Theme 3: Distinctions and Authorization

By Stine Adrian on 27 Aug | 0 comments

Gender, class and ethnicity are largely contextually determined categories and could be seen as aspects of habitus - the inherited and acquired embodiment of experience and distinctions (Bourdieu 1988, Moi 1991, Adkins & Skeggs 2004, Göransson 2005 and 2006). Their symbolical value will vary between contexts, such as social fields; a certain background may be positive in one context but negative in another. One distinction may also reinforce or upset the effects of another. At a structural level it will have important effects on social equality and cohesion as well as on democracy. We ask for instance whether gender equality is giving power to more people – or leading to stricter classbased closure.

The present research program is based on findings from an earlier extensive study of the Swedish power elite (Göransson 2006). It will however largely focus on international comparisons as well as transnational tendencies. To what degree is there a transnational elite today and in what fields? How does it relate to different distinctions, given that the class, gender and ethnic orders differ between countries and cultures? Are differences between fields more obvious than differences between the genders, for instance, as is the case in the Nordic countries? Here the main difference between men and women in the elite is found in their family situations. This may however explain women’s difficulties as family forms are intertwined with and supporting professional strategies, which is at its most extreme in the business elite.

1. Careers and closure
One study will be devoted (a) to the atypical top decisionmaker (for instance socalled ‘class travelers’ who are so far a distinctly Scandinavian phenomenon at the top) and (b) to those who did not reach the top. At what level do they fail or choose to stay? A comparison between these two groups and the traditionally equipped majority in elite positions is expected give more knowledge of the contextuality of various distinctions. Elite studies have traditionally not covered this problem, which must however be seen as crucial to the evaluation of the exclusivity of elites.

2. To have or have not
Another study will explore more carefully the role of networks that earlier research has found to be of great, perhaps decisive, importance for success in gaining and exerting public power, as well as in professional life in general. This study will build on case studies from four fields: first the academic elite and the cultural elite; later the business elite and political elite. The study of the academic elite in universities and research institutes, for instance, will explore the role of transnational personal ties for establishing a homogeneous, so far solidly male-dominated intellectual elite. The study of academic elites may also shed light on the dominating consensus on the interpretation of excellent scholarship. It may also give new insights in support of our own plans for creating an environment for Advanced Gender Studies.

3. The dynastic dimension
An important aspect of networks is the dynastic dimension which will be explored in a separate study, for which material has already been gathered. A result of the growing separation and specialization of professional and social fields seems to be an increasingly internal reproduction of positions. Thus there is an increasing social proximity among top decisionmakers, including family and kinship relations. This has traditionally been the case in the business elite where material inheritance is important. But as social and cultural inheritance has gained importance in other social fields it has become more controversial. The growing advantage of an inherited cultural capital in different fields will therefore be investigated as a potential problem for representative democracy, as well as grounds for possibly tightening closure of elite positions. Growing gender equality and women’s increasing access to power positions has also led to intermarriages between top leaders, which exacerbates
these effects.

The results from the earlier study will be used with surveys from strategically selected groups in Sweden and other countries. Besides this material, the data continuously provided by the European Social Survey Data and the International Social Survey Data Base will be of use here. One aim is ultimately to provide continuous knowledge of the development of the access to power of different groups in Europe, as well as about changes in the discourse about distinctions. Ethics rules of the Research council will be adhered to.