IPSI Lecture Series - Colin Bennett

This presentation presents the major findings of a recent book by the same name (eds. Colin J. Bennett and David Lyon, Routledge 2008) and applies these lessons to the contemporary debates in Canada about identity cards and the enhanced drivers licence (EDL).

IPSI is once again pleased to present its Public Lecture Series, where notable speakers from the identity, privacy and security fields present their work and discuss contemporary issues.

Colin Bennett, November 17 at the
Faculty of Information, 140 St. George Street, Bissell Building, Room 728, University of Toronto, Noon to 1 pm.

November 17: Colin Bennett, Professor, University of Victoria

Playing the Identity Card: Surveillance, Security and Identification in Global Perspective

This presentation presents the major findings of a recent book by the same name (eds. Colin J. Bennett and David Lyon, Routledge 2008) and applies these lessons to the contemporary debates in Canada about identity cards and the enhanced drivers licence (EDL). All societies develop methods to establish that their citizens “are who they say they are.” Those systems have evolved over time as new bureaucratic and technological forms and the demands of a complex, mobile and globalizing world have provided more efficient and reliable forms of authentication. The pocket-sized card remains, however, an enduring symbol of the process of self-identification in our interactions with different state and private agencies.