Infrastructuring identity, securing citizenship: open-source platforms and the global governance of digital identity

我提出的博士项目研究公民和治理的理念如何嵌入数字识别平台，以及这些如何使或限制政治参与的机会。继联合国17项可持续发展目标——其中包括必须为所有人提供“合法身份”（目标16.9）——发布之后，一系列强大的全球政策行为体已开始投资和推广基础数字身份识别技术（世界银行2016年；联合国开发计划署2022年）。这些数字平台提供法律证据，证明某人是他们所说的那个人，通常是在国家管理的行政系统方面（Whitley， Gal和Kjaegaard, 2014; World Bank, 2019）。作为实现目标16.9的一种重要解决方案，提出了模块化开源身份平台（MOSIP）：一种据称与上下文无关、可扩展的数字身份系统，可以被任何州政府采用。MOSIP令人信服的愿景，加上世界银行、盖茨基金会和奥米迪亚网络等有影响力的机构的支持，使该平台在菲律宾、摩洛哥、斯里兰卡、多哥、几内亚、埃塞俄比亚和塞拉利昂得到了广泛应用（Burt 2022）。MOSIP的日益普及表明，它在重塑政府在全球范围内的运作方式方面具有巨大潜力。作为回应，本项目提出了一项及时而关键的调查，调查平台中嵌入的对公民身份的理解，这些理解包括谁和排除谁，以及它们如何影响政治决策和政府资源的获取。作为对MOSIP的第一次深入研究，本研究提供了重要的概念影响，阐明了开源数字身份平台如何塑造政治参与。这不仅对MOSIP及其七个实施国有影响，而且对数字影响联盟（Digital Impact Alliance）的“GovStack”等类似倡议也有影响。通过结合政策分析、技术文件分析、参与者观察和访谈的混合方法研究，我将探讨MOSIP中涉及的政策和技术参与者的价值观和实践，以及这些因素如何影响平台的设计。在此过程中，我将研究开源数字识别技术对于数字平台在扩展新形式的治理中的作用意味着什么。因此，我的项目将回答以下研究问题：RQ1: MOSIP嵌入和制定了什么样的公民概念（以及使用了什么标准）？RQ2：这将如何影响政治参与？RQ3：这个平台反映了什么样的治理规范（以及这些规范是如何跨越国界的）？

My proposed DPhil project examines how ideas of citizenship and governance are embedded in digital identification platforms, and how these enable or constrain access to political participation. Following the publication of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals - which include the imperative to provide a "legal identity for all" (Goal 16.9) - a range of powerful global policy actors have begun investing in and promoting foundational digital identification technologies (World Bank 2016; UNDP 2022). These are digital platforms which provide legal proof that somebody is who they say they are, typically with respect to a state-managed administrative system (Whitley, Gal and Kjaegaard, 2014; World Bank, 2019). One prominent solution proposed as a means of addressing Goal 16.9 is the Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP): a purportedly context-free, scalable digital identification system that can be adopted by any state government. MOSIP's compelling vision, alongside its institutional backing by influential actors including the World Bank, Gates Foundation, and Omidyar Network, has seen the platform's uptake in the Philippines, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Togo, Guinea, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone (Burt 2022). MOSIP's growing adoption indicates its vast potential for reshaping how governments operate at a global scale. In response, this project proposes a timely and critical investigation into the understandings of citizenship embedded in the platform, who these include and exclude, and how they affect access to political decision-making and government resources. As the first indepth study of MOSIP, this research offers significant conceptual impact, elucidating how open source digital identification platforms shape political participation. This not only has implications for MOSIP and its seven countries of implementation, but also for similar initiatives such the Digital Impact Alliance's 'GovStack'. Through a mixed-methods study combining policy analysis, technical document analysis, participant observation, and interviews, I will explore the values and practices of the policy and technical actors involved in MOSIP, and how these shape the platform's design. In doing so, I will examine what open source digital identification technology means for the role of digital platforms in scaling new forms of governance. Thus, my project will respond to the following research questions: RQ1: What notions of citizenship does MOSIP embed and enact (and what criteria is used)? RQ2: How might this shape political participation? RQ3: What norms of governance does the platform reflect (and how are these scaled across national boundaries)?