Institutional Categorization and Group Identification: The Case of First-Gen/Low- Classification in Higher Education

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 14: Work-Life

Abstract

In this paper I examine how institutional categorization shapes group identification using the case of college alumni’s identification with the first-generation and/or lower-income (1G/LI) classification. A significant consequence of institutional categorization, the process of formal organizations constructing or adopting social categories and using them to classify constituents, is that it can affect the identification of those classified. However, how institutional categorization shapes the identity of people no longer in the institution from different institutional cohorts is unclear. I ask: How do first-generation and/or lower-income college alumni from different graduation cohorts—including those who attended college before category adoption and those who attended after—identify with the 1G/LI classification? And more broadly, what does this show about how institution’s adoption and use of social categories shapes social groups? Using 40 interviews with 1G/LI alumni of a U.S. university who graduated between 1974-2022, I find their group identification falls along a spectrum ranging from strongest (Members), to mid-level (Supporters), to weakest (Commentators). These three identification groups are based on commonalities found amongst alumni’s interpretations and affiliations with their alma mater’s 1G/LI classification. Additionally, I identify two factors of institutional categorization that jointly shape alumni’s group identification: the institution’s timing of category adoption and the institution’s engagement with the people classified. I identify these factors by finding patterns of certain characteristics and experiences of alumni across the three identification groups. This study contributes to classification research by illuminating the reach of institutional categorization’s consequences for the identification of those categorized and has practical implications for colleges and universities’ 1G/LI categorization practices.

Author

• Sloan Dobson, Emory University