The construction of self-sovereign identity: Extending the interpretive flexibility of technology towards institutions

WEIGL, Linda; BARBEREAU, Tom Josua; FRIDGEN, Gilbert

doi:10.1016/j.giq.2023.101873

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The construction of self-sovereign identity: Extending the interpretive flexibility of technology towards institutions

WEIGL, Linda; BARBEREAU, Tom Josua; FRIDGEN, Gilbert

2023 • In Government Information Quarterly, 40 (4), p. 101873

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/10993/57275

DOI
10.1016/j.giq.2023.101873

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Keywords :

Electronic identification; digital identity; self-sovereign identity; interpretive flexibility; social construction of technology

Abstract :

[en] Ever-growing concerns over ‘Big Brother’ continue driving individuals towards user-centric identity management systems. Nascent innovations are framed as offering Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI). Because of the association with value-laden ideals and technical components like blockchain, SSI is caught up with both hype and idiosyncrasy. Competing interpretations of SSI damage the public discourse and risk misrepresenting affordances these systems might offer. Based on a qualitative inductive interview study and document analysis, this article extrapolates a constructivist theoretical frame – the Extended Model of Interpretive Flexibility – which combines insights from the Social Construction of Technology and the Structurational Model of Technology. The Extended Model of Interpretive Flexibility highlights malleability in the technical implementations and social representations, which in turn is affected by and influences institutional properties around SSI. This research further offers implications for practice around the implementation of SSI, in particular regarding policy, management, and design. For theory on public sector information systems, the proposed model has generalizable potential for the analysis of socio-technical systems and offers future research directions.

Research center :

Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) > FINATRAX - Digital Financial Services and Cross-organizational Digital Transformations

Disciplines :

Business & economic sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Sociology & social sciences

Author, co-author :

WEIGL, Linda ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust > FINATRAX > Team Gilbert FRIDGEN

BARBEREAU, Tom Josua ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > FINATRAX

FRIDGEN, Gilbert ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > FINATRAX

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

The construction of self-sovereign identity: Extending the interpretive flexibility of technology towards institutions

Publication date :

October 2023

Journal title :

Government Information Quarterly

ISSN :

0740-624X

eISSN :

1872-9517

Publisher :

Elsevier BV

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

101873

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Development Goals :

16. Peace, justice and strong institutions

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0740624X23000734?httpAccept=text/xml

FnR Project :

FNR13342933 - Paypal-fnr Pearl Chair In Digital Financial Services, 2019 (01/01/2020-31/12/2024) - Gilbert Fridgen

Name of the research project :

R-AGR-3728 - PEARL/IS/13342933/DFS (01/01/2020 - 31/12/2024) - FRIDGEN Gilbert

Funders :

FNR - Luxembourg National Research Fund

Funding number :

FNR13342933

Funding text :

This research was funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and PayPal PEARL (grant reference 13342933) . For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

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