Form -ing governance
Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy
ISSN: 1750-6166
Article publication date: 16 March 2015
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the central place of the list and the associated concept of an identifier within the “scaffolding” of contemporary government order.
Design/methodology/approach
These terms are deliberately chosen to make strange and help unpack the constitutive capacity of information systems and information technology within and between contemporary government agencies. We draw upon the substantial body of work by John Searle to help understand the place of lists in the constitution of the order of governance.
Findings
To enable us to ground our discussion of the potentiality and problematic associated with lists, we describe a significant and modern instance of list-making, situated around the issue of digital identity management.
Originality/value
The theoretical framework discussed allows us to better explain breakdowns in the institutional order characteristic of this domain.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Part of the material in this paper was presented as a conference paper (The enactment of personal identity) at the European Conference on Information Systems, Helsinki, 2001.
Citation
Beynon-Davies, P. (2015), "
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited