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Researching Race: Identifying a Social Construction through Qualitative Methods and an Interactionist Perspective
Author(s) -
Morris Edward W.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.2007.30.3.409
Subject(s) - operationalization , symbolic interactionism , sociology , race (biology) , framing (construction) , interactionism , ethnography , qualitative research , situated , social constructionism , epistemology , perspective (graphical) , participant observation , empirical research , social psychology , psychology , social science , gender studies , anthropology , computer science , philosophy , structural engineering , artificial intelligence , engineering
Although much of the sociological community now views race as a social construction, empirical research does not always identify it in this way. Many practices of designating a research participant's race approach this process uncritically, implicitly framing race as uncomplicated. Although this is more common in survey‐based work, in this article I explore the tendencies and difficulties of studying race using qualitative methods. I discuss two prevalent but potentially problematic ways of “operationalizing” race in qualitative methodology, and then elaborate on the difficulties of identifying race in practice, using examples from my own ethnographic research. I suggest that symbolic interactionism provides a unique perspective from which to express race as socially situated, as long as this process is approached reflectively.