The Ethnic Patterning of Health: New Directions for Theory and Research

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that analysis of the ethnic patterning of health has failed adequately to examine the social meaning of ethnicity, while too often becoming enmeshed in unhelpful dualities which counterpose material to cultural explanations, multiculturalism to anti‐racism, and sociology to epidemiology. Against the background of anthropological, objectivist and postmodern theories in the broader sociology of ‘race’ and ethnicity, the paper develops a concept of ethnicity for the purposes of health research. This is used to evaluate biological, migration‐based, material, cultural and racism‐based explanations for the ethnic patterning of health. It is argued that these types of explanation are best understood within an interactive framework. The methodological implications of this for future research are discussed.

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