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Ethnic Engineering: Scientific Racism and Public Opinion Surveys in Midcentury Japan

Ethnic Engineering: Scientific Racism and Public Opinion Surveys in Midcentury Japan positions 8:2 Fall 2000 Racial science was and remains profoundly controversial; public opinion research, on the contrary, is generally recognized as a necessary instrument for the management of modern societies, and its underlying philosophies have attracted little critical attention (though its techniques and political uses have been extensively debated). Yet these two very different sciences overlap at certain points. Both apply statistical techniques to the task of defining the essential characteristics of human groups and of determining the differences that separate one group from another. In racial science, this was commonly achieved by biometry: the measuring of physical characteristics, such as height and skull size. In the case of opinion research, what is measured is not biological similarity and difference but similarities and differences of the mind, whether transient reactions to current events or more lasting attitudes, such as religious beliefs. In either case, the processes of research require drawing a line around the group to be studied and then averaging the measured characteristics of individuals within the predetermined group. In some cases, the results, in turn, become the basis of policies to improve the group, either physically (through eugenics) or mentally (through education, opinion leadership, or propaganda). http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Ethnic Engineering: Scientific Racism and Public Opinion Surveys in Midcentury Japan

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa
positions asia critique , Volume 8 (2) – Sep 1, 2000
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2000 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-8-2-499
Publisher site
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Abstract

positions 8:2 Fall 2000 Racial science was and remains profoundly controversial; public opinion research, on the contrary, is generally recognized as a necessary instrument for the management of modern societies, and its underlying philosophies have attracted little critical attention (though its techniques and political uses have been extensively debated). Yet these two very different sciences overlap at certain points. Both apply statistical techniques to the task of defining the essential characteristics of human groups and of determining the differences that separate one group from another. In racial science, this was commonly achieved by biometry: the measuring of physical characteristics, such as height and skull size. In the case of opinion research, what is measured is not biological similarity and difference but similarities and differences of the mind, whether transient reactions to current events or more lasting attitudes, such as religious beliefs. In either case, the processes of research require drawing a line around the group to be studied and then averaging the measured characteristics of individuals within the predetermined group. In some cases, the results, in turn, become the basis of policies to improve the group, either physically (through eugenics) or mentally (through education, opinion leadership, or propaganda).

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positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2000

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