The Politics of Identity in Latin American Censuses: Introduction to a Special Issue

This special issue is generically dedicated to social identities and censuses, yet race and ethnicity are, more concretely, the pivotal concepts around which contributors work in their respective papers. This choice is unproblematic at a nominal level: it is consistent with the terminology that census bureaus and analysts currently use to refer to social identities distinctively measured in national counts. It nevertheless deserves some additional introductory comments, since race and ethnicity are contentious socialscientific concepts.