BMET 27A71 - Qualitative Research with Elites: Challenges and Strategies

The study of elites in the social sciences opens up a vast debate that ranges from classical elite theory, Bourdieusian sociology of power, to the emergence of some recent ethnographies. Many authors have written about the importance of ‘studying up’ and the use of qualitative research to understand powerful and dominant groups. However, the literature agrees that conducting

qualitative research with political, economic, and cultural elites is far from straightforward. Exploringthe methodological issues raised by the literature, the course aims to equip students with strategies for conducting empirical research with privileged groups. Strategies for accessing the field, producing field diaries, setting up interview scripts, compiling and analysing data, will be presented and discussed.

Academic expectations :

Students are expected to read the assigned readings before each class. They are expected to participate actively in the class.

For each reading, students are encouraged to outline: i) the main point of the reading; ii) the main concepts, definitions, and factual information; iii) how the reading links to the real world and can be applied to their research projects.

Assignments must be submitted no later than two days before the scheduled class. During the classes, students will receive feedback to help them prepare the final research project.

Detailed outline

# Session 1: Studying Up

Readings:

Nader, Laura. 1972. Up the anthropologist: Perspectives gained from studying up. In Reinventing anthropology, 28p.

# Session 2: Polymorphic Engagement and Other Strategies

Reading: Aguiar, L. L., & Schneider, C. J. (Eds.). (2012). Researching amongst elites: Challenges and opportunities in studying up. Routledge, 280p. ISBN 9780367601904. (Select a chapter to read)

Complementary reading:

Gusterson, Hugh. 1997. Studying up revisited.PoLAR 20: 114.

# Session 3: Multi-Sited Ethnography and Mobile Methods

Reading: Marcus, George E. Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 95–117.

Complementary readings:

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. (2015) The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press.

Feltran, G. (Ed.). (2021). Stolen cars: a journey through São Paulo's urban conflict. John Wiley & Sons.

# Session 4: Elites in The City

Readings:

• Andreotti, A., Le Galès, P., & Moreno Fuentes, F. J. (2013). Transnational mobility and rootedness: the upper middle classes in European cities. Global Networks, 13(1), 41-59.
• Knowles, Caroline. (2020). Serious Money: Walking Plutocratic London. London, PenguinBooks, 320 pp.ISBN: 0241470927.

Assignment 1 submission: Definition of the case study + research question elaboration. Building the justification for the chosen empirical case and research. (1 page maximum)

# Session 5: Interviewing Elites I: Power Dynamics in The Production Of Knowledge

Readings:

• Gilding, Michael. 2010. Motives of the rich and powerful in doing interviews with social scientists”. International Sociology 25(6): 755–777.
• Elwood, Sarah A., and Deborah G. Martin. 2000. Placing interviews: Location andscales of power in qualitative research. Professional Geographer 52 (4): 649–657.

Complementary material:

• Um Lugar ao Sol, 2009 (Brazilian documentary with English subtitles, available on Youtube)

# Session 6: Interviewing Elites II: Methodological Strategies

Readings:

• Harvey, William S. 2010. Methodological approaches for interviewing elites. Geography Compass 4 (3): 193–205.
• Mikecz, Robert. 2012. Interviewing elites: Addressing methodological issues. Qualitative Inquiry 18 (6): 482–493

Assignment 2 submission: Interview script.

Complementary material:

• Born rich, 2016 (American documentary available on Youtube)

# Session 7: The Global VIP Scene

Reading: Mears, A. (2020). Very important people: Status and beauty in the global party circuit. Princeton University Press (Chapter 1).

Complementary reading:

Bourdieu, Pierre. (1984) 2013. Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Milton Park: Routledge.

Complementary material:

• The one percent, 2016 (American documentary available on Youtube)

# Session 8: New Global Elites

Reading: Osburg, John. 2013. Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality among China’s New Rich. PaloAlto: Stanford University Press. (Chapter 3)

Complementary readings:

Cousin, B., & Chauvin, S. 2021. Is there a global super-bourgeoisie?. Sociology Compass, 15(6). Armytage, Rosita. Elite ethnography in an insecure place. Focaal 2018.82 (2018): 80-93. https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2018.820106>. Web. 1 May. 2023.

Assignment 3 submission: Participant observation and fieldwork description + searching different sources ofempirical data (1.5 pages maximum).

Complementary material:

• Mafia et République, 2017 (French documentary available on Daily Motion)

# Session 9: Elites and Financial Markets

Reading: Ho, Karen. 2009. Liquidated: An ethnography of Wall Street. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (Chapter 1)

Complementary material:

• MADOFF: The Monster of Wall Street, 2022 (available on Netflix)
• The Wolf of Wall Street, 2013 (available on Netflix)
• The Spider’s Web: Britain Second Empire, 2017 (available on Netflix)

# Session 10: Elites and Education

Reading: Khan, S. R. (2021). Privilege: The making of an adolescent elite at St. Paul's School. Princeton University Press.

Assignment 4 submission: Definition of general and specific research objectives + methodology definition.

# Session 11: Pathways For Research on Elites

Reading: Bruno Cousin and others, Theoretical and methodological pathways for research on elites, Socio-Economic Review, Volume 16, Issue 2, April 2018, Pages 225–249, https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/ mwy019

# Session 12: Submission and Presentation of the individual research proposals. No reading.

Grading criteria:

Students will be required to complete four short assignments (worth 50%) based on the weekly readings. They will also be required to submit and present a final research project (worth 40%) during the last class.

Late work policy:

Assignments and the final research proposal must be submitted by the stipulated deadline. If the deadline is not met, at least 10% of the grade for the exercise will be deducted. Late arrival policy

Student attendance will be checked in each class and unexpected delays of up to 10 minutes will be tolerated.