ABSTRACT
Federal policies and their implementing agencies are not alone in constructing notions of race and ethnicity and American race-ethnic categories. Social scientists who study race-ethnicity in various contexts also play a role in constructing and reflecting current conceptions of these entities, as their published work often shapes the ways that public discourse develops, within the classroom and beyond. This is particularly the case for “applied” social science: those areas of research that are oriented toward applications of psychology, social psychology, and other fields to various areas of professional practice, such as public administration, management and organizational studies, and public policy analysis. Such research is often published in journals oriented toward practitioners, rather than for an academic readership alone. And it is often conducted by researchers who themselves are involved in the world of practice (such as organizational or management consulting), rather than following academic careers.
