Date: 27 May 2026
Time: 10:00-11:45
Venue: Institute for Futures Studies, Holländargatan 13 in Stockholm or online
Research seminar with Christoph Houman Ellersgaard, Associate Professor at the Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School and Anton Grau Larsen, Associate Professor at the Department of Social Sciences and Business as well as Social Dynamics and Change at Roskilde University.
Abstract
In their talk, Anton Grau Larsen and Christoph Ellersgaard will draw on 15 years of research mapping the Danish power elite through quantitative and qualitative methods in both a historical and comparative perspective, including findings from the large collaborative project, the World Elite Database.
They show that welfare state elites are remarkably cohesive, coalescing around key corporatist institutions and export oriented sectors. This power structure is very stable and socially exclusive. They argue that the Scandinavian model of elites tamed by social movements and strong democratic institutions has been only partially successful and that in-group solidarity created by elite networks privilege established interest, while systematically excluding marginalised groups.
The talk will also address methodological questions about how to map power structures, study those in power and how to disseminate insights from this work to the public.
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