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

我提议的哲学博士项目研究公民身份和治理的想法如何嵌入数字身份平台，以及这些如何实现或限制政治参与。在联合国17个可持续发展目标发布后-其中包括必须为所有人提供“法律的身份”（目标16.9）-一系列强大的全球政策参与者已经开始投资和推广基础数字识别技术（世界银行2016;开发计划署2022）。这些数字平台提供了法律的证据，证明某人就是他们所说的那个人，通常是关于国家管理的行政系统（Whitley，Gal和Kjaegaard，2014;世界银行，2019）。作为实现目标16.9的一种手段，提出的一个突出解决方案是模块化开源身份平台（MOSIP）：一个据称与上下文无关的可扩展数字身份识别系统，可被任何州政府采用。MOSIP令人信服的愿景，以及包括世界银行，盖茨基金会和Omidyar网络在内的有影响力的参与者的机构支持，已经看到该平台在菲律宾，摩洛哥，斯里兰卡，多哥，几内亚，埃塞俄比亚和塞拉利昂的采用（伯特2022）。MOSIP越来越多的采用表明其在重塑政府在全球范围内运作方式方面的巨大潜力。作为回应，该项目建议对平台中嵌入的公民身份的理解进行及时和批判性的调查，这些人包括和排除，以及它们如何影响获得政治决策和政府资源。作为对MOSIP的第一次深入研究，这项研究提供了重要的概念影响，阐明了开源数字身份识别平台如何塑造政治参与。这不仅对MOSIP及其七个实施国家产生了影响，而且对类似的倡议，如数字影响联盟的“GovStack”也产生了影响。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，我将探讨参与MOSIP的政策和技术演员的价值观和实践，以及这些如何塑造平台的设计。在此过程中，我将研究开源数字识别技术对数字平台在扩展新形式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：RQ 1：MOSIP嵌入和制定了什么样的公民概念（以及使用了什么标准）？RQ 2：这会如何影响政治参与？RQ 3：平台反映了哪些治理规范（以及这些规范如何跨越国界）？

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)?