Analytical and folk concepts of race and ethnicity.

Problems sometimes arise in social sciences because the same word is used both in a loose, popular, sense, and in a more precise, technical sense. When a word is used by ordinary people in the explanation of events in their experience, it may be called a folk concept and contrasted to an analytical one which is part of a set of terms with technical meanings. In industrial societies class is a folk concept; most sociologists would contend that it is also an analytical concept, and that problems arise because of words many associations in popular usage. These difficulties could not be reduced by trying to outlaw what to the specialist may seem popular misconceptions, for the technical terms of social science are constantly being borrowed by the media and any precision they may originally have possessed is soon blurred. A recent example is the concept of charisma. Sometimes the traffic is in the opposite direction and social scientists utilize a folk concept. They may try to give it a technical meaning, as with the concept of role, or use it in a manner which makes no distinction, as with that of nation. This essay is concerned with those problems that arise because the word race is used as both an analytical and a folk concept. It takes an autobiographical form since this will allow the author to relate the issues to recent academic discussions and to set out in a more straightforward way an argument that a distinction between these kinds of concept can facilitate the formulation of a theory of racial relations.