Unfair ID – Guests Silvia Masiero and Tejas Kotha: A SocioTechs Crossover Episode

Host Casandra Grundstrom is very happy to participate in a crossover episode with the wonderful people from the Sociotechs Podcast  Associate Professor Silvia Masiero and PhD Researcher Tejas Kotha. This is a special episode which focuses on Silvia's brand new book (out 26.10.24) about Unfair ID. Sociotechs host Tejas and myself (the IS DIGEST host) interview Silvia on the 14 year's in the making of her book and the stories she shares to demonstrate the injustice of identity in different case settings including food security systems, biometric borders, and algorithmic social protection. We further explore the power of these stories for researchers and to discuss core tenets of unfairness for identity, justice, and resistance. Our focus then shifts from criticisms of exclusion to what can be done about unfair ID, discussing how it could be fairer through design. Quote from the book “This book has been, since the beginning, a hymn to hope: the hope that by understanding unfairness in digital ID, and the paths of its effects on people, a fairer world can be built for the digitally identified.”References: Cheesman, M. (2022). Self-sovereignty for refugees? The contested horizons of digital identity. Geopolitics, 27(1), 134-159.Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design justice: Community-led practices to build the worlds we need. The MIT Press.Jonnalagadda, K. (2024, September 21). Life without Aadhaar. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/india/life-without-aadhaar-3200235Masiero, S. (2018). Explaining trust in large biometric infrastructures: A critical realist case study of India's Aadhaar project. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 84(6), e12053.Masiero, S. (2015). Redesigning the Indian food security system through e-governance: The case of Kerala. World Development, 67, 126-137.Masiero, S., & Das, S. (2019). Datafying anti-poverty programmes: Implications for data justice. Information, Communication & Society, 22(7), 916-933.Milan, S., & Treré, E. (2019). Big data from the South (s): Beyond data universalism. Television & New Media, 20(4), 319-335.Milan, S., & Velden, L. V. D. (2016). The alternative epistemologies of data activism. Digital culture & society, 2(2), 57-74.Weitzberg, K. (2020). Biometrics, race making, and white exceptionalism: The controversy over universal fingerprinting in Kenya. The Journal of African History, 61(1), 23-43.Links: Silvia's book on Unfair ID is available now! Sociotechs Podcast