Approaches to developing an improved cross-national understanding of concepts and terms relating to ethnicity and race
Approaches to developing an improved cross-national understanding of concepts and terms relating to ethnicity and race
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DOI：
10.1177/0268580907070124
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发表时间：
2007-01-01
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Aspinall, Peter J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Aspinall, Peter J.
来自比较社会和流行病学研究领域的调查人员已经确定有必要提高对有关族裔和种族的概念和术语的跨国理解。建议包括在比较欧洲范围内统一种族和宗教等变数的调查，以及制订一套国际适用和商定的关于种族和种族的词汇表。请欧洲联盟的统计部门和机构以及世界卫生组织和国际流行病学协会等机构为实现这些目标而努力。本文探讨了这一术语的概念基础、地理特殊性问题以及哪些术语值得承认的问题如何影响这些目标。探讨了在跨国背景下提高我们对这一术语理解的不同方法。鉴于在族裔和种族领域中，概念和术语的含义总是只能在使用它们的国家背景中加以理解- -这种背景往往是分层的、多方面的、微妙的和复杂的- -需要一种在这种背景下探讨不同概念和术语的内涵范围的方法。功能对等更有可能通过协调而不是通过综合分析术语表的经济形式将这些知识系统化来实现。然而，鉴于种族作为一个“全球”概念的社会和心理驱动性质，只有在将其局限于多个维度时，和谐才可能取得成功。
Investigators from the fields of comparative social and epiden-dological research have identified the need for an improved cross-national understanding of the concepts and terms relating to ethnicity and race. Suggestions have included the harmonization in surveys of variables like ethnicity and religion in a comparative European context and an internationally applicable and agreed glossary of terms relating to ethnicity and race. Pleas have been entered for work towards such goals, involving statistical offices and institutions in the European Union and bodies like the World Health Organization and International Epidemiological Association. This article examines how the conceptual bases of this terminology, issues of geographical specificity and the problem of which terms merit recognition impact on these goals. Different approaches to improving our understanding of this terminology in a cross-national context are explored. Given that the meanings of concepts and terms in the field of ethnicity and race invariably can only be understood in their national context of use - which is frequently layered, manifold, subtle and complex - an approach that explores the connotative reach of the different concepts and terms within this context is needed. Functional equivalence is more likely to be achieved by harmonization than the systematization of such knowledge through the economical form of a glossary of synthetic analytical terminology. However, given the socially and psychologically driven nature of ethnicity as a 'global' concept, harmonization may only be successful when limited to its multiple dimensions.