What Is The Definition Of Race In Sociology

Race is a category that groups together people who share biological traits that a society believes to be socially significant from genetics to phenotypic characteristics.

What is the definition of race in sociology. Sociologists omi and winant s theories of racial formation describe how race is a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies the meanings and implications of race are produced and invested in by social institutions as well as through cultural representations. Most importantly this theory views race from both a historical and contemporary perspective. Definition of race noun a socially created and poorly defined categorization of people into groups on basis of real or perceived physical characteristics. These people are socialized to think of themselves as a distinct group and others regard them as such.

They studied the role that race played in social political and economic institutions. A key question about race is whether it is more of a biological category or a social category. However the term race is still widely used and many people believe we can still divide the world into biologically distinct races. Let s start first with race which refers to a category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics such as skin color facial features and stature.

Omi and winant defined racial formation as a sociohistorical process through which racial divisions were created and propagated. In evaluating this definition the emphasis must be placed on selected. While there is no biological basis for racial classification sociologists recognize a long history of attempts to organize groups of people based on similar skin color and physical appearance. Updated july 01 2019 sociologists define race as a concept that is used to signify different types of human bodies.

Race is one of the most complex concepts in sociology not least because its supposedly scientific basis has largely been rejected. Sociologists define race as a vast collectivity of people more or less bound together by shared and selected history ancestors and physical features. This means that race is not based on some innate and immutable scientific fact but rather that this concept describes the social meanings ascribed to racial categories.