The changing meaning of race in the social sciences: Implications for social work practice

Abstract

This paper reviews the current debate over the relative merits of the term “race” as a scientific concept and highlights the need to reexamine the application of the term as it is utilized in research and professional discourse in a number of fields. Although long embraced as a valid term for sorting and characterizing human populations on the basis of physical traits, the term has been abandoned by a growing number of social scientists who see it as mired in a biological, cultural, and semantic swamp. The increasingly dominant perspective in the social sciences views race as socially constructed through political, legal, economic, and scientific institutions. From this perspective, the meaning of race finds its origins in social practices and in a system of social relations that signify social conflict and group interests. Some of the implications of this perspective for social work practice are explored.