Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid
Identification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification t...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2021-04-01
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| Series: | Big Data & Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006744 |
| _version_ | 1818382413530660864 |
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| author | Keren Weitzberg Margie Cheesman Aaron Martin Emrys Schoemaker |
| author_facet | Keren Weitzberg Margie Cheesman Aaron Martin Emrys Schoemaker |
| author_sort | Keren Weitzberg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Identification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification technologies as tools of recognition and inclusion rather than oppressive forms of monitoring, tracking and top-down control. In addition, practices that many critical scholars describe as aiding surveillance are often experienced differently by humanitarian subjects. This commentary examines the fraught questions this raises for scholars of international aid, surveillance studies and critical data studies. We put forward a research agenda that tackles head-on how critical theories of data and society can better account for the ambivalent dynamics of ‘power over’ and ‘power to’ that digital aid interventions instantiate. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T02:50:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-875501b970024f6098259fae3c6346e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-9517 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T02:50:05Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Big Data & Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-875501b970024f6098259fae3c6346e72022-12-21T23:19:47ZengSAGE PublishingBig Data & Society2053-95172021-04-01810.1177/20539517211006744Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aidKeren WeitzbergMargie CheesmanAaron MartinEmrys SchoemakerIdentification technologies like biometrics have long been associated with securitisation, coercion and surveillance but have also, in recent years, become constitutive of a politics of empowerment, particularly in contexts of international aid. Aid organisations tend to see digital identification technologies as tools of recognition and inclusion rather than oppressive forms of monitoring, tracking and top-down control. In addition, practices that many critical scholars describe as aiding surveillance are often experienced differently by humanitarian subjects. This commentary examines the fraught questions this raises for scholars of international aid, surveillance studies and critical data studies. We put forward a research agenda that tackles head-on how critical theories of data and society can better account for the ambivalent dynamics of ‘power over’ and ‘power to’ that digital aid interventions instantiate.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006744 |
| spellingShingle | Keren Weitzberg Margie Cheesman Aaron Martin Emrys Schoemaker Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid Big Data & Society |
| title | Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid |
| title_full | Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid |
| title_fullStr | Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid |
| title_full_unstemmed | Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid |
| title_short | Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid |
| title_sort | between surveillance and recognition rethinking digital identity in aid |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006744 |
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