Transcript

NARRATOR

Mr. T is double-checking his passport. It's the official document to establish one's identity, nationality, and the right to travel, and it controls his progress through the airport. Looking at the passport as a material artefact, here are the four questions again and an example of some possible answers.

A. What work has to be done if the passport is present? It only has to be handed over whenever it's needed to establish identity.

B. What work would have to be done to establish identity if people didn't carry passports? If there were no passports, other types of documentation would be needed to establish that people were who they said they were. It could be a birth certificate, a notarised photo, a mother's birth certificate or letter of naturalisation, or something to show a person's not on bail or wanted by the police.

C. What is being delegated by the use of a passport? In the front cover of a British passport, you'll find this text. "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary." So the passport delegates the authority of the crown, the whole infrastructure and authority of the civil service into a single pocket-sized document.

D. How, if at all, is the passport configuring or scripting the person using it? The passport contains a number of literal scripts, which layout various expectations and obligations on its bearer, who tacitly accepts these every time he or she uses it. The very act of applying for a passport configures a person to adopt a number of subject positions regarding identity, national laws, and nationality. For example, one has to accept oneself as a citizen of Great Britain, rather than, say, Scotland or Wales, and accept a particular and specific relationship to the state and the head of state.