year=2009
|title=Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies
|title-link=Expressive Processing
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|publisher=MIT Press
|isbn=978-0-262-01343-7
}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://monoskop.org/Software_studies Software studies bibliography] at Monoskop.org

Category:Computing culture
Category:Cultural studies
Category:Digital humanities
Category:Science and technology studies
Category:Software
Category:Technological change

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Software studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_studies) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_studies?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.