Anatomy of the Super-Rich
Head of the Project
Description of the Project
Wealth inequality has increased markedly over the past decades in many societies around the world. In particular, the number of individuals at the very top of the wealth distribution—those possessing assets of more than one billion dollars—has risen significantly. At the same time, both the total wealth of the so-called super-rich and their percentage share of global wealth have grown substantially over time.
The special position of the super-rich can only be adequately understood if a purely economic perspective is replaced by a broader sociological one. The project draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of different types of capital while simultaneously extending its theoretical framework by supplementing additional forms of capital. The super-rich are not merely those who possess extraordinarily high levels of economic capital. Their wealth enables them to convert economic capital into other forms of capital.
The project is conceived as a book project. Based on an extensive review of existing studies as well as original empirical research, the book aims to provide a comprehensive sociological portrait of the super-rich. The individual chapters follow the idea of the conversion of wealth into other forms of capital. Among other things, I analyze how the group of the super-rich—90 percent of whom are men—exchange their wealth for the erotic and cultural capital of women; how they convert their wealth into the acquisition of multiple citizenships in order to be able to leave their country of origin; how they cultivate lifestyles that earn them recognition and thus symbolic capital; and finally how they convert their wealth into political capital, thereby exerting direct or indirect influence on governmental decision-making.
Whereas Bourdieu assumed that the wealthy must conceal their wealth and power and therefore develop an “illusio of the field,” this appears to have changed. Today, the conversion of wealth into other forms of capital is pursued far more openly than in the past.