Person, robot or ‘Big Mother’?

The Danish Central Person Register as an Infrastructure of Care

Abstract

This paper argues that the Danish central population register (CPR) can be characterized as an infrastructure of care and that the socio-technical care that the state provides is constitutive of the relationship between state and citizen. The paper uses the methodology of the sociologists Ruhleder and Star to perform an infrastructural inversion that highlights how the central population register, the personal identification number and the related structure of digital registers is vital to the functioning of the Danish welfare state. This inversion is performed in two parts and is theoretically based on the concept of matters of care by Puig de la Bellacasa. First, a historical account of the creation of CPR shows how the infrastructure results in not only better and more effective care for the citizen but also for the state, resulting in a close connection between state and citizen. Second, the paper analyzes two Danish literary works that relate to CPR in different ways, Et forsvar for robotterne [A Defense for Robots] (1969) by Knud Sørensen and Claus Beck-Nielsen (1963-2001) (2003) by Claus Beck-Nielsen. The paper uses the concept of the ‘dividual’ and ‘society of control’ by Deleuze to show how CPR creates a complex relation between the effectiveness of the state and the autonomy of the individual citizen. Ultimately, the paper argues that the study of digital infrastructures in the welfare state must emphasize both helpful as well as asymmetrical care relations, and that the concepts of care and control are inseparable.