Co-Producing and Using Identity Documents.

Since the 19th century, the relation between the state and individuals has changed drastically. State policy has become ever more involved in multiple aspects of life. The frequency and diversity of interactions between citizens and state authorities has increased as well. With new rights and obligations, affiliation and citizenship have gained in importance. New necessities and possibilities have emerged for recording persons and documenting their identity. Accordingly, techniques and practices of identification, registration and categorization of individuals have been discussed primarily as an aspect of knowledge-based governmentality but also as a matter of the (nation) state, its politics and bureaucracy and of migration control. Yet historical research has also pointed to various cultures of identification and to those manifold parties and interests which could be involved in the historical emergence, development and performance of such practices apart from state authorities. This project aims to investigate the history of documentation and registration of personal identity in the Habsburg Monarchy/Austria from the mid-19th century up to 1938, focussing on the various ways people co-produced their official identity(documents) in conflict or consensus. It intends to reconstruct what it meant to be identified and registered (or not) and how people could make use of identity documents in various contexts and constellations, in and outside of offices. It will investigate struggles over the relevance and accuracy of such documents while also highlighting how missing documents or inconsistencies might be handled. It will reflect on the multidimensionality of identities and affiliations and systematically study the variations and differences with respect to personal attributes of the involved parties, their social and legal status, their attitudes and their arguments. The project will start out by reconstructing continuity and change in the system of identity documents, their design, distribution and interrelation. A focus will be on widespread and highly contested documents for workers and servants and on certificates of the right of domicile many of which have been neglected by research up to now. The fabrication and usage of these documents manifested the involved parties possibilities, in addition to their experiences, expectations and imaginings of the state. A long-term perspective will allow us to investigate the effects of an emergent social policy, crisis and political changes on these practices. As a result, the project will shed light on the emergence of a specific bureaucratic culture and notions of the state. It will enable us to better understand the logic, performance and efficacy of identification and registration practices. A broad variety of source material will be used, with a specific focus on administrative case records and on autobiographical writings. The study will combine qualitative and quantitative methods.

The project examined the history of identification and registration practices in the Habsburg Monarchy/Austria from ca. 1850 to 1938, focusing on how identity documents were produced and used in different situations. While previous research has mainly studied passports, citizenship and international migration, the project reconstructed the variety of documents in use in the context of mobility, residence, employment, welfare or consumption. The type and form of documents, and the requirements to possess and show documents, varied not only according to state and community affiliation but also according to social status, occupation and gender. Religious denomination, ethnic categorisation or moral attributions could also play a role. Although identity documents became more clearly regulated during the period under study, an analysis of preserved identity documents, registers, records and statistics shows how slowly norms and formal standards were actually enforced. What mattered in practice were not only security and order but also discretion, pragmatism and the cost of forms or photographs. The issuing of identity and travel documents became a monopoly of state authorities, yet various other parties remained involved in documenting data, issuing and checking documents. The project has examined this in more detail using the example of particularly widespread and frequently used documents, labour and servant's booklets, as well as certificates of Heimatrecht and negotiations on the right of residence. In the course of the nineteenth century, the obligation to possess a labour or servant's booklet was extended to ever larger sections of the workforce. Such booklets served as proof of identity and as travel documents while they also categorised and documented occupations, employment relationships and job references. Authorities and employers emphasised the indispensability of these documents. From the perspective of the labour movement, however, these documents were a symbol of social and political inequality, oppression and control. In addition to political debates, the project also examined the legal and illegal ways of using (or not using) these documents, along with their abuse and manipulation by employers or workers. Here, as well as with respect to negotiations on the right of residence, the ambivalent and conflicting interests of the involved parties became apparent. Documents and registration opened up possibilities for surveillance; at the same time, they could be a precondition for claims. The project highlighted the reasoning and strategies of applicants and authorities in the context of negotiations on the right of residence. It revealed the leeway available for interpretation, negligence and arbitrariness in (especially rural) municipalities.