ABSTRACT
The notion of bureaucratic capital helps to locate business lobbyists within the broader social space, facilitating the description of their particular characteristics as a professional group. Belonging to the intermediary fractions of the business bourgeoisie, lobbyists are outside the highest echelons of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. Unlike young employees with a background in economics or political science, people with science PhDs struggle in a Brussels submarket where demand exceeds supply. To gain a better grasp of the particular place of business association staff in the Brussels bubble, it is helpful to compare their incomes to other possible career paths available to young entrants to the labour market in the European Quarter. Most of the time association staff are working to maintain an internal coalition while simultaneously familiarising European Union (EU) decision-makers with that coalition's positions. The logics of administrative functioning produce an interest in documents being leaked to lobbyists.
