Biometrics Bodies, Technologies, Biopolitics

Biometric technologies, such as finger- or facial-scan, are being deployed across a variety of social contexts in order to facilitate and guarantee identity verification and authentication. In the post-9/11 world, biometric technologies have experienced an extraordinary period of growth as concerns about security and screening have increased. This book analyses biometric systems in terms of the application of biopolitical power – corporate, military and governmental – on the human body. It deploys cultural theory in examining the manner in which biometric technologies constitute the body as a target of surveillance and as a data-information object. The book thereby provides a comprehensive overview and critical analysis of both the local and global ramifications of biometric technologies.

Introduction: Biopolitics of Biometrics 1.A Genealogy of Biometric Technologies 2.The Biometrics of Infrastructural Whiteness 3. "Identity Dominance": Biometrics, Biosurveillance, Terrorism and War 4. Identity Fraud and Imposture: Biometrics, the Metaphysics of Presence and the Alleged Liveness of the "Live" Evidentiary Body 5. Neurotechnologies of Truth: Brain Fingerprinting’s Neurognomics and No Lie MRI’s Digital Phrenology. Epilogue.

Joseph Pugliese is Associate Professor in theDepartment of Critical and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University.