Measuring ethnicity: an introduction to the theme.

• Author: Callister, Paul

Since the beginnings of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand in 1993, ethnicity has featured prominently in discussions. For example, the first edition had an article by Tipene O'Regan and Api Mahuika discussing "modern day developments within Maori society" in relation to policy advice from the "Social Policy Agency". While many of the papers published in the journal have had ethnicity as one of the variables, or issues associated with ethnicity have been the main focus of particular articles, clear definitions of who belongs to particular groups and, more fundamentally, how groups are actually defined, are often not set out. However, from time to time there have been discussions as to what we actually mean by ethnicity. A recent example has been the 2004 paper by Tahu Kukutai entitled "The problem of defining an ethnic group for public policy: Who is Maori and why does it matter?" A concern about what ethnicity is actually telling us is not unique to New Zealand. There has been an explosion worldwide of research on the construction of identity, of which ethnicity is just one part.

This collection of research papers and research notes around the measurement of ethnicity is an attempt to bring together some recent thinking on the construction of ethnicity in a New Zealand context. The collection...