Course directory

ASOC 25A19 - Sociology of Economic Elites

ASOC 25A19 · Spring semester 2025-2026

Language of tuition
English
Course type
Cours magistral
Number of hours
24
Credits
5

Information

Description

As the main and most comprehensive undergraduate course on economic elites, this class is an introduction to several streams of cutting-edge sociological research on the latter. It presents and discusses the definition of economic elites in terms of organizational positions, wealth, multiple forms of capital and/or class. It explores the different quantitative approaches to describe and study national and transnational business elites, as well as their relations with other fractions of a larger power elite, using – among other methods – network and correspondence analyses. It also draws upon the many contributions of cultural sociology to the understanding of the meaning-making processes and the symbolic economy underlying the professional habitus, the morals, the consumption patterns and the philanthropic practices of these elites.

Assessment

Your overall grade will be determined by two assignments: a written exam 50 % and an oral examination 50 %.

Readings

Main readings 5

  1. Bruno Cousin, Shamus Khan and Ashley Mears. 2018. “Theoretical and methodological pathways for research on elites” Socio-Economic Review 16(2): 225-249.

  2. François Denord, Paul Lagneau-Ymonet and Sylvain Thine. 2018. “Primus inter pares? The French field of power and its power elite” Socio-Economic Review 16(2): 277-306.

  3. Jill E. Yavorsky, Lisa A. Keister, Yue Qian and Michael Nau. 2019. “Women in the One Percent: Gender dynamics in top income positions” American Sociological Review 84(1): 54-81.

  4. Michel Anteby. 2016. “The ideology of silence at the Harvard Business School: Structuring faculty’s teaching tasks for moral relativism” Pp. 103-121, in Lisa E. Cohen, M. Diane Burton and Michael Lounsbury, The Structuring of Work in Organizations. Leeds: Emerald.

  5. Rachel Sherman. 2021. “Against accumulation: Class traitors challenge wealth and worth” Sociologica 15(2): 117-142.

Teaching units

Unit no.Unit type Teaching unitsTeachers Number of hoursCredits
57549Cours magistral Sociology of Economic Elites Bruno COUSIN245

Teachers

  • Bruno COUSIN

In the curricula

Contacts and resources

Contact
DE MISCAULT Ségolène