Although practices of identification have been a live issue since 9/11, public debate makes scant reference to the history or conceptual basis of individual identification and registration, while even experts and practitioners in contemporary identification and surveillance are often unaware of the historical depth of their field. This is despite the fact that recognisably ‘modern’ systems of identification, registration, and collective classification can be dated back to the medieval period. While the agenda of IdentiNet is not confined to the scope of contemporary concerns, we are aware of the contribution that historical research can make to public debate.
Moreover, while existing scholarship has been successful in identifying a range of research questions and improving the state of knowledge within national settings, and although scholars in the field have strong links with their local research communities, there has been inadequate opportunity for the collective assessment of results, and almost no systematic comparative work. Thus, the main objective of IdentiNet is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the history of identification practices on a global scale since 1500, by coordinating international research and fostering structured exchange among twenty-two widely dispersed experts whose interests range across periods, geographies and disciplines.
Two weekend workshops, to be held at the University of Oxford in 2008 and 2009 and involving network members and other participants, form the centrepiece of our collaboration. Via these primary mechanisms, IdentiNet will sponsor the first systematic and sustained programme of international and interdisciplinary research into the documentation of individual identity. It will resolve fundamental questions about the origins and uses of identification, registration and surveillance, and will provide the means for the rapid advancement and public dissemination of scholarship on the worldwide histories and practices of identity documentation from the early modern to the contemporary world.
