Collective Matters as Individual Concerns

Abstract

When will recruits in socializing settings develop group culture rooted in their situationally relevant identity? Studies show that certain structural situations, such as competition, impede the development of peer culture, while more collectively oriented situations make the development of group culture more likely. Similarly, socializers' ideology of collective or individual work affects the existence and content of peer culture. A study of a few graduate programs in sociology reveals that the ideologies of individual work and individuation (“original scholarship”) override the collective ideology of a “community of scholars,” resulting in a student culture that is neither student nor professionally oriented.