Classifying the unclassifiable. Ethnicity in Swedish registers and epidemiological knowledge production, 1950–2020

Today, epidemiology is used as a basis for decision-making in public health policies; data created with epidemiological methods are seen as representing truths about reality.

A historical perspective reveals that categories employed in epidemiological research (e.g. gender, ethnicity) are social constructs that vary over time and place. Health and population registers are routinely used as sources of data in these constructs.

After 1945, ethnicity ceased to be registered in Swedish national statistics; hence scholars must resort to alternative sources and strategies.

The purpose is to explore how alternative epidemiological practices of classification and categorisation evolved as ethnicity ceased to be a viable category.

The project is divided into four phases: 1) Mapping classifications and categories pertaining to ethnicity in registers, 2) Elucidating the infrastructure behind the classifications, 3) Comprehensive and deepened examination of epidemiological studies concerning ethnicity/ethnic groups, 4) Concluding analysis using biomedicalization theory and STS methodologies.

A range of sources will be used, from databases to archival and published material.

The findings of the project will contribute to the modern history of epidemiology and bring the Swedish case to an internationally growing research area, and shed new light on the construction of ethnicity as a central yet hidden category in the formation of epidemiological knowledge after WWII until today.