Institutional Panethnicity: Boundary Formation in Asian-American Organizing

Abstract

In the wake of the civil rights movement, new organizations formed which were based on the collective interests and identities of their constituencies. Some of these organizations brought together national origin groups who often differed by ethnicity, language, culture, religion and immigration history. In this paper, I focus on the conditions that facilitate the institutionalization of a socially constructed panethnic community. Using a new longitudinal data set of Asian American organizations, I draw upon a theory of panethnicity which emphasizes the structured relations between groups at different boundary levels to understand panethnic organizational foundings. When controlling for resource availability, political opportunities and organizational dynamics, the boundary formation variables remain important in explaining new organizational activity.