Race as a Bundle of Sticks: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics

Abstract

Although understanding the role of race, ethnicity, and identity is central to political science, methodological debates persist about whether it is possible to estimate the effect of something "immutable." At the heart of the debate is an older theoretical question: is race best understood under an essentialist or constructivist framework? In contrast to the "immutable characteristics" or essentialist approach, we argue that race should be operationalized as a "bundle of sticks" that can be disaggregated into elements. With elements of race, causal claims may be possible using two designs: (1) studies that measure the effect of exposure to a racial cue and (2) studies that exploit within-group variation to measure the effect of some manipulable element. These designs can reconcile scholarship on race and causation and offer a clear framework for future research.

Descriptive and Substantive Representation in Congress: Evidence from 80,000 Congressional Inquiries

“…Second, existing studies suggest that the shared experiences (e.g., quality of education, proximity to violence) proxied for by background characteristics, rather than the characteristics themselves, are a critical mechanism that leads to substantive representation (Sen and Wasow 2016). In the case of veterans, the degree of shared experience is, in some sense, observable.…”

What Makes Muslims Feel French?

“…The logic is that membership in a group is often highly correlated with membership in other types of groups. As a result, it can be difficult to isolate the relevant type of identity for explaining a given outcome (Sen and Wasow 2013;Wimmer 2013). For example, Muslims in Europe share a common religion but they also tend to be socio-economically disadvantaged and have segregated social networks.…”

“…We challenge the assumption that Muslims will be uniquely difficult to integrate by suggesting that they will become inevitably closer to mainstream European societies across generations and as they acquire their host-country citizenship and become fluent in their host-country languages. Finally, we contribute to theoretical literature on group boundaries by building on the notion that there are multiple categories that could be used to understand any one "group" (Brubaker 2002;Sen and Wasow 2013;Wimmer 2013).…”

Toward an Analytical Framework for the Study of Race and Police Violence

“…A public ethics standpoint, one that is consistent with CRT and contextual historical analysis, allows us to consider how racial profiling reveals long‐extant justifications of “hierarchies of power and privilege” (Lever ; see also FitzPatrick ). We are concerned, therefore, with what Sen and Wasow () characterize as the “immutable” racialization of identity in public encounters between police and victims of color, which is inextricably tied to misperceptions of people of color. We have also probed the interplay of social and political interests with settled institutional agendas—what Pinderhughes () calls “power‐assigning structures”—so as to assess the reasons for the perpetuation of racial inequity and to propose new frameworks for its remediation.…”