Part of the problem or part of the solution? Commissioned research and the political creation of "race" meaning

Drawing on twelve personal publications arising from eight empirical contract research projects in Scotland, the paper will illuminate ways in which applied research, commissioned by state institutions, shape & sustain political notions of "race". Arguing from a Race Formation perspective (Winant), the paper will explain how "race" as a process, is continually created, destroyed & re-invented in policy directed research processes, structures & relationships. A central argument in this paper will be that in an absence of an agreed "common-sense" meaning of "race" in Britain, local research participants' understandings of "race" & racialised inequalities are principally influenced by state driven ideologies.