Race & Ethnicity in Social Sciences Essay Example for Free

Race Ethnicity in Social Sciences EssayDefining identity fucking be complex and therefore we have to investigate the factors involved that nettle us who we atomic number 18 and how we atomic number 18 seen by others, corporately or individually. Social scientists have to consider the key elements which shape identity, the importance of favorable structures and agency involved. The differences and/or similarities between us are the focus that categorise and label us in participation. Knowing who we are is important for m whatever reasons including, social rights, obtaining a passport, housing, health, employment, marriage, and over all, being able to contain who we are, and belong. The end points ? race and ? ethnicity are central features in the lick of categorisation. ?Racial or ? Ethnic identifications are produced as part of a social process, which is dynamic and changing. Therefore we know that identities are not passive and terms such as ? race and ? ethnicity c annot cover the changing categories without being dynamic terms themselves. The usance of quotation marks with these terms is adopted to emphasise that the terms are broad terms and generate to avoid discrimination or misrepresentation of conferences under the umbrella term.?Race is commonly used by media and society to portray the physical differences between people, however, social scientists choose to show that the term does not bear upon to exact biological differences, is stereotypical, and the quotation marks emphasise the concept as more than of an assumption which has policy-making implications. The term is socially constructed and therefore does serve an essential purpose in society as it has satisfying affects and associations.The term ?ethnicity refers to cultural practices and history, such as religion, language and territory, where a person or a group derives from, summarising their beliefs and traditions, therefore, ethnicity applies to everyone, necessitating t he birth of terms ? minority ethnic group and ? majority ethnic group (Questioning Identity, Ch 4, P124, section 2. 3) to subcategorise identities in relation to ethnicity. Social scientists use quotation marks around these terms to signify that the blanket term does not distinguish between personal and social identity, but acts mainly as a collective identity concept.For example, identification on a British passport may categorise the holder as being ? British although they may be Scottish/Chinese. Social scientists prefer to call UK society a ? multi-ethnic society. These subgroup identities highlight the relational factors which exist in categorising identity, each requiring the other in order to make the comparison between ethnic differences, power and place. Racialization and Ethnicization are preferred concepts as they contribute more to the head that the identities we adopt are part of a process and are not static, referring to a dynamic process rather than a fixed state.Ca tegorisations from the 1970s onwards, such as the definition of ? black or ? white, were overly vague, and failed to recognise the specific needs of other ethnic minorities. In order to monitor and measure statistically the discrimination and underachievement of such groups, collecting ? ethnic statistics in relation to ? race and ? ethnicity was necessary and these can be found in official government censuses. Over the years it became apparent that categorisation of ethnic groups in the censuses rendered some groups ? nonvisual (Questioning Identity, ch 4, p 137, section 4. 1. 1), for example Irish and Welsh.The category of ? white has had to be spread out into subcategories as the ? white grouping classification remained singular within the censuses until 2001, and ethnicization of ? whites was too generalised. (Questioning Identity Kath Woodward ch. 4 p138 major power of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1991) These amendments show us that there have been changes in ethnic re presentation and that there is more awareness regarding ethnic identities and needs. The sub-categorisation of ethnic identities is used in everyday life such as in the media, job applications and insurance documents.The importance of the emergence of new and changing identities in a multi-ethnic society has led to uncertainties about what it means to be ? British. In the 1980s for example, the Commission for Racial Equality sponsored question into the claims by Irish ethnic groups making claims that they were discriminated against by public and private agencies as their ? invisibility represent their particular needs. (Questioning Identity Kath Woodward, ch. 4, p145).The 1960s Black is Beautiful movement (Questioning Identity Kath Woodward, ch4, 2. 2, p118) campaigned the category of ?black, inclusive of Asians and any other non-white groups, as inappropriate and too wide an assumption. Collective group action and social creativeness disputed the terminology of ? black and invol ved a struggle to alter the social meaning of blackness, as opposed to the more ? powerful ethnic majority status of being ? white.This redefined black social status and proved that black identities were not fixed but dynamic, changing from a term with connotations of disrespect, to one of pride, proving identities are collective and political as well as individual and relational, Whiteness is used as an invisible marker against which other ?ethnicities are judged (Kath Woodward, Questioning Identity, Ch 4, p 136, Section 4. 1).REFERENCES DD 121, Questioning Identity gender, class, ethnicity. Kath Woodward, The Open University, Routledge, 2004. DD121, Workbook 1, Norma Sherratt, David Goldblatt, Maureen mack and Kath Woodward, The Open University, Routledge, 2004. DD121, Block 1, The Open University, TV02 Defining Moments DD121, Block 1, sound 2, The Open University, Audio 3A DD121, Block 1, Audio 2, The Open University, Audio 3B.