Abstract
ABSTRACTCan stateless persons become legal‐economic subjects without state ratification? Can they appropriate technologies not designed for them to create both new subjectivities and new forms of community? A Malaysia‐based nonprofit social enterprise, composed of stateless Rohingya, has been attempting to circumvent state rejection by inscribing aspects of Rohingya (in)dividuals—biometric data, genealogy information, and records of community participation—on a digital blockchain ledger. The enterprise seeks to mobilize blockchain's affordances to iteratively construct Rohingya subjects, re‐presenting them to new institutions (banks rather than humanitarians) as quasi‐legal persons, producing entities ultimately certified for “financial inclusion”—bank accounts and loans—thereby hoping to generate post‐Westphalian spaces and subjectivities. Yet, amid a revanchist nationalist resurgence in Malaysia—as with bourgeoning right‐wing populism globally—the spaces in which blockchained subjects might maneuver have narrowed, compelling our attention to the “nonsovereignty” in this project's version of “self‐sovereignty.” [blockchain, biometrics, science and technology studies, (non)sovereignty, statelessness, Malaysia, Rohingya]
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