pp. 295-324

Examining the history of the introduction of information technology in French universities allows the analysis of both the effect of local configurations on the adoption of a new discipline and the process of differentiation among scientific poles. It is shown that information technology is given favourable conditions for development when considered as a research subject and where there already exists a professor or University chair in charge of teams working with numerical data. This type of team is to be found in all science faculties which have their own school of electrical engineers requiring applied mathematics and where there is a particular institutional situation - all recruitments are made via the faculty. A description of the origins of these schools in Grenoble, Toulouse and Nancy shows a periodization of the differentiation process among various scientific poles in France in the field of applied sciences.