Compare_and_Contrast_Two_Accounts_of_the_Role_of_the_Census_in_Making_Up_the_Uk_Population.

Compare and contrast two accounts of the role of the census in making up the UK population. A census is one of many procedures for gathering and recording information about the members of a given population. Census data is commonly used for research, marketing and planning. The term population means the people who inhabit a territory which is governed by a state. The word state is defined as the political organisation that rules over a given territory and its people. States use techniques like the census to locate and identify the people who inhabit their territories and make them into the population. The two accounts this essay will compare and contrast are the objectivist and constructivist perspectives. Firstly it will give a brief history of the census and then it will discuss the constructivist point of view on the role of the census in making population. Secondly it will discuss the objectivist perspective and compare this with the first account. A census has been taken every ten years in England and Wales since 1801 with the exception of 1941 as the Second World War was still being fought. The original purpose of the census was for counting people which was not to produce knowledge, but to register people and property, usually for tax and military conscription purposes (Ruppert, et al, 2009, p430). This is more of an objectivist perspective as it just involves the counting of people and property. The role of the census nowadays is used more for the purpose of governing, distribution of services and individual rights. In order to manage societies need’s, the government/state creates categories in order locate and identify people inhabiting their territories. The constructivist approach sees the population as the outcome of the census, rather than something which already exists. In other words, the census creates population by classifying and categorising people. This reflects the change from the original purpose of the census of just counting people to one which focuses on apportioning government services and rights. They can use this information to monitor population levels in different areas and find out how to allocate government funding to particular communities such as improving healthcare, schools and transport links for places that need them most. A good example of this is the “why we have a census” extract which lists some of the government uses of census data (ONS, 2008, cited in Ruppert, et al, 2009, p404-405). It goes on to list a wide range of government services and explains to the reader how government programmes and policies depend on the census information to enable them to distribute services and programmes. For example data on health helps the government to plan health and social services, data on employment helps the government and businesses to plan jobs and training, data on transport contributes to the understanding of the pressure on the transport system and to the planning or roads and public transport. This information is vital for government programmes and policies to be successful. In order to be able to use the information, first they need to identify the population. This involves individuals having to categorise themselves on the census questionnaire. Classifying and categorising people are a major part of the census as from a constructivist point of view you only become part of the population through inclusion in the census and its categories such as gender and religion. The census not only counts you as part of the total population, it also counts you as one person that belongs to parts of the population such as male, Hindus, or Irish. So the census unites people into the population and divides people into different categories or groups (Ruppert, et al, 2009, p403). Page 2 Categorising individuals involves objectification which is a process that reduces the complex meanings and ways in which people identify to general categories. While the meaning of certain categories varies, categorisation attempts to reduce this difference to a commonality. Different individuals are therefore held together by categories so they can become objects of knowledge and government. Subjectification is also involved in the census as it requires individuals to place themselves and others into categories and therefore making them subjects of knowledge and governing. The definition of subject is a person who has the capacity to engage with and participate in governing practices (Ruppert, et al, 20009, p419). This is an objectivist point of view because even though a subject completes the census as a legal obligation they do not have any options to put forward their opinions. A citizen on the other hand has the option to put forward their own opinions therefore practising their rights as a constructivist. Politics is deeply involved in the constructivist approach because of the ways in which some categories succeed over others and come to be recognised as authoritative is an ongoing political struggle between state agents and citizens. These struggles involve both objectification and subjectification. A good example of this is the “Be Irish, Be Counted” campaign in which Kevin Howard provides a case study on the origins of the question on ethnic identity, which was included in the 2001 UK Censuses. The decision to include this category was a result of two decades of political debate. The final approved question included white, black/caribean, black/African, black/other, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese or “any other group”. Many Irish activists argued the disadvantages of the Irish ethnic community were rendered invisible by this white/non white binary. There was a campaign to get recognition of Irish ethnicity in the 2001 census. After many years of debate the ‘white’ category was divided into three: British, Irish, and ‘any other white background’. “Therefore ad hoc changes to the ethnic designations used on the census can reflect the outcome of politically motivated compromises rather than considered evaluation as to which ethnic designations are sociologically meaningful” (Howard, 2006, pp.105-6 cited in Ruppert, 2009, p418). In contrast to the constructivist approach the objectivist perspective sees the population as an already existing physical object, which can be counted and measured and consisting of all the people inhabiting a state territory. They say it is the job of the census to count and record the already existing population. Although the two accounts use the same information they have slightly different views on how the census should be conducted. The objectivists want to simplify the information without personal bias whereas the constructivist approach wants a more in depth personal analysis of the population. An example of the objectivist approach could be the age-sex data tables and pyramids showing data from the 2001 census (ONS, 2009, cited in Ruppert, et al, 2009, p406). This is an unbiased factual view of the population, where identities of male and female of different age groups are broken down into percentages. This works well for quick and easy analysis but not so good apportioning government funding and services as it simplifies the population into numbers and not specific needs. The objectivist see numbers as incontestable facts but the constructivist would argue that numbers are the result of assumptions, interpretations and judgement (Poovey, 1998, cited in Ruppert, 2009, p430). Page 3 The two accounts have similar problems, like not being able to count everyone accurately, problems of incomplete or inaccurate returns. For example, early censuses had crossed out names and had many annotations (Ruppert, et al, 2009, p429). Also the census uses residential addresses as a primary means of locating people. Consequently this excludes people who do not have a fixed address (Ruppert, et al, 2009, p400 – 401). An example of these problems can be seen in an ONS survey where it was estimated that only 94% per cent of individuals were included in returned census forms (ONS, 2005, cited in Ruppert, et al, 2009, p400). The objectivists account reports on the census statistics as straight-forward observations of the population, which they see as factual. An example of this could be an objectivist statement made about the 2001 census. They stated that the population consists of five different ethnic groups (online activity 28). They have stated this as a fact and to say that the population consists of, means that they already exist before being asked any questions. A constructivist would argue that you need to be careful how you interpret this data as there are many ‘other’ sub categories within these five ethnic groups and even a category for ‘other ethnic group’. Therefore they would say that five different categories of ethnicity were used to define the population of England and Wales. The constructivists also say that statistics define and categorise the population in particular ways but this is an interpretive task so the question of who does the interpreting becomes crucial. This essay has compared the two accounts and has come to the conclusion that both perspectives can contribute to our understanding of the population. It has discussed each account and shown examples of how each perspective works. Although each side have a different opinion on the census there is no right or wrong perspective as you can favour different aspects of either account. Word count: 1489 Page 4 References Learn.open.ac.uk, ‘Online activity 28’ (online) DD101 10B course website, Available from http://learn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php'id=309693 Milton Keynes, The Open University (Accessed 24th May 2010, 14:15) Ruppert, E. and Isin, E. (2009) ‘Making up population’ in Taylor, S., Hinchliffe, S., Clarke, J. and Bromley, S., (eds) Making Social Lives, Milton Keynes, The Open University.