Pilot Programs and Postcolonial Pivots
Pioneering 'DNA Fingerprinting' on Britain's Borders
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2109316 |
|---|---|
| Authors | R Bivins (0000-0002-8714-7819, University of Warwick, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 346-371 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0010417522000494 |
| OpenAlex | W4317401509 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 26 |
Developed in Britain and the United States in the 1980s, genetic profiling has since become a global technology. Today, it is widely regarded as the evidentiary 'gold standard' in individual and forensic identification. However, its origins as a technology of post-empire at Britain's externalized borders in South Asia have remained unexamined. This article will argue that the first state-sanctioned use of 'DNA fingerprints,' a pilot program exploring its value in disputed cases of family reunification migration from Bangladesh and Pakistan to Britain's postcolonial cities, repays closer examination. National and transnational responses to the advent of genetic profiling as an identification technology demonstrate the interplay between imperial and postcolonial models and networks of power and truth production. At the same time, this experiment prefigured and conditioned the wider reception of DNA profiling in matters of kinship. Far from being a footnote, the use of genetic profiling by migrants determined to exercise their legal rights in the face of a hostile state also worked to naturalize genetic ties as the markers of 'true' familial relationships
Biology · DNA profiling · Empire · Genealogy · Kinship · Political economy · Political science · Profiling (computer programming · Sociology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Genetics · History · Law · Race, Genetics, and Society
Africa as a Living Laboratory
The Social Life of DNA
Degrees of Separation
Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control
Citizenship and Immigration in Post-war Britain
Biological citizenship across the borders
A Lab of Their Own
Crimmigrant’ bodies and bona fide travelers
A Technocratic Imperial State? The Colonial Office and Scientific Research, 1940-1960
Dna Fingerprinting and the Law
From serosocial to sanguinary identities
(B)ordering Britain
Suspect Identities
Law Centres in England and Wales
Harnessing the Power of Difference
The Emperor's New Genes
Biological Citizenship Reconsidered
Developmental Landmarks and the Warnock Report
The Boot and the Spleen
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |