Ethnic diversity in UK social science and public policy research: A consultation and development exercise to produce guidelines for sound scientific and ethical practice (2)

Peter Allmark, Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom

Abstract:

The UK is a multi-ethnic society. The 2001 Census indicated that 13% of the population of England identified themselves as belonging to an ethnic group other than White British and 9% self-identified as non-White. The ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of the UK population is likely to increase in future years. In particular parts of the country (notably certain London boroughs, and parts of the East and West Midlands and Yorkshire and The Humber) individuals of non-White British ethnicity out-number the White British population. Across a range of social policy and welfare indicators, outcomes for minority ethnic groups continue to be far worse than for the majority White population. In addition, there is great diversity within and between ethnic 'groups', so that generalisation across minorities (and also the majority 'White' population) can be misleading.

The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 has made it unlawful for a public authority to act in a way that constitutes discrimination. The Act further places legal duties upon public bodies, in carrying out their functions, to consider the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between people of different racial/ethnic groups. At the same time, most public authorities are also bound by specific duties, such as publishing a race/ethnicity equality scheme or policy setting out how they will meet the general duty (http://www.cre.gov.uk/legal/rra.html), and the Commission for Racial Equality's ongoing formal investigation into the Department of Health clearly indicates its intention to use its powers to identify failures in these duties across a range of public policy arenas (http://www.cre.gov.uk/Default.aspx.LocID-0hgnew0qf.RefLocID-0hg00900c008.Lang-EN.htm).

Given that expectations of evidence-based social policy and practice are now the norm, these duties clearly imply the need for a research evidence base that reflects the ethnic diversity of the population. For example, the need for such an evidence base has been formally acknowledged by the Department of Health in its Research Governance Framework for health and social care in which it sets out general principles that should apply to all research (DH 2001): 'Research, and those pursuing it, should respect the diversity of human society and conditions and the multi-cultural nature of society, Whenever relevant, it should take account of age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, race, culture and religion in its design, undertaking and reporting. The body of research evidence available to policy makers should reflect the diversity of the population' (Para 2.2.7)' However, despite the apparent increased awareness of the need for (and right to) inclusion in research that influences knowledge, policy and practice, it is clear that the majority of funded social research that is conducted in the UK focuses predominantly on the majority White British population and fails to consider ethnicity as a variable of analysis.

Unlike the US, there is currently no explicit legal requirement in the UK to include minority ethnic participants in publicly-funded research intended to inform social policy decisions affecting its ethnically-diverse population (Ellison et al. 2007). While it seems without question that, in principle, we should produce evidence that reflects the experience of our diverse population, and thereby informs positive change for all, in practice the ethical and scientific arguments around whether and how to incorporate ethnicity into policy-relevant social research are complex and subject to heated debate. In particular, it is important to highlight the various ways in which untheorized or insensitive inclusion can have negative implications (Ellison 2005).

Historically, gross abuses of human rights have occurred in the name of scientific enquiry where minority groups have been exploited as the subjects of research, including the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in the US and, in the European context, the 2nd World War, resulting in the development of the Declaration of Helsinki. In addition, if social research is to be useful, there are important scientific issues to be addressed in relation to: research priority setting and research question identification; sampling/recruitment; measurement/ operationalisation (of ethnicity itself and other variables cross-culturally); collecting material and conducting fieldwork; analysis (how to 'unpack' this multi-faceted concept; how to identify routes of causation; whether to focus on inequalities or absolute levels, and so on); and reporting and representation (Ellison et al. 2007).

This workshop is focused on these issues. It will be conducted in the following way. Peter Allmark will introduce the workshop. This will include giving an outline of a project that has just commenced and is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Ethnic diversity in UK social science and public policy research: a consultation and development exercise to produce guidelines for sound scientific and ethical practice. Several members of the research team will attend the workshop.

The workshop will then be divided into groups focused on specific issues for discussion. Groups will concentrate on an issue and then prepare to feedback to the whole group. Peter Allmark will chair the discussion and summarise key points at the end.

The issues for discussion will include: In relation to quantitative studies:

How should ethnicity be conceptualised and measured? Under what circumstances should ethnicity be conceptualised as a categorical variable capturing discrete social and/or biological differences, or as ‘proxy variables’ for related (behavioural, biological or socioeconomic) variables?

In relation to qualitative studies:

How should one manage the tensions between the need to challenge essentialism of ethnic labelling in the research process, while also engaging with the ways in which different forms of essentialism can be part of the experience and narratives of research participants?

In relation to all studies:

How to encourage other researchers actively to consider whether and how their research can more adequately represent the ethnic diversity of the population?