Toke Møldrup Wolff

• Identification management
• State-formation processes
• Civil Service and bureaucracy in Africa
• Traditional Authority and customary laws - especially in rural Africa
• Sustainable Development Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)

As part of the Certifications of Citizenship in Africa (CERTIZENS) project, my research explores the existing, emerging and increasingly digital infrastructures in use for ID management in Africa. I am exploring the materiality of ID documents, the business, bureaucracy and state-citizen encounters related to the registration, certification and documentation of citizens. The study of ID documents offers a way in for obtaining deeper knowledge regarding the ways in which states administer societies, and it reveals the material, technological and bureaucratic infrastructures of classification and identification.

The dynamics of certification are complex. On the one hand, effective certification and enhanced legibility can heighten recognition, improve public service delivery and potentially deepen democratic claims. Yet, on the other hand, these processes simultaneously facilitate greater surveillance and the possibility of state-based exclusion and violence.