Forms of Capital and Modes of Closure in Upper Class Reproduction

What is it about?

An analysis of recruitment into the upper class in Norway. We distinguish between different fractions of the upper class, into an "economic upper class" of executives, financial intermediaries, rentiers and classical capitalists; a "cultural upper class" of cultural producers, artists, professors and cultural managers; and an in-between group of professionals, top bureaucrats, politicians, etc. We show that there is a considerable overrepresentation of people born into the upper class in all these fractions. Apart from that, there is a general tendency that, the higher social class of parents, the more often oneself becomes part of the upper class. We also see whether groups of occupations with clear educational requirements are more open to newcomers, and find no unambiguous tendency for that.

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