The Documentation of Individual Identity: Historical and Comparative Perspectives since 1500

Special Issue: Fichage et Listing

jamesrbrown — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:35:57 +0000

The latest issue of the journal Cultures & Conflits (76) has just been published. Edited by IdentiNet participants Dider Bigo and Pierre Piazza, and featuring a contribution from IdentiNet participant Ilsen About, the issue explores ‘Fichage et Listing’, and contains French-language articles on the transnational traffic in personal data, the control of mobility, and the challenges of achieving a balance between public safety and civil liberties. Abstracts (free) and articles can be accessed online via the journal website.

Network Update

jamesrbrown — Sun, 16 May 2010 13:11:02 +0000

Please note that the Leverhulme-funded phase of Network activities has now been completed. IdentiNet continues as an informal association, while a Network publication as well as plans for a second phase of funding and events organised around a fresh set of themes beginning in early 2011 are currently being pursued. This page, as well as our online bibliographies, will still be maintained (updates, which can be tracked with our RSS Feed, continue as normal below). If you would like to suggest items for inclusion, or wish to become involved in the next stage of our activities, please Contact Us.

2009 Conference: Report Published

jamesrbrown — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:40:07 +0000

The official conference report on our 2009 public event, Identifying the Person: Past, Present and Future (St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, 26-27 September 2009), has just been published in the Spring 2010 issue of the History Workshop Journal. The report was prepared by postdoctoral participants Gayle Lonergan and Julia Laite, and the network facilitator James Brown. The issue also features an article on the identification of British citizens in the interwar period by IdentiNet lead investigator Edward Higgs. A pdf of the report can be accessed via this free-access link.

Projet Bertillon Launches

jamesrbrown — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:32:54 +0000

Projet Bertillon has recently launched. Coordinated by IdentiNet participants Ilsen About and Pierre Piazza, and hosted by Criminocorpus, this valuable online resource offers a comprehensive overview of the life and work of Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), a pioneer of forensic identification methods at the Paris Prefecture de Police whose criminological expertise ranged from mug shots, anthropometry, and dactyloscopy through file management and the analysis of crime scenes. The site, which is available in both English and French, contains innovative online galleries of Bertillon-related imagery as well as academic resources such as biographies, bibliographies, and links, and is also inviting the submission of new articles on Bertillon for online publication in 2011. For further information, please visit Projet Bertillon.

Study Day: Surveillance and the Street

jamesrbrown — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:41:36 +0000

Flickr/TedRheingold (CC)

A study day on ‘Surveillance and the Street’ will take place at the University of Bath on 19 March 2010. Organized under the auspices of ‘Street Life and Street Culture: Between Early Modern Europe and the Present’, which is funded by the AHRC as part of the Beyond Text initiative, the study day will consider themes relating to surveillance and technology as they impinge upon and inform the public space of the street. For participants and programme information, see the study day flyer (pdf). Those wishing to participate should e-mail Claire Hogg (C.Hogg@bath.ac.uk) by 8 March.

CFP: The Political Economy of Surveillance

jamesrbrown — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:20:58 +0000

A workshop on ‘The Political Economy of Surveillance’, jointly organized by The New Transparency Major Collaborative Research Initiative and the Living in Surveillance Societies COST action, is currently seeking papers. The workshop, which will be held at the Open University Business School (Milton Keynes) on 9-12 September 2010, will explore the dynamics of the international surveillance industry, and abstracts are encouraged to address a wide range of topics relating the nature and extent of the surveillance industry and its relationship to the private and public sectors, the military, technological developments, and regulatory bodies. The deadline for the submission of 500-word proposals is 30 April 2010; for further details and submission instructions, see the websites of the organizing projects.

CCTV Takes to the Skies

jamesrbrown — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:38:15 +0000

'Guardian Spirit of the Waters', by Odilon Redon (1878). Wikimedia Commons.

The Guardian and The Telegraph newspapers ran stories this weekend reporting that UK police are planning to use unmanned ‘spy drones’, originally developed for surveillance in military contexts, to monitor antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves, and fly-tippers. According to the reports, an arms manufacturer is currently developing the so-called Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) – capable of taking high-resolution images from heights of up to 20,000ft – for civilian deployment, and that the drones could be in use by local forces in time for the London Olympics in 2012. For the full reports, see here (Guardian [includes video and comments]) and here (Telegraph).

Seminar: Foucault, Databases, and the Dispositif

jamesrbrown — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:01:17 +0000

The first ‘brown bag lunch’ IPS discussion seminar will take place at King’s College London on Thursday 28 January 2010. Co-organised by IdentiNet participant Didier Bigo, discussion will be introduced by a presentation from Andrea Molteni (University of Milan) on the functioning of the concept of the dispositif within the work of Michel Foucault, which will go on to consider its relevance to the analysis of DNA databases, especially within the Italian context (a full abstract is available here). Wine will be provided, and participants are encouraged to bring along their own sandwiches. The seminar will take place from 12.30pm–2.30pm in the War Studies meeting room, which is on the sixth floor of the King’s Building on Strand Campus (map). If you wish to attend, please confirm with andrea.molteni@kcl.ac.uk. Picture: Flickr/dullhunk (CC)

Surveillance Studies Centre Launches

jamesrbrown — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:56:56 +0000

The Surveillance Project, the interdisciplinary, international research initiative based in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University under the direction of IdentiNet member David Lyon, relaunched today as the Surveillance Studies Centre. The SSC will both expand the existing research programme (in particular The New Transparency Project) and serve as a platform for new funding applications. It will also ‘advance the surveillance studies field by way of workshops, lectures and seminars, empirical work, publishing, community outreach, liaising with policy and activist groups, and student training’. For full details, see the new centre website.

Some 2009 Conference Impressions

jamesrbrown — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:57:42 +0000

David Barnard-Wills, a delegate at our 2009 public conference (Identifying the Person: Past, Present, and Future), has written a wonderfully detailed unofficial report on the event, which is available in two parts on his impressive ‘Surveillance and Identity’ research blog (Part 1, Part 2). Dr Barnard-Wills is currently a Research Fellow at Cranfield University’s Department of Informatics and Sensors. The official conference report is scheduled to appear in the Spring 2010 issue of History Workshop Journal.