ERIC Number: EJ1468064
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0962-0214
EISSN: EISSN-1747-5066
Available Date: 0000-00-00
When Class and Race Collapse: Theoretically Distinguishing between College Students' Intersectional Positions and Their Status Groups
David Shuang Song1; Anthony Lising Antonio2; Pearl Lo3
International Studies in Sociology of Education, v34 n1 p51-75 2025
In a longitudinal interview-based study of racial-minority students of low-income or working-class origin at an elite private university in the United States, we examine how class and race co-determine students' friendship-making patterns. We advance previous research in college students' friendship-making by applying a dual lens of intersectionality theory and sociological group-making. Using this lens, we find that class and race "collapse" into each other, but in two distinct ways. Our main sample of "multiply marginalized" students occupy a "class-racial intersectional position." By contrast, their class-race counterparts, who are envisioned and described as "wealthy Whites," constitute not a class-racial intersectional position but a "class-racial status group," leading to analytically distinct friendship-making dynamics between the two types of students. Our findings also entreat us to call for an analytical distinction between intersectional position and status group, leading to a dual lens that will serve future sociological research attentive to group-making processes and group-based conflict.
Descriptors: College Students, Private Colleges, Social Class, Race, Socioeconomic Status, Longitudinal Studies, Intersectionality, Friendship, Cluster Grouping, Group Behavior, Intergroup Relations
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Honors College, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA; 2Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3University of Maryland College of Education, College Park, MD, USA