Penny Edgell Douglas Hartmann University of Minnesota

SES-1258933 Paul Croll Augustana College

SES-1258893 Eric Tranby University of Delaware

What unites us as Americans? What divides us? What are core Americans values and ideals today? Who belongs and who does not? The nature and meaning of unity, social solidarity, and collective identity in the United States have been a source of question and contention since the nation's founding. And the challenges have become increasingly prolific and complicated in an era of ongoing immigration, increasing diversity, persistent inequality, and ubiquitous multiculturalism. The investigators will study the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion in contemporary American society. More specifically, they will study the contours of the American identity and the ways in which it is constituted in or crosscut by other salient boundaries. The research focuses on race and religion as aspects of social location and identification which may shape how Americans make sense of their own lives, understand who is like them and who is different, and think about the broader society and the public good.

The research questions will be answered through a web-based survey of 3,000 Americans. The study extends the work of a previous research project, the American Mosaic Project, by replicating specific items from that study in order to establish trend data for its more innovative and influential findings; this includes items on cultural membership, anti-Semitism, conceptions of diversity, white identity, and views of religious minorities. In addition, the project will include new survey questions to extend research in four interconnected substantive areas: (1) Americans' understandings of social solidarity and collective identity; (2) Americans? explanations for inequality, equal opportunity, and colorblindness; (3) white privilege and white racial identity; and (4) religious exclusion. The project builds on previous work by developing a full set of indicators that allow the investigators to focus on interconnections across our four core areas, providing an opportunity to test and build theory about the relationship between cultural boundaries, inequality, and collective identity.

Broader Impact

In this era of divisive politics, culture wars, pundits, and talking points, this project will provide rigorous empirical data with which to make sense of how people understand American society, its goals and challenges. Results from the project will be disseminated through both academic and media outlets, providing opportunities to discuss the American mosaic in both classrooms and public forums. Additionally, this project will provide research opportunities and training for graduate students and undergraduate students at several colleges and universities across the country and will specifically seek to include students who are members of underrepresented groups. This national survey will provide important data that will be of interest to faculty, students, researchers, and the general public.

Project Report

During the grant period, our team of faculty and graduate students at the University of Minnesota, working in conjunction with colleagues at the University of Delaware and Augustana College, collaborated to design and field a nationally representative random sample survey of non-institutionalized adult Americans, with over-samples of African-American and Hispanic participants. The design work was completed in summer of 2013; the survey was pretested twice, once in late summer and once in fall of 2013. We collaborated on survey revisions; the final survey was fielded in the late winter (February/March) of 2014. The final sample size is 2521 participants. The survey was web-based and was conducted by GfK, using their KnowledgePanel technology. The sub-award granted to the University of Minnesota was instrumental in supporting faculty and graduate student time spent on all stages of survey design and deployment. In addition, a paid research assistant at the University of Minnesota has helped to develop survey documentation, literature reviews for scholarly papers, and initial descriptive analyses of the data. In addition, several unpaid graduate students have begun to use the survey data for analyses for scholarly papers which they began working on this spring and will finish this summer or early fall; these papers will be co-authored with faculty mentors and submitted for peer-reviewed publication. In summary, this NSF award was used to support the production of a major, new, nationally-representative survey data set and to train and mentor graduate students in survey design, data analysis, and scholarly publication. Work on the project will continue this summer and throughout the academic year 2014-2015; as stated in our supplemental documentation for our original grant submission, this follow-up work will be funded by the Edelstein Family Foundation. Our survey is a 10-year followup to the American Mosaic Project survey, fielded in 2003. Our survey replicates some of the Mosaic survey topics and questions, and will allow us to compare over-time variation in Americans attitudes toward racial and religious minorities, understandings of African-American inequality and white privilege, and commitment to specific racial and religious identities. In addition, our new survey will measure: attitudes toward a wider range of religious outsiders, policy preferences including attitudes toward affirmative action, and willingness to deny civil liberties. Taken as a whole, we have produced a survey instrument that can help us to understand Americans' understandings of fundamental questions at the heart of our civic life and collective identity. How do Americans understand, "Who is like me?" and "Who is different?" What are the broad patterns in racial and religious tolerance in the United States, and how do American understand and value diversity? We are at work now on a series of papers that will help to answer these questions. Our first papers will explore: Americans' attitudes toward atheists and Muslim-Americans, perceptions of white privilege and African-American inequality, and religious determinants of racial attitudes.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1258926
Program Officer
kevin Leicht
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2013-05-15
Budget End
2014-04-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$58,380
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Minneapolis
State
MN
Country
United States
Zip Code
55455