The Information Society, 22: 325–340, 2006 Copyright c  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0197-2243 print / 1087-6537 online DOI: 10.1080/01972240600904274 Power, Cash, and Convenience: Translations in the Political Site of the ATM Lucas D. Introna Centre for the Study of Technology and Organisation, Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster, United Kingdom Louise Whittaker Wits Business School, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa The automatic teller machine (ATM) will be for the foreseeable future the dominant mode of access to cash for those living in indus- trialized societies. In this article we present the ATM as a political site where a multiplicity of relationships—primarily but not exclu- sively between the customer and the bank—become configured in ways that serve some interests and not others. The article draws on the work of Winner, Haraway, and Latour in discussing the ongo- ing translation of ATMs as it occurs in the United Kingdom, with further reference to South Africa and the United States. In order to make some of the politics of the ATM more visible, we illustrate the political struggles through four interconnected narratives: (a) the talking ATM, (b) the insecure ATM, (c) the charging ATM, and (d) the cashless ATM. In each of these descriptive accounts we attempt to show how the ATM becomes (or is) a cybernetic actor that is configured and reconfigured through a multiplicity of polit- ical translations resulting in a multiplicity of politically significant cybernetic ATM networks. Finally, we briefly discuss how these narratives interrelate to form the political site of the ATM. Keywords ATM, banking, cyborg, Haraway, Latour, politics, tech- nology The first automatic teller machine (ATM) was installed by Barclays Bank in its Enfield branch on 27 June 1967— although there is some controversy over who first invented the ATM. This ATM was based on the idea of a “dispens- ing” machine: one that dispenses an item of a customer’s choice in return for money deposited. However, instead Received 22 August 2005; accepted 19 April 2006. Address correspondence to Louise Whittaker, Wits Business School, PO Box 98, Wits, 2050, South Africa. E-mail: whittaker.l@wbs.wits. ac.za of inserting money to get money dispensed, the customer inserted a “token” in the form of a hole-punched voucher, purchased by the customer from the bank during opening hours. The voucher was inserted in one drawer and the machine dispensed a £10.00 note in another drawer if a correct verification code was entered. The technological breakthrough that made the cash dispenser possible was the technology to match the code on the hole-punched voucher with the code entered by the customer. This rather cumbersome machine was followed by the introduction of the magnetic strip in 1969 and the first fully automatic ATM in 1971, by Docutel, called the “Total Teller.” By 1978 the first networked ATM, called the TABS 500, was developed and implemented in a number of locations in the United States by Diebold. Once the ATM was connected to the mainframe computer—and subsequent networks—the number of possible transactions increased dramatically, as well as the demand for ATMs by customers. By 2003 there were approximately 52,500 ATMs in the United Kingdom (UK) (one ATM for every 1135 per- sons), dispensing £140 billion in 2.4 billion transactions. This would equate to approximately 40 billion visits per year per capita with an average withdrawal of £60.00 per transaction. In spite of multiple alternative modes of ac- cess, the ATM remains the predominant mode of access to cash. Other modes include withdrawals at a post office counter and a supermarket teller (referred to as a “cash back”). In the UK the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS) predicts that in 2012, 75% of all ac- cess to cash will be through ATMs, as opposed to 51% in 2002 and 27% in 1992 (APACS, 2003). The importance of ATMs becomes even more clear when one considers the fact that in 2003, 63% of personal (as opposed to business) payments in the UK were in the form of cash, in spite of the multiplicity of alternative payment methods available. 325