The Many Lives of a Number
This article tracks the career of the U.S. Social Security number (SSN) from the 1930s to the present to argue that although state identification infrastructures are themselves often relatively stable, the meaning and uses of official documents can shift dramatically over time. As the history of the...
Tallennettuna:
| Julkaisussa: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/statsoc, |
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| Päätekijä: | |
| Aineistotyyppi: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Kieli: | Anglais |
| Julkaistu: |
Statistique et société
2024
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| Aiheet: | |
| Linkit: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Yhteenveto: | This article tracks the career of the U.S. Social Security number (SSN) from the 1930s to the present to argue that although state identification infrastructures are themselves often relatively stable, the meaning and uses of official documents can shift dramatically over time. As the history of the SSN in American life reveals, the number underwent a series of transformations in its public reputation: initially a straightforward bureaucratic tag, it became a badge of economic citizenship, a quasi-national ID, a linking mechanism across databases, an index to personal data, and finally an individual burden or risk. This historical and social malleability—the SSN’s path from serving as an emblem of economic security to one of information insecurity—is crucial to understanding the unanticipated ways that administrative instruments play out over the long run in public life. |
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