Scholarly work that examines the production of ethnoracial categories has more closely examined the role of nation-states, social movements, and transnational trends. This focus has shifted attention away from the internal institutional processes that influence the production of ethnoracial categories. In particular, the role of the census-takers as key actors in these institutional processes has been underexamined. In this study, we draw from fifty-four semi-structured interviews with census-takers who participated in the 2017 Peruvian National Census to argue that census-takers can be considered street-level bureaucrats because of the influence they exercise in the production of ethnoracial categories. In a context where ethnoracial categories are contested, participants in our study drew from their own understandings of the ethnoracial question which ultimately –albeit inadvertently...

Scholarly work that examines the production of ethnoracial categories has more closely examined the role of nation-states, social movements, and transnational trends. This focus has shifted attention away from the internal institutional processes that influence the production of ethnoracial categories. In particular, the role of the census-takers as key actors in these institutional processes has been underexamined. In this study, we draw from fifty-four semi-structured interviews with census-takers who participated in the 2017 Peruvian National Census to argue that census-takers can be considered street-level bureaucrats because of the influence they exercise in the production of ethnoracial categories. In a context where ethnoracial categories are contested, participants in our study drew from their own understandings of the ethnoracial question which ultimately –albeit inadvertently...