Doing statistics, enacting the nation: The performative powers of categories
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In: Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 26, No. 3, 01.07.2020, p. 576-593.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Doing statistics, enacting the nation
T2 - The performative powers of categories
AU - Grommé, Francisca
AU - Scheel, Stephan
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Authors. Nations and Nationalism published by Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - It has been widely acknowledged in debates about nationalism and ethnicity that identity categories used for classifying people along the lines of culture, race, and ethnicity help to enact, that is, bring into being, the collective identities they name. However, we know little about how categories acquire their performative powers. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, it proposes a conceptual framework based on concepts and insights from science and technology studies for investigating the performative powers of statistical identity categories and possibly also other domains. Second, it demonstrates, through an empirical study of two examples from Estonian and Dutch official population statistics, that statistical identity categories enact more than the groups to which they refer. We argue that they also enact national identities and notions of national belonging of majoritarian groups in the host countries. Therefore, statistical identity categories can be used as analytical lenses to study nationalism and processes of nation-building.
AB - It has been widely acknowledged in debates about nationalism and ethnicity that identity categories used for classifying people along the lines of culture, race, and ethnicity help to enact, that is, bring into being, the collective identities they name. However, we know little about how categories acquire their performative powers. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, it proposes a conceptual framework based on concepts and insights from science and technology studies for investigating the performative powers of statistical identity categories and possibly also other domains. Second, it demonstrates, through an empirical study of two examples from Estonian and Dutch official population statistics, that statistical identity categories enact more than the groups to which they refer. We argue that they also enact national identities and notions of national belonging of majoritarian groups in the host countries. Therefore, statistical identity categories can be used as analytical lenses to study nationalism and processes of nation-building.
KW - categories
KW - Estonia
KW - identity politics
KW - national identity
KW - Netherlands
KW - performativity
KW - statistics
KW - Sociology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079710267&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/nana.12596
DO - 10.1111/nana.12596
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 32999588
AN - SCOPUS:85079710267
VL - 26
SP - 576
EP - 593
JO - Nations and Nationalism
JF - Nations and Nationalism
SN - 1354-5078
IS - 3
ER -