Gayle, Vernon, Connelly, Roxanne and Lambert, Paul (2015) A review of ethnicity measures for social research. Working Paper. Southampton: ESRC Centre for Population Change. Centre for Population Change Working Paper , 66 .

PDF 2015_WP66_A_review_of_ethnicity_measures_for_social_research.pdf Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (934Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This working paper is a review of issues associated with measuring ethnicity and using ethnicity measures in social science research. The review is orientated towards researchers who undertake secondary analyses of large-scale micro-level social science datasets. The paper begins with an outline of two main approaches used in social surveys to measure ethnicity, the demographic perspective and the ethnic identity perspective. We provide examples of the ethnicity measures used in some of the UK’s key social survey data resources. We discuss the importance of intersectionality in the analysis of ethnicity, because ethnicity measures are often associated with other important differences between individuals. We also describe approaches to the use of ethnicity measures in crossnational comparative research. We conclude that researchers should always use existing measures that have agreed upon and well documented standards, and which will facilitate comparability and replication. We also strongly advise researchers not to develop their own ethnicity measures without strong justification, or use existing measures in an unprescribed or ad hoc manner. We advise that researchers should routinely undertake sensitivity analyses. We also encourage researchers to carefully consider the possible relationships between ethnicity and other important variables in order to avoid spurious interpretations of the effects of ethnicity.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Series Name:	Centre for Population Change Working Paper
Publisher:	ESRC Centre for Population Change
Place of Publication:	Southampton
ISSN:	2042-4116
Official Date:	2015
Dates:	Date Event 2015 Published
Volume:	66
Number of Pages:	20
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Open Access Version:	Other

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item