Progress in ethnic and racial studies

The socio-scientific study of ethnic and racial relations cannot rely upon ordinary language concepts because these have multiple and changing meanings. They reflect circumstances in particular societies and may hamper understanding when applied in other regions of the world. Over the past fifty years there has been a growth of knowledge from the assembling of new information and from the improvement of relevant sociological theory. Ordinary language concepts are being superseded by a theoretical language suited to the analysis of the social processes underlying ethnic and racial relations, such as those causing discrimination and group mobilization.