ABSTRACT
Since the financial crisis, the issue of the ‘one percent’ has become the centre of intense public debate, unavoidable even for members of the elite themselves. Moreover, inquiring into elites has taken centre-stage once again in both journalistic investigations and academic research.
New Directions in Elite Studies attempts to move the social scientific study of elites beyond economic analysis, which has greatly improved our knowledge of inequality, but is restricted to income and wealth. In contrast, this book mobilizes a broad scope of research methods to uncover the social composition of the power elite – the ‘field of power’. It reconstructs processes through which people gain access to positions in this particular social space, examines the various forms of capital they mobilize in the process – economic, but also cultural and social capital – and probes changes over time and variations across national contexts.
Bringing together the most advanced research into elites by a European and multidisciplinary group of scholars, this book presents an agenda for the future study of elites. It will appeal to all those interested in the study of elites, inequality, class, power, and gender inequality.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
section 1|61 pages
The myth of a global business elite
chapter 4|17 pages
Dynamics of internationalization
section 2|83 pages
Scrutinizing the power elite and the field of power
chapter 5|20 pages
A place at what table?
chapter 7|17 pages
A Scandinavian variety of power elites?
section 3|69 pages
Social closure and reproduction strategies
chapter 11|17 pages
Gendering the elites
section 4|71 pages
Elite education, recruitment and legitimacy