Launch of Biometric State : The global politics of identification and surveillance in South Africa, 1850 to the Present

Monday, 20 October, 2014 - 17:30
[Biometric State Cover]

WISER and the progamme of Public Positions on History and Politics invite you to the launch of Keith Breckenridge's new book Biometric State: the Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance, 1850 to the Present.

On Monday, October 20th, 6pm in the WISER Seminar Room, on the 6th Floor of the Richard Ward Building.

Keith Breckenridge will offer a short talk on the "Significance of the Biometric State" followed by a panel discussion with Sharad Chari and Ivor Chipkin.   The event will be chaired by Achille Mbembe.

Refreshments will be served.   Please RSVP to Najibha.Deshmukh@wits.ac.za by Thursday October 16.

Biometric identification and registration systems are being proposed by governments and businesses across the world. Surprisingly they are under most rapid, and systematic, development in countries in Africa and Asia. In this groundbreaking book Keith Breckenridge traces how the origins of the systems being developed in places like India, Mexico, Nigeria and Ghana can be found in a century-long history of biometric government in South Africa, with the South African experience of centralized fingerprint identification unparalleled in its chronological depth and demographic scope. He shows how empire, and particularly the triangular relationship between India, the Witwatersrand and Britain, established the special South African obsession with biometric government, and shaped the international politics that developed around it for the length of the twentieth century. He also examines the political effects of biometric registration systems, revealing their consequences for the basic workings of the institutions of democracy and authoritarianism.

Copies of the book are for sale at a 20% discount from www.cambridge.org/BIOMETRIC2014

Advance praise for Biometric State

“This fascinating and deeply researched study of the transnational politics of biometric measurement and surveillance places South Africa in a global forcefield of scientific and technological experimentation."  SAUL DUBOW, Queen Mary, University of London

“A magisterial work whose scope covers two centuries and many parts of the planet, it explains, counter intuitively, why South Africa is the most advanced of such states in the world today, why it is a laboratory, in this respect, for other nations. By dint of its thoughtful scholarship, the book compels us to rethink the future history of states everywhere."  JOHN COMAROFF, Harvard University

"A perceptive and provocative study, full of ideas and punchy arguments, that casts new light on the global dimensions and political continuities of South Africa's identification state before, during and after apartheid." JANE CAPLAN, University of Oxford

“BrilliantIy, 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." DAVID LYON, Queen’s University

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