The Architecture of Institutional Containment: A Divergent–Convergent Framework for Understanding Racialized Higher Education Design

The paper introduces the Architecture of Institutional Containment, a conceptual framework that explains how educational institutions absorb reform while preserving underlying power structures. Rather than viewing reform failure as accidental or temporary, the framework shows how institutions are designed to incorporate change in ways that protect durable outcomes such as economic containment, racialized labor hierarchies, and concentrated epistemic authority. Grounded in critical theory and historical analysis, and informed by Black-serving institutions in the United States and South Africa, the framework offers a systems-level tool for analyzing why equity-oriented reforms are often reversible and why inequality persists despite repeated interventions.