How Democracies Know: Identification technologies and quantitative analyses of development in Ghana

民事登记系统由分类变量（除其他外，姓名和出生日期）的具体安排组成，这些变量以其独特的组合确定一个人的独特身份。作为官方承认一个人存在的基本定性表达（或非指标），民事登记对于获得基本权利、国家服务和机构至关重要。与此同时，民事登记与量化的做法和基础设施密切相关，这些做法和基础设施对由此界定的个人进行计数，将其作为不同的总人口进行衡量，并最终纳入人口动态指标，例如发展领域的指标。虽然指标在国际发展实践中发挥核心作用，但在人口记录不完整的情况下，发展数据的质量和可靠性仍然没有得到充分理解。该次级项目以加纳的关键指标“婴儿死亡率”（可持续发展目标3.2）为案例研究，调查了该西非国家识别技术领域的最新创新与关键发展指标的制定之间的关系。调查的出发点是加纳人口数据系统目前的数字“数据革命”。为了改进国际标准化报告程序人口数据的及时性和覆盖面，加纳决策者将以前孤立的行政人口登记册纳入新的、基于互操作性的应用程序。通过参与这一转变过程的专家、基础设施和设备的透镜，该分项目调查数据基础设施的新的互操作性如何能够对以前无法进入的生活领域进行分类和最终量化，以监测和控制发展动态。该次级项目以加纳地区卫生信息管理系统（DHIMS2）的登记数据为起点，探讨行政数据如何纳入关键指标“婴儿死亡率”的编制。该次级项目追踪跨越人口与健康信息管理系统2和专门统计机构的机构界限的数据流动，以了解数据编辑、传输、汇总、可视化以及最终以主要发展指标的形式发布的过程。因此，在研究小组内，该分项目直接有助于了解社会关键指标的复杂生产过程

Civil registration systems consist of specific arrangements of categorical variables (among others, name and birth date), which in their unique combination determine the distinct identity of a person. As a fundamentally qualitative expression (or non-indicator) of the official recognition of a person’s existence, civil registration is crucial for accessing basic rights, state services and institutions. At the same time, civil registration intimately ties into practices and infrastructures of quantification that count the thus defined individuals, measure them as variously aggregated populations, and ultimately feed into indicators about population dynamics, e.g. in the area of development. Although indicators play a central role in international development practice, the quality and robustness of development data in the context of incompletely documented populations remains insufficiently understood. Using the key indicator "infant mortality" (SDG 3.2) in Ghana as case study, the subproject investigates the relation between recent innovations in the field of identification technologies and the production of key development indicators in the West African country. The point of departure of the investigation is the current, digital "data revolution" of the Ghanaian population data system. With the aim of improving the timeliness and coverage of population data for internationally standardized reporting procedures (IAEG-SDG), Ghanaian policy makers integrate previously isolated, administrative population registers for new, interoperability-based applications. Through the lens of experts, infrastructures and devices involved in this transformation process, the subproject investigates how the new interoperability of data infrastructures allows classifying and, ultimately, quantifying previously inaccessible realms of life for the purpose of monitoring and controlling development dynamics. Using the register data of Ghana’s District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2) as a starting point, the subproject explores how administrative data feed into the production of the key indicator "infant mortality". The subproject traces the data flows across the institutional boundaries of the DHIMS2 and specialized statistical institutions to understand the processes of data editing, transmission, aggregation, visualization, and, ultimately, publication in the form of key development indicators. Within the research group, the subproject thus contributes directly to the understanding of the complex production process of social key indicators