José Itzigsohn Michael RodrÃguez-Muñiz Brown University
Over the past several decades, demographic change has become a major topic of debate in the United States. The widespread consumption of demographic projections has contributed to the belief that the country is undergoing a seemingly unprecedented, irreversible, and altogether inevitable ethnoracial and cultural transformation. Seizing the imagination of policymakers, social movements, and the general public, this narrative has fueled growing anxieties and anticipations over the future of the country. With a focus on the growing U.S. Latino population, this dissertation expands scholarly knowledge on the ways in which social actors and policymakers perceive, experience, and actively engaged "demographic change." Through a yearlong qualitative and ethnographic study involving in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and experts, participant observation of public events and organizational activities, archival research, and an analysis of media coverage and popular discourse, this study examines efforts undertaken by national Latino civil rights and advocacy organizations to translate Latino population growth into greater policy influence. Two major research questions guide the research: 1) How do national Latino leaders and organizations understand, frame, and use demographic statistics and narratives about Latino population growth? 2) How is this activity shaping Latino panethnic identity, civil rights agendas, and relations between Latino advocates and other actors? Ultimately, this project aims to shed light on the public and cultural life of statistics and theorize on the impact of demographic knowledge on contemporary democratic life more broadly.
Broader Impacts
This project strives to stimulate a more inclusive discussion about Latino population growth and demographic change. Relevant to policymakers, advocates, and academics alike, it challenges the tendency to simply take demography as an objective fact. Instead, this project offers a timely study of the meanings of demographic change and the production, circulation, and use of statistics in policymaking and advocacy. Research findings will be disseminated at scholarly conferences, in academic publications, and to staff and leadership of the national Latino civil rights and advocacy organizations under study. Results will also be shared with the general public through op-eds and commentaries in English and Spanish media outlets, blog posts, and a website the researcher will develop dedicated to informed discussion and debate about demographic change.
" involved an eighteen-month qualitative and ethnographic study of national Latino advocacy organizations. The focus of this research was the production, circulation, and use of demographic statistics and other forms of knowledge about the U.S. Latino/a population and its projected growth. Data sources for this project include in-depth interviews with spokespersons, data analysts, elected officials, voter canvassers, and other social actors. The analysis also drew on observations of civic engagement and policy advocacy in Central Florida and Washington, D.C., respectively, as well as content analysis of primary documents and multimedia. At the center of this research is the topic of "demographic change," which has become a fixture in U.S. politics and public life over the last several decades. This research reveals that demographic futures—as understood and imagined by political and civic groups—are shaping contemporary politics in various ways. For some, the growth of ethnic and racial minorities represents a positive development, while others are less optimistic. Among Latino advocates, data and ideas about the future are part of efforts to increase public recognition about the Latino population. Several features of this research will be of likely interest to social scientists and other scholars. First, it addresses the centrality of statistical knowledge in contemporary U.S. society. A growing community of researchers has begun to explore the various investments through which statistics are produced and come to influence how social actors understand themselves and their possibilities. Second, it advances our understanding of the processes and politics through which panethnic identities, such as "Hispanic" and "Latino," are formed, negotiated, and transformed in public life. More broadly, this research seeks to contribute an empirically informed account of how people are engaging with demographic change. While demographic projections are often taken for granted in public debates, this work suggests the need to consider the various ways in which these projections are being used and to what ends. Moreover, in pursuing these themes, this research also sheds light on recent presidential elections, public engagements with the census, and key public issues such as immigration reform and the political representation of ethnic and racial minorities. In short, the subject matter of this dissertation research will be of wide interest to scholars and public observers alike.
