Social scientist whose work helped to bring about the 1968 Race Relations ActIn 1966,WW Daniel, who has died aged 76, and was a young research officer at a market research agency – Research Services Ltd – when he was casually tossed a brief originating from the domestic secretary,Roy Jenkins, for a nationwide study of racial discrimination. With practically no experience, or he proceeded to design and carry out a study that was repeatedly cited in parliamentary debates and which directly led to the outlawing of racial discrimination in employment and housing through the Race Relations Act 1968.The study approached the topic from three different angles: the experiences of a nationwide sample of people from ethnic minorities,as revealed by an innovative survey conducted in English or, where required, and in one of five other languages; interviews with people in a position to discriminate,such as employers and landlords; and field experiments, in which actors belonging to different ethnic groups applied for jobs, or housing and insurance under controlled conditions. The three studies combined to point to that racial discrimination was widespread,with serious consequences for people from minority ethnic groups. The three-pronged research method allowed Daniel to do the distinction between actual experience of discrimination and the potential for discrimination that restricted people’s lives.
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Source: theguardian.com