Constructing Race and Ethnicity in America

This work examines what is meant by the terms "race" and "ethnicity" and examines why policy makers continue to use them as if they had some scientific standing. It argues that "race" and "ethnicity" are socially constructed concepts, not objective, scientifically grounded variables.

Dvora Yanow is professor and chair of the Department of Public Administration, California State University, Hayward. Her research focus is shaped by an overall interest in the communication of meaning in organizational and policy settings. Her publications include articles on organizational learning from an interpretive-cultural perspective, the role of built space in communicating meaning, and local knowledge in organizational and policy contexts. She is the author of How Does a Policy Mean? Interpreting Policy and Organizational Actions (1996) and Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis (2000). Her articles have been published in such journals as Policy Sciences, Administration & Society, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Organization, Organization Science, and the Journal of Management Inquiry. In her nonacademic life, she reads mysteries; practices the piano, violin, and doumbek; folk dances and sings; grows tomatoes and herbs; and walks a fourteen-minute mile.

Part 1 Laying the Groundwork: Giving a(n) (Ac)Count; Chapter 1 Constructing Categories: Naming, Counting, Science, and Identity; Chapter 2 Toward an American Categorical "Science" of Race and Ethnicity: OMB Directive No. 15; Part 2 Making Race-Ethnicity Through Public Policies; Chapter 3 Color, Culture, Country: Race and Ethnicity in the U.S. Census; Chapter 4 Identity Choices? Agency Policies and Individual Resistance; Part 3 Making Race-Ethnicity Through Administrative Practices; Chapter 5 Ethnogenesis by the Numbers, Ethnogenesis by "Eyeballing"; Chapter 6 Constructing Race-Ethnicity Through Social Science Research: Managing Workplace Diversity; Part 4 Telling Identities: The Contemporary Legacy; Chapter 7 Public Policies as Identity Stories: American Race-Ethnic Discourse; Chapter 8 Changing (Ac)Counting Practices: Meditation on a Problem;