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Answer formats in British census and survey ethnicity questions: Does open response better capture 'superdiversity'?.

Aspinall, Peter J. (2012) Answer formats in British census and survey ethnicity questions: Does open response better capture 'superdiversity'?. Sociology, 46 (2). pp. 354-364. ISSN 0038-0385. (doi:10.1177/0038038511419195) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:28036)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038511419195

Abstract

During a period of unprecedented ethnicity data collection in Britain, an almost universal characteristic of this practice has been the mandated use of the decennial census ethnicity classifications. In Canada and the USA a greater plurality of methods has included open response, now recommended for the 2020 US Census. As the ethnic diversity of Britain has increased, driven by immigration dynamics and population mixing leading to ‘superdiversity’, the census is no longer able to capture the new populations. The validity and utility of unprompted open response is examined in several ‘mixed race’ datasets. It is argued that open response can be a modus operandi for large-scale ethnicity data collection and that the lack of consistency in recording of such responses need not necessarily be viewed as a drawback. Open response offers substantial insights into the country’s superdiversity in a way that ethnicity categorization alone cannot.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0038038511419195
Uncontrolled keywords: categorization, census, mixed race, open response, superdiversity, surveys
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Centre for Health Services Studies
Depositing User: Tony Rees
Date Deposited: 28 Jul 2011 12:44 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:06 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/28036 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Aspinall, Peter J..

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