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

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

Author: Keith Breckenridge
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 10/20/2016
Pages: 266
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9781107434899

About the Author
Breckenridge, Keith: - Keith Breckenridge is an historian and the deputy director of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has published widely on the cultural and economic history of South Africa, particularly the gold mining industry, the state and the development of information systems. His writing on biometrics has appeared in Africa, History Workshop, the Journal of Southern African Studies, Public Culture and some of the most influential comparative anthologies on systems of identification. In 2012 he co-edited Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History, with Simon Szreter, a volume of essays for the British Academy examining the workings and failures of civil registration in twenty different regions and periods around the world.