There's a Place for Us: How Ethnic Identities Are Revealed in Ethnic-Specific Organizations
Ethnic-specific organizations have long been features of American society. Historically, they have provided ethnic actors with a means of preserving culture and history. They have also been sites where collective interests are pursued. In this dissertation I study two ethnic-specific organizations. Using identity, incorporation and inequality, as essential dimensions of American ethnicity, I describe how the political and civic work that occurs in two organizations reveals group boundaries. My data and analysis support three major findings. First, I find that the identities that emerge from this kind of organizational work are transactional identities. Transactional identities are identities that are confirmed in social interaction with ethnic and non-co-ethnic actors (i.e., outgroups and mainstream institutions). I argue that transactional identities reflect specific histories and events that determine shared experiences within an ethnic group and are easily distinguishable from the shared experiences other groups have. Secondly, I find that these sites provide groups with a platform to address experiences of inequality in multicultural environments, such as American society. And lastly, I find that these sites provide ethnic groups a means to demonstrate cultural citizenship in American society and institutional belonging in other forums.
Christians, Cuban, Ethnicity, Iraq, Organizations, Sociology
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