Identification And Registration Practices In Transnational Perspective

Utilising sources that range from 16th century parish registers to the 21st century supermarket loyalty card, this collection examines the history and development of identification documents and surveillance techniques over the past 500 years. Combining the knowledge of several experts from a variety of disciplines, this volume successfully demonstrates how identification and registration can enable and empower a population, particularly if the interests of the state and population coincide.

It also reveals the weakness of states or corporations when dealing with issues such as popular resistance and fraud, despite great leaps forward in the scientific methods of identifying individuals. This important book offers a vital contribution to the literature on a variety of topical subject areas such as biometric identification, immigration control and personal data use, as such it is of interest to students and scholars of civil and human rights amongst other disciplines.

Review: Identification practices, though ancient in origin, are increasingly significant for daily life and consequential, for good or ill, for individuals and groups. This impressive collection glows with brilliant insights on how and why they have developed as they have, in different countries and cultures.

Fascinating, illuminating and sometimes scary. David Lyon, Queen's Research Chair in Surveillance Studies, Department of Sociology, Queen's University, Canada. This fine collection constitutes a major contribution to our growing understanding of the importance of identification practices in the modern world.

It broadens the lens in both geographical and temporal terms. The volume thus extends the range of our appreciation of these practices and invites further research on under-studied areas and periods. The book represents a decisive advance in the frontier of identification studies. John Torpey, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA.