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We invite submission of abstracts for a two-day conference on ideas and elites in public policy and civil society, from 3-4 June 2025.

Newly elected governments in the US and Europe herald tectonic changes in the normative foundations of Western countries as new elite groups espouse and implement anti-democratic, nationalist, and anti-intellectualist views. With this conference, we want to revisit the relationship between elites and ideas with a special focus on civil society and welfare state transformation.

In parallel with increasing economic and cultural divides across the globe, interest in elite studies is increasing. Research on elites (Savage and Hjellbrekke 2021) has traditionally focused on elucidating the long-term reproduction of the most influential factions of the power elite, or studying relationships and hierarchies between different types of elites and theirs resources. Presently, this focus is expanding to include new groups such as welfare elites (Genieys and Darviche 2024), civil society elites (Sevelsted and Johansson 2024), and symbolic capitalists (al-Gharbi 2024).

Meanwhile, various research fields study groups with disproportionate resource control and influence on norms and policies (Khan 2012) without adopting elite studies' terminology or methods. Such fields include but are not limited to epistemic communities (Haas 1992), sociology of intellectuals (Eyal and Buchholz 2010), policy experts and expertise (Hilton et al. 2013; Rich 2004), studies of intelligentsia (Zarycki 2009), the field of cultural production (Sapiro 2003), and policy entrepreneurs (Anderson 2018). By turning our attention to the ideational dimension of elites, we would like to foster a dialogue between such research traditions and elite scholars.

By bringing scholars from these different disciplines together, we aim to address questions such as: Who are the people who manage to frame policies and influence norms through the public or policymakers, what drives the promotion of particular ideas, how are ideational elites connected with other actors (networks, organizational links etc.), and what are the resources that enable their influence?

This workshop will facilitate a meeting and exchange of ideas and experiences between scholars across different disciplines and research traditions to look for a shared space for cooperation and intellectual stimulation.

Organization and contributions

The conference is organized as a combination of keynote speakers and paper development workshops in order to foster a dialogue between different research traditions. Admittance will be based on abstracts with the expectation of a draft paper to be submitted before the conference.

We invite contributions that fall within the scope of the conference. Topics of relevance can include:

• Theoretical developments on the relationship between elites and ideas;
• Methods and methodologies for studying the social situatedness of groups that influence public debates and/or policies;
• Papers on existing data or ways of gathering data on intellectual elites and similar groups;
• Case studies that explore the historical or present-day role of such groups in social policy and social welfare transformations;
• Comparative papers on the diffusion and translation of ideas between or beyond national boundaries in social welfare policy.
• Papers on different aspects of civil society elites.

In order to facilitate a focused discussion, we ask you to circulate a draft paper of your contribution beforehand.

A common publication is envisioned based on the conference workshops.

Important dates

• Deadline for abstracts (150 words): 15 April 2025
• Information about acceptance: 25 April 2025
• Draft paper: two weeks before the workshop.

Register here:

The MORALITES Project

MORALITES – Moral Elites: The Historical Positioning of Civil Society Leaders in National Moral Economies (MORALITES) – is an ERC-funded project. The project analyses the historical role of the moral elites of civil society and their impact on moral economies in four countries: Italy, Poland, UK, and Denmark since from the late 19th century until today. Based on biographical and career data combined with textual data, the project aims to show the connection between moral elites’ positions in social space and their position-taking on key issues in social welfare, industrial relations, and political institutions. This in turn allows for a comparison of how the composition and position-taking of the moral elites in the four country contexts have shaped national norms and policies.