Cultural Emergence and Persistence in a Shared Institutional Environment

• In Event: The Role of Culture and Informal Institutions in Politics and Society

Abstract

Culture has important consequences for socioeconomic and political attitudes and behavior. Yet the emergence and evolution of culture remains poorly understood and is often conflated with formal and informal institutions. We study the oldest university in East Africa and a cradle of political elites, Makerere University, where halls of residence developed distinct cultures in the 1970s - which still exist and affect some social norms and behaviors today - such that some hall cultures are sociable and activist, while others are academically-minded and respectful to authorities. Why did these cultural identities emerge and persist given (i) random allocation of students to halls since 1971 and given that (ii) all halls are subject to the same hall and campus-wide formal institutions? We argue that cultural emergence is closely related to intergroup (i.e. interhall) competition, consistent with optimal distinctiveness theory in social psychology. We document the role of socialization in cultural reproduction and persistence through survey data on Makerere University alumni, in-depth interviews, and some primary materials. In particular, hall student governments promote the intergenerational transmission of cultural norms and practices to the new hall population (freshmen), which highlights the role of the student political hierarchy in reproducing culture. We observe much cultural persistence but we also observe cultural death resulting from a population shock, namely the temporary closure of a hall. In sum, we leverage this unique setting - where formal institutions are held constant across halls - to understand the role of culture in the development of sociopolitical values and behavior among young elites.

Author

• Joan Ricart-Huguet, Loyola University Maryland