Papers from a conference held at Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellscha ftsforschung, Cologne, Germany, Nov. 1987.

Includes bibliographies.

Large technical systems : concepts and issues / Bernward Joerges -- The emergence of an early large-scale technical system : the American r ailroad network / Stephen Salsbury -- The evolution of the technical sy stem of railways in France from 1832 to 1937 / Francois Caron -- The de velopment of the German railroad system / G. Wolfgang Heinz and Heinric h H. Kill -- Looking for the boundaries of technological determinism : a brief history of the U.S. telephone system / Louis Galambos -- The te lephone in France 1879 to 1979 : national characteristics and internati onal influences / Catherine Bertho-Lavenir -- The politics of growth : the German telephone system / Frank Thomas -- The United States air tra ffic system : increasing reliability in the midst of rapid growth / Tod d La Porte.

The French electrical power system : an inter-country comparison / M aurice LØevy-Leboyer -- The dynamics of system development in a compar ative perspective : interactive videotax in Germany, France and Britain / Renate Mayntz and Volker Schneider.

Electronic text and image data. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Michigan, Michigan Publishing, 2004. Includes both TIFF files and keyword searchable text. ([ACLS Humanities E-Book]) Mode of a ccess: Intranet. This volume is made possible by a grant from the An drew W. Mellon Foundation.