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Politics in Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry: Mining the Metadata for Answers

Monday, 3:15pm - 5:00pm

Speaker:

  • Wendy Thomas
    Data Access Core Director, Minnesota Population Center
    bio

Abstract:

The content and coverage of census questionnaires are often dictated by the interests of Congress - to obtain information on sectors of our population, identify specific needs, develop or evaluate policy, and allocate resources. The relationship between congressional needs and Census content is clearly reflected in the change of questions over time and in the discussions concerning questionnaire content that take place between censuses.

The study of question coverage, question structure, and reporting content is facilitated by the creation of uniformly structured metadata that can be analyzed as readily as the data files they describe. Metadata description that captures not only the wording and content of the question and statistical output, but the relationships between items, provides a wealth of information on the development of statistical research and insight on the influence of politics on our national statistics.

Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry is a conceptual construct that has been present in every U. S. Census since 1790. While the definitions are fluid, the questions being asked, how they are worded, and how this information is reported out to the population, provide a basis for exploring how we can leverage the new metadata structures as analysis tools. This session will explore the relationship of Race/Ethnicity/Ancestry to changing political interest and activities over the history of the United States as reflected in the questionnaires and products of the decennial Census.

Based on this work, an evaluation of conceptual models for defining and relating topical metadata information over time, explores how this information can be accessed, how well the current metadata structures organize the information for analysis, and identify areas for improvement.

This presentation is based on the development of comparative topical metadata for the National Historical Geographic Information system project at the Minnesota Population Center and the work of the DDI Structural Reform Group.

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