Christoph Ellersgaard

A Very Economic Elite: The Case of the Danish Top CEOs

Although the business elites in western societies have a very privileged social background in common, there are substantial differences in the reproduction mechanisms and social trajectories leading to a position within this elite group. These differences are explored by comparing the career paths of the top 100 CEOs in Britain, France, Germany and Denmark. In France and Britain, this reproduction is mediated through degrees from elite universities. In Germany, the principle of admission is the incorporated cultural capital acquired through an exclusive bourgeois origin combined with any university degree. Elite universities also hold little importance for Danish top CEOs, partly due to the institutions’ historic decline; instead, reproduction is mediated through time spent in the economic field, placing the case of the Danish CEOs between that of their British and German counterparts. Specific trajectories of Danish executives, in particular sales people, are identified using Multiple Correspondence Analysis and cluster analysis.

Drinking to the limit: alcohol, social status and health governance

The aim of this article is to analyse social status differences in alcohol norms and practices seen from the perspective of ‘health governance’. Survey data on 1442 employees in a middle-sized, Danish firm are used to construct a Bourdieu-inspired social space, tied to four forms of capital: economic, cultural, inherited and organisational. A range of variables measuring alcohol norms, drinking practices and alcohol-related problems are then inserted into the space. This article identifies status differences in the employees’ drinking patterns indicating that respondents with large amounts of economic, cultural and inherited capital are more responsive to alcohol-related health messages than respondents (and especially males) occupying positions low in the social space. This, however, does not mean that respondents from dominant groups have ‘safe’ drinking habits, as these are defined by the Danish National Health Board. Rather, this article identifies a relatively large group of high-positioned respondents balancing at the limits of risky drinking – or transgressing them, if measured by international standards.

Identifying power elites—k-cores in heterogeneous affiliation networks

Abstract Specifying network boundaries is fundamental in the study of social structures of elite networks. However, traditional methods do not offer clear criteria on either size or composition of the elite, and rely on numerous ad hoc decisions. A methodological framework that is inductive, reproducible and suitable for comparative research is proposed. First, a comprehensive dataset of the 5079 affiliation networks of all potentially powerful sectors in Denmark was assembled. Second, these heterogeneous affiliation networks were weighted to account for potential level of social integration. Third, a weighted modification of k-cores is used to identify a power elite of 423 individuals.

Who listens to the top? Integration of the largest corporations across sectoral networks

Corporations use ties to other powerful organisations to influence the rules that structure their markets and the society in which they operate. The corporate interlocks created by board directors show how some corporations are more successful than others in integrating not only in the corporate world but also in other sectors. Neil Fligstein suggested that the best-organised and dominating corporations, or the incumbents, are the most successful in stabilising their markets. To explore the relationship between corporate networks and integration in other sectors in the setting of a small, open, but highly regulated economy, we analysed the intersection between the interlocking directorates among the top 1037 corporations in Denmark and seven other sectoral networks. We used a database containing 5079 affiliations and 56,536 positions, and show that the incumbents were better integrated across all sectors. The strong correlation between sectoral integration and turnover was deconstructed and an independent effect of prominence, or symbolic capital, was found. This suggests that when creating affiliations within and outside the corporate world it is not only the economic size that matters, but also the prestige of the firm.