Through participant-observation and interviews, I explore the conservative social identity of College Republicans at a midsize, midtier public university in the United States. Using the concepts of repertoires and frames, I analyze how individuals make claims to political social identities. Specifically, I show that symbolic appeals to the free market were an essential aspect of the conservative repertoire at my field site. Furthermore, the shifting and contradictory frames used by the College Republicans in this study demonstrate that their discursive political practices were not primarily about policy preferences; they were about affirming a conservative social identity. Understanding how stated policy preferences and identity intertwine in everyday political talk has important implications for American democracy.
AlexanderJeffrey C.2006. The Civil Sphere. New York: Oxford University Press.
2.
AndersonElijah. 2003. “Jelly’s Place: An Ethnographic Memoir.”Symbolic Interaction26(2):217–37.
3.
AriesElizabethSeiderMaynard. 2007. “The Role of Social Class in the Formation of Identity: A Study of Public and Elite Private College Students.”The Journal of Social Psychology147(2):137–57.
4.
ArmatoMichaelMarsiglioWilliam. 2002. “Self-structure, Identity, and Commitment: Promise Keepers’ Godly Man Project.”Symbolic Interaction25(1):41–65.
5.
ArmstrongElizabeth A.HamiltonLaura T.2013. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
ArnettJeffrey Jensen. 2004. Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties. New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
BartelsLarry M.2008. Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
8.
BatesonGregory. [1955] 1972. “A Theory of Play and Fantasy.” Pp. 183–98 in Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. San Francisco, CA: Chandler.
9.
BeckUlrich. 2000. The Brave New World of Work. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
10.
BeckerHoward S.1996. “The Epistemology of Qualitative Research.” Pp. 53–72 in Ethnography and Human Development: Context and Meaning in Social Inquiry, edited by JessorRichardColbyAnneShwederRichard A.Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
11.
BellahRobert N.MadsenRichardSullivanWilliam M.SwidlerAnnTiptonSteven M.1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
12.
BinderAmy J.WoodKate. 2013. Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
13.
BishopBill. 2008. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-minded America Is Tearing Us Apart. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
14.
BleeKathleen M.1991. Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
BlockFred. 2009. “Making Taxes the Life of the Party.” Pp. 68–85 in The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective, edited by MartinIsaac WilliamMehrotraAjay K.PrasadMonica. New York: Cambridge University Press.
17.
BrennanGeoffreyLomaskyLoren E.1993. Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference. New York: Cambridge University Press.
18.
BrooksClemManzaJeff. 2013. “A Broken Public? Americans’ Response to the Great Recession.”American Sociological Review78(5):727–48.
19.
BrunerJerome S.1986. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
20.
BrunerJerome S.1990. Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
21.
BurawoyMichael. 1991. “Reconstructing Social Theories.” Pp. 8–27 in Ethnography Unbound: Power and Resistance in the Modern Metropolis, edited by BurawoyMichael. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
22.
CaplanBryan Douglas. 2007. The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
23.
CollinsRandall. 2004. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
24.
CollinsRandall. 2013. “The End of Middle-class Work: No More Escapes.” Pp. 37–70 in Does Capitalism Have a Future? edited by WallersteinImmanuelCollinsRandallMannMichaelDerluguianGeorgiCalhounCraig. New York: Oxford University Press.
25.
ConoverPamela JohnstonFeldmanStanley. 1981. “The Origins and Meaning of Liberal/Conservative Self-identifications.”American Journal of Political Science25(4):617–45.
26.
CooperMichael. 2012. “Conservatives Sowed Idea of Health Care Mandate, Only to Spurn It Later.”The New York Times, February15, A15.
27.
CorbinJuliet M.StraussAnselm L.2008. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
28.
CrespinoJoseph. 2007. In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
29.
D’AndradeRoy. 1984. “Cultural Meaning Systems.” Pp. 88–119 in Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion, edited by ShwederRichard A.LeVineRobert A.New York: Cambridge University Press.
30.
DuneierMitchell. 1999. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
31.
EdelmanMurray J.1964. The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
32.
EdsallThomas Byrne. 2006. Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power. New York: Basic Books.
33.
EdsallThomas ByrneEdsallMary D.1991. Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton.
34.
EliasophNinaLichtermanPaul. 2003. “Culture in Interaction.”American Journal of Sociology108(4):735–94.
35.
FeaginJoe R.2006. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression. New York: Routledge.
36.
FoggNetta P.HarringtonPaul E.2011. “Rising Mal-employment and the Great Recession: The Growing Disconnection between Recent College Graduates and the College Labor Market.”Continuing Higher Education Review75:51–65.
37.
FrankThomas. 2004. What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York: Metropolitan Books.
38.
GamsonWilliam A.1992. Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
39.
GlaserBarney G.StraussAnselm L.1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
40.
GoffmanErving. 1974. Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper & Row.
41.
GreenDonald P.PalmquistBradleySchicklerEric. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
42.
GrossNeil. 2013. Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
GrossNeilMedvetzThomasRussellRupert. 2011. “The Contemporary American Conservative Movement.”Annual Review of Sociology37(1):325–54.
GusfieldJoseph R.1963. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
46.
HabermasJürgen. 1984. The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
47.
HackerJacob S.2006. The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement and How You Can Fight Back. New York: Oxford University Press.
48.
HackerJacob S.PiersonPaul. 2005. Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
HirschmanAlbert O.1991. The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
51.
HofstadterRichard. 1963. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. New York: Knopf.
52.
HollisterMatissa. 2011. “Employment Stability in the U.S. Labor Market: Rhetoric versus Reality.”Annual Review of Sociology37(1):305–24.
53.
HorowitzDavid. 2007. Indoctrination U.: The Left’s War against Academic Freedom. New York: Encounter Books.
54.
HunterJames Davison. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books.
55.
KallebergArne L.2011. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
56.
Kelly-WoessnerAprilWoessnerMatthew. 2006. “My Professor Is a Partisan Hack: How Perceptions of a Professor’s Political Views Affect Student Course Evaluations.”Political Science & Politics39(3):495–501.
57.
KhanShamusJerolmackColin. 2013. “Saying Meritocracy and Doing Privilege.”Sociological Quarterly54 (1): 9-19.
58.
KruseKevin Michael. 2005. White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
59.
LamontMichèleSwidlerAnn. 2014. “Methodological Pluralism and the Possibilities and Limits of Interviewing.”Qualitative Sociology37(2):153–71.
60.
LoflandJohnSnowDavid A.AndersonLeonLoflandLyn H.2006. Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
61.
LukerKristin. 1984. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
62.
LuttigMatthew. 2013. “The Structure of Inequality and Americans’ Attitudes toward Redistribution.” Public Opinion Quarterly77 (3): 811-821.
63.
MacDonaldEileen. 1991. Shoot the Women First. New York: Random House.
64.
MalkaArielLelkesYphtach. 2010. “More than Ideology: Conservative–Liberal Identity and Receptivity to Political Cues.”Social Justice Research23(2–3):156–88.
65.
MannThomas E.OrnsteinNorman J.2012. It’s Even Worse than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. New York: Basic Books.
66.
MartinJonathan. 2014. “Young Republicans Find Fault with Elders on List of Social Issues.”The New York Times, March11, A11.
67.
MooneyChris. 2005. The Republican War on Science. New York: Basic Books.
68.
McAdamsDan P.1984. “Love, Power, and Images of the Self.” Pp. 159–74 in Emotion in Adult Development, edited by MalatestaCarol ZanderIzardCarroll E.Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
69.
McAdamsDan P.2001. “The Psychology of Life Stories.”Review of General Psychology5(2):100–22.
PrasadMonicaPerrinAndrew J.BezilaKieranHoffmanSteve G.KindlebergerKateManturukKimPowersAshleigh SmithPaytonAndrew R.2009. “The Undeserving Rich: ‘Moral Values’ and the White Working Class.”Sociological Forum24(2):225–53.
80.
ReayDianeCrozierGillClaytonJohn. 2009. “‘Strangers in Paradise’? Working-class Students in Elite Universities.”Sociology43(6):1103–21.
81.
SaulnySusan. 2012. “Young in G.O.P. Erase the Lines on Social Issues.”The New York Times, August9, A1.
82.
SilvaEric Orion. 2014. “Neutralizing Problematic Frames in the Culture Wars: Anti-evolutionists Grapple with Religion.”Symbolic Interaction37(2):226–45.
83.
SilvaJennifer M.2012. “Constructing Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty.”American Sociological Review77(4):505–22.
84.
SmithMark A.2007. The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed the Great Society into the Economic Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
85.
SnowDavid A.RochfordE. BurkeJr.WordenSteven K.BenfordRobert D.1986. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.”American Sociological Review51(4):464–81.
86.
SnowDavid A.AndersonLeon. 1993. Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
87.
SomersMargaret R.BlockFred. 2005. “From Poverty to Perversity: Ideas, Markets, and Institutions over 200 Years of Welfare Debate.”American Sociological Review70(2):260–87.
88.
StraussAnselm L.SchatzmanLeonardBucherRueErlichDanutaSabshinMelvin. 1964. Psychiatric Ideologies and Institutions. New York: Free Press of Glencoe.
89.
StrykerSheldon. 1968. “Identity Salience and Role Performance: The Relevance of Symbolic Interaction Theory for Family Research.”Journal of Marriage and Family30(4):558–64.
90.
StuberJenny M.2011. Inside the College Gates: How Class and Culture Matter in Higher Education. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
91.
SwidlerAnn. 1986. “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies.”American Sociological Review51(2):273–86.
92.
SwidlerAnn. 1992. “Inequality and American Culture: The Persistence of Voluntarism.”American Behavioral Scientist35(4/5):606–29.
93.
SwidlerAnn. 2001a. Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
94.
SwidlerAnn. 2001b. “What Anchors Cultural Practices.” Pp. 74–92 in The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, edited by SchatzkiTheodore R.CetinaKarin Knorrvon SavignyEike. New York: Routledge.
95.
TajfelHenri. 1974. “Social Identity and Intergroup Behavior.”Social Science Information13(2):65–93.
96.
TurnerChristena L.1995. Japanese Workers in Protest: An Ethnography of Consciousness and Experience. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
97.
TurnerJohn C.1975. “Social Comparison and Social Identity: Some Prospects for Intergroup Behaviour.”European Journal of Social Psychology5(1):5–34.
98.
TurnerJohn C.OakesPenelope J.HaslamS. AlexanderMcGartyCraig. 1994. “Self and Collective: Cognition and Social Context.”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin20(5):454–63.
99.
VenkateshSudhir Alladi. 2013. “The Reflexive Turn: The Rise of First-person Ethnography.”Sociological Quarterly54(1):3–8.
100.
WeberMax. [1925] 1946. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Edited by GerthHans HeinrichMillsC. Wright. New York: Oxford University Press.
101.
WoessnerMatthewKelly-WoessnerApril. 2009. “Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates.” Pp. 38–59 in The Politically Correct University: Problems, Scope, and Reforms, edited by MarantoRobertReddingRichard E.HessFredrick M.Washington, DC: AEI Press.
102.
ZernikeKate. 2010. Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America. New York: Times Books.
