UE297 - Sociology of elites: an introduction

Intervenant·e·s

• Sylvain Laurens [référent·e]   directeur d'études, EHESS / Centre Maurice-Halbwachs (CMH)
• Paul Lagneau-Ymonet   maître de conférences, Université Paris-Dauphine - PSL

The seminar will focus on current international research into the sociology of elites. Historically, the sociology of elites has been structured around a number of major questions: the circulation and renewal of elites, their more or less close-knit nature, the constitution of an aristocratic and/or bourgeois ethos or taste, the strength of family and school socialization... But contemporary work often innovates in terms of the construction of the object, methodologies and modes of entry into the field. Alternating between collective analysis of texts and presentations by established researchers, the seminar will aim to demonstrate the possibility of sociological fieldwork in these fields that are reputed to be difficult to access. The emphasis will be on combining ethnographic and statistical approaches.

Instructor : Estelle Delaine, Paul Lagneau-Ymonet and Sylvain Laurens

Course Schedule : 12 weeks  - Tuesday : 16.00 PM to 18.00 PM (Room R3.46, except sessions of 20/01; 27/01 and 3/02-> R.2.21)

Final grade:

• In-class participation based on comprehension of the reading materials. Students will be required to also attend the lectures in the last two weeks and participate in the debate following each event: 20%
• Personal work on an archival document freely chosen by the student that illustrates the construction of social boundaries and the affirmation of an elite distinction in a particular historical context (8 to 10 pages: note that you will not obtain a good grade if the Bibliography does not contain, at least, 3 or 4 academic articles or book chapters): 80%

Week 1 – November 4^th

Presentation of the course: The first session will be devoted to the presentation of the course issues and the evaluation methods.

Introduction :  Classical notions

Social stratification, Inequalities, Elites (critical approach of the notion), Discriminations ;  Regimes of inequalities (Piketty).

Readings :

• Vilfredo Pareto, « On Elites » in The Mind and Society, vol. 3, Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1935 (1917).
• Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, 2013 (Introduction and Chapter 1)
• Laura Nader, « Up the anthropologists : Perspectives gained from studying up », (1972)
• C.W Mills, The Power Elite, (introduction) (1956)

Week 2 – November 18th

Money: Elites, economic power and learning about financial value 

Readings :

• Viviana Zelizer, « How and when do people create currencies? », in The Social meaning of Money, Basic Books, 1995, pp. 40-45.
• Karen Ho, Liquidated : an ethnography of Wall Street, Duke University Press, 2009 (introduction and chapter 3).
• Ashley Mears, V.I.P (chapter 3), Princeton University Press, 2020.

Week 3 – November 25t^h

Masculinities: power over bodies and reproductive process

Readings :

• Acker, Joan. « Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations" ». Gender and Society 4, n^o 2 (1990): 139 58.
• Connell, Raewyn. Masculinités : enjeux sociaux de l’hégémonie. Éditions Amsterdam, 2022.
• Robert Dean, Michelle Mart. Imperial Brotherhood, gender and the making of Cold War foreign policy, 2001.

Week 4 – December 2th

« Petites et ‘Grandes’ Ecoles » : Fencing social destinies in the name of "academic merit»

Readings :

• Shamus Khan, Privilege : The Making of an Adolescent Elite at Saint Paul’s School, Princeton University Press, 2011.

Week 5 – December 9^th

Network and social capital

Readings :

• John Padgett and Christopher Ansell, « Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici (1400-1434), American Journal of Sociology, vol. 98/6, p. 1259-1319.
• Shay O’Brien, « The family web : Multigenerational class persistence in elite populations », Socio-Economic Review, 2024, vol. 22, p. 1-27.

Week 6 – December 16^th

Distinction through cultural consumption: Symbolic Capital and Philanthropy

Readings :

• Bethany Bryson, "Anything But Heavy Metal": Symbolic Exclusion and Musical Dislikes, American Sociological Review, vol. 61, n°5, 1996, pp. 884-899.
• Entretien avec Shamus Khan, « L’omnivorité culturelle comme réponse des classes dominantes aux revendications pour l’égalité » in Shamus Khan, La nouvelle école des élites, Marseille, Agone, coll. « L’ordre des choses », 2015, pp. 357-381.
• Andrew Canergie, The Gospel of Wealth, 1899.

Week 7 – January 6^th

Conspicuous consumption and luxury 

Readings :

• Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of Leisure Class, (chapters 4 and 5), Oxford World Classics, 2007 (1899).
• Filmography : « Triangle of Sadness », by Ruben Ostlünd (2022).

Week  8 – January 13^th

« Les beaux quartiers » : a power over the environment

Readings :

• Sylvie Tissot, Good Neighbors : Gentrifying diversity (Introduction), Verso Books, 2015.
• Harvey L. Molotch and John R. Logan, « The City as a Growth Machine » in  Japonica Brown-Sacarino, The Gentrification debates, Routledge, 2010, pp. 87-99.

Week 9 – January 20^th

Intermediary point around your personal assignment

Week 10 – January 27^th

Corporate Power

Readings :

• Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy, Verso, 2013 (introduction).

Week 11 – February 3^th

Special Guest :

Matias Landau (professor at Buenos Aires University) Elites in Argentina

Week 12 – February 10^th

Corporate Political Activity & Lobbying

Readings :

• Sylvain Laurens, Lobbyists and bureaucrats in Brussels, Routledge, 2018 (introduction).

Rendu du travail final sur archives : le 10 mars au plus tard