Biometric State: The Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance in South Africa, 1850 to the Present

ISBN-13: 9781107434899 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 266 str.

Keith Breckenridge

Opis

A groundbreaking study of South Africa's role as a site for global experiments in biometric identification throughout the twentieth century.

Recenzje

'Brilliantly, Breckenridge sees South Africa as a 'global laboratory for biometric government'. This highly engaging and consequential analysis traces the vital links between colonialism and contemporary surveillance, provocatively placing biometrics and the state in some unfamiliar but compelling relations with each other. The lights keep coming on, to the very end of the book.' David Lyon, Queen's University, Ontario

Spis treści

Introduction: the global biometric arena; 1. Science of empire: the South African origins and objects of Galtonian eugenics; 2. Asiatic despotism: Edward Henry on the Witwatersrand; 3. Gandhi's biometric entanglement: fingerprints, Satyagraha and the global politics of Hind Swaraj; 4. No will to know: biometric registration and the limited curiosity of the gatekeeper state; 5. Verwoerd's bureau of proof: the Apartheid Bewysburo and the end of documentary government; 6. Galtonian reversal: apartheid and the making of biometric citizenship; Epilogue: empire and the mimetic fantasy; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.