Skip to main content

Introduction: An Anthropological Perspective on Elite Power and the Cultural Politics of Elites

  • Chapter
The Anthropology of Elites

Abstract

This volume is about the anthropological study of elites and addresses anew the challenges of research and theoretical interpretation that this social stratum evokes. On the basis of a fascinating array of case studies and with reference to previously published work, we explore the potential of anthropological approaches to elites and aim to reconfigure their comparative study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abbink, J. 2000. “Restoring the balance: violence and culture among the Suri of Southern Ethiopia. In Meanings of Violence: a Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by Göran Aijmer and Jon Abbink, 77–100. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abélès, Marc. 2005. “Identity and Borders: An Anthropological Approach to EU Institutions.” University of Wisconsin, on-line working papers from the center for 21st century studies (www4.uwm.edu/c21/pdfs /workingpapers/abeles.pdf) [Accessed September 21, 2011].

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, Peter, and Morton S. Baratz. 1962. “Two faces of power.” American Political Science Review 56 (4): 947–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaverstock, Jon V. 2002. “Transnational elites in global cities: British expatriates in Singapore’s financial district.” Geoforum 33 (4): 525–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaverstock, Jon V., Phil Hubbard, and John R. Short. 2004. “Getting away with it? Exposing the geographies of the super-rich.” Geoforum 35: 401–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellier, Irene. 2000. “A Europeanized elite? An anthropology of European Commission officials.” Yearbook of European Studies 14: 135–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Best, Heinrich, and John Higley, eds. 2010. Democratic Elitism: New Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Böröcz, Jószef, and Ákos Róna-Tas. 1995. “Small leap forward: Emergence of new economic elites.” Theory and Society 24 (5): 751–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bottomore, Tom B. 1993 [1965]. Elites and Society. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984 [1979]. Distinction, A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996 [1989]. The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Camp, Roderic A. 2003. “Informal and formal networking among elite Mexican capitalists and politicians.” Comparative Sociology 2 (1): 135–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, Abner. 1981. The Politics of Elite Culture: Explorations in the Dramaturgy of Power in a Modern African Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert. 1961. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahrendorf, Ralf. 1959. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daloz, Jean-Pascal. 2007. “Elite distinction: Grand theory and comparative perspectives.” Comparative Sociology 6 (1–2): 27–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. The Sociology of Elite Distinction: From Theoretical to Comparative Perspectives. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Lampedusa, Giuseppe T. 1958. Il Gattopardo. Milan: Feltrinelli Editore.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dogan, Mattei, ed. 2003a. Elite Configurations at the Apex of Power. Leiden and- Boston: Brill Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2003b. “Introduction: Diversity of elite configurations and clusters of power.” Comparative Sociology 2 (1): 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2003c. “Is there a ruling class in France?” Comparative Sociology 2 (1): 17–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dogan, Mattei, and John Higley. 1998. Elites, Crises, and the Origins of Regimes. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, G. William. 1978. Who Really Rules?: New Haven and Community Power Re-examined. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dreitzel, Hans P. 1962 . Elitebegriff und Sozialstruktur. Eine soziologische Begriffsanalyse. Stuttgart: Enke.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dronkers, Jaap, and Huibert Schijf. 2007. “Elites.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by George Ritzer, 1362–1364. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durand-Guédy, David. 2010. Iranian Elites and Turkish Rulers: A History of Isfahān in the Saljūq Period. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engelstad, Fredrik, and Trygve J. Gulbrandsen, eds. 2007. Comparative Studies of Social and Political Elites. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzioni-Halevy, Eva. 1993. The Elite Connection: Problems and Potential of Western Democracy. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fennema, Meindert, and Eelke M. Heemskerk. 2008. Nieuwe Netwerken: De Elite en de Ondergang van de NV Nederland. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fontana, Benedetto. 1993. Hegemony and Power: On the Relations between Gramsci and Machiavelli. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fumanti, Mattia. 2004. “The making of the field worker: Debating agency in elites research.” Anthropology Matters 6 (2): 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genieys, William. 2010. The New Custodians of the State: Programmatic Elites in French Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graz, Jean-Christophe. 2003. “How powerful are transnational elite clubs? The social myth of the World Economic Forum.” New Political Economy 8 (3): 321–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2007. The Sociology of Elites. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hay, Iain, ed. 2013 (forthcoming). Geographies of the Super-Rich. London: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heemskerk, Eelke M. 2007. Decline of the Corporate Community: Network Dynamics of the Dutch Business Elite. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Henshall, Nicholas. 2010. The Zenith of European Monarchy and Its Elites: The Politics of Culture, 1650–1750. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzfeld, Michael. 2000. “Uncanny success: Some closing remarks.” In De Pina-Cabral and Pedroso de Lima, Elites, 227–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higley, John, and Michael Burton. 2006. Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higley, John, and Jan Pakulski. 2007. “Elite and leadership change in liberal democracies.” Comparative Sociology 6 (1–2): 6–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, Susan. 1963. Beyond the Ruling Class: Strategic Elites in Modern Society. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lane, Dav id. 2011. “Identity formation and political elites in the post-socialist states.” Europe-Asia Studies 63 (6): 925–934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lasch, Christopher. 1995. The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, Robert, Althea K. Nagai, and Stanley Rothman. 1996. American Elites. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukes, Steven. 2005 [1974] Power: A Radical View. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mannheim, Karl. 1940 [1935]. Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction: Studies in Modern Social Structure. New York: Harcourt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus, George E. 1983. Elites: Ethnographic Issues. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michels, Robert. 1911. Zur Soziologie des Parteiwesens in der modernen Demokratie: Untersuchungen über die oligarchischen Tendenzen des Gruppenlebens. Leipzig: Klinkhardt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, Charles Wright. 2000 [1956]. The Power Elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mizruchi, Mark S. 2004. “Berle and Means revisited: The governance and power of large US corporations.” Theory and Society 33: 579–617.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mosca, Gaetano. 1923 [1895]. The Ruling Class. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nader, Laura. 1972. “Up the anthropologist—perspectives gained from studying up.” In Reinventing Anthropology, edited by Dell Hymes, 284–311. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pareto, Vilfredo. 1991 [1901]. The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical Sociology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedroso de Lima, Antónia. 2000. “‘How did I become a leader in my family firm?’ Assets for succession in contemporary Lisbon financial elites.” In De Pina-Cabral and Pedroso de Lima, Elites, 31–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieke, Frank N. 2009. The Good Communist: Elite Training and State Building in Today’s China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • De Pina-Cabral, João, and Antónia Pedroso de Lima, eds. 2000. Elites: Choice, Leadership and Succession. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinçon, Michel, and Monique Pinçon-Charlot. 1998. Grandes Fortunes: Dynasties Familiales et Formes de Richesse en France. Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages.

    Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, Robert D. 1976. The Comparative Study of Political Elites. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis, Elisa, and Mick Moore, eds. 2005. Elite Perceptions of Poverty and Inequality. London and Cape Town: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, Rod A. W., Paul ‘t Hart, and Mirko Noordegraaf, eds. 2007. Observing Government Elites. Up Close and Personal. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, William I. 2010. Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites. Tokyo: UN University, WIDER (Working paper 2010/2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, Ralf, and Robert Beachy, eds. 2007. Who Ran the Cities?: City Elites and Urban Power Structures in Europe and North America, 1750–1940. Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothkopf, David. 2008. Superclass. The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salverda, Tijo. 2010. Sugar, Sea and Power. How Franco-Mauritians Balance Continuity and Creeping Decline of Their Elite Position. Amsterdam: VU University (PhD thesis).

    Google Scholar 

  • Savage, Mike, and Karel Williams. 2008. “Elites: Remembered in capitalism and forgotten by social sciences.” Sociological Review 56 (special issue): 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, Michael, ed. 1987. The Structure of Power in America: The Corporate Elite as a Ruling Class. New York and London: Holmes & Meier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, John. 2003. “Transformations in the British economic elite.” Comparative Sociology 2 (1): 155–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2008. “Modes of power and the re-conceptualization of elites.” Sociological Review 56 (special issue): 27–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seidel, Katja. 2010. The Process of Politics in Europe: The Rise of European Elites and Supranational Institutions. London: I.B. Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, Cris. 2002. “Introduction: Towards and anthropology of elites.” In Elite Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives, edited by Cris Shore and Stephen Nugent, 1–21. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. “European integrat ion in anthropological perspective: Studying the ‘culture’ of the EU Civil Service.” In Observing Government Elites. Up Close and Personal, edited by Rod A. W. Rhodes, Paul ‘t Hart, and Mirko Noordegraaf, 180–205. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, Cris, and Stephen Nugent, eds. 2002. Elite Cultures: Anthropological Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmel, Georg. 1957 [1908]. “Fashion.” American Journal of Sociology 67 (6): 541–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, Joseph L. 2011. “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%.” Vanity Fair 75 (3) (http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105) [Accessed May 2, 2012].

  • Szelényi, Ivan, and Szonja Szelényi. 1995. “Circulation or reproduction of elites during the postcommunist transformation of Eastern Europe: Introduction.” Theory and Society 24 (5): 615–638.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, Ian, and Philip Nel. 2002. “‘New Africa,’ globalisation and the confines of elite reformism: ‘Getting the rhetoric right,’ getting the strategy wrong.” Third World Quarterly 23 (1): 163–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles. 2005. Trust and Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Toru, Miora, and John E. Philips, eds. 2000. Slave Elites in the Middle East and Africa: A Comparative Study. London: Kegan Paul International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Undheim, Trond A. 2003. “Getting connected: How sociologists can access the high tech elite.” The Qualitative Report 8 (1): 104–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. 1958 [1918]. “Politics as a vocation.” In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, edited by Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, 77–128. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1985 [1922]. Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriss der Verstehenden Soziologie. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max. 1997 [1922]. “Democracy and the countervailing powers of bureaucracy, charisma, and parliament.” In Classes and Elites in Democracy and Democratization, edited by Eva Etzioni-Halévy, 62–70. New York: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedel, Janine. 2009. Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. “Shadow elite. How the study of post-Communist societies illuminates US power structures.” Anthropology News February 27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werbner, Richard P. 2004. Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana: The Public Anthropology of Kalanga Elites. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westwood, Sallie. 2002. Power and the Social. London and New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Jon Abbink Tijo Salverda

Copyright information

© 2013 Jon Abbink and Tijo Salverda

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Salverda, T., Abbink, J. (2013). Introduction: An Anthropological Perspective on Elite Power and the Cultural Politics of Elites. In: Abbink, J., Salverda, T. (eds) The Anthropology of Elites. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290557_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics