Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Globalizing Elites from the ‘Global South’: Elites in Brazil and India

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Understanding the Dynamics of Global Inequality

Abstract

The article refers to the current debate on global elites. It is argued that social science research on globalization and elites is based on Eurocentric assumptions and therefore did not systematically research elites from emerging societies. The examination of preliminary data on elites in Brazil and India shows that political and economic elites in both countries are globalizing. However, this process is strongly embedded in specific historic, cultural, and sectoral structures. Therefore, to speak of a homogenous global elite is misleading and obscures the multiple conflicts within national elite fractions and between globalizing national elites from different countries and world regions.

This article is an extended and revised version of an earlier published paper (Schneickert 2014).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bauer, Michael, and Bénédicte Bertin-Mourot. 1999. National models for making and legitimating elites. A comparative analysis of the 200 top executives in France, Germany and Great Britain. European Societies 1(1): 9–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt. 1998. On glocalization or globalization for some, localization for some others. Thesis Eleven 54(3): 37–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaverstock, Jonathan V. 2002. Transnational elites in global cities: British expatriates in Singapore’s financial district. Geoforum 33(4): 525–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaverstock, Jonathan V., Philip Hubbard, and John Rennie Short. 2004. Getting away with it? Exposing the geographies of the super-rich. Geoforum 35(4): 401–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, Ulrich. 1997. Was ist Globalisierung? Irrtümer des Globalismus – Antworten auf Globalisierung. Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1971. Champ du pouvoir, champ intellectuel et habitus de classe. Scolies. Cahiers de recherches de l'École normale supérieure 1: 7–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. The forms of capital. In Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education, ed. John G. Richardson, 241–258. New York: Greenwood.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre. 1996. The state nobility. Elite schools in the field of power. Oxford: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre, and Monique De Saint Martin. 1987. Agrégation et ségrégation. Le champ des Grandes écoles et le champ du pouvoir. Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales 69: 2–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bühlmann, Felix, Thomas David, and André Mach. 2012a. Political and economic elites in Switzerland. Personal interchange, interactional relations and structural homology. European Societies 14(5): 727–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bühlmann, Felix, Thomas David, and André Mach. 2012b. The Swiss business elite (1980–2000): How the changing composition of the elite explains the decline of the Swiss company network. Economy and Society 41(2): 199–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bühlmann, Felix, Thomas David, and André Mach. 2013. Cosmopolitan capital and the internationalization of the field of business elites: Evidence from the Swiss case. Cultural Sociology 7(2): 211–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, William K. 2010. The making of a transnational capitalist class. Corporate power in the 21st century. London/New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, William K., and Meindert Fennema. 2002. Is there a transnational business community? International Sociology 17(3): 393–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, William K., and Meindert Fennema. 2004. Problems in the study of the transnational business community. A reply to Kentor and Jang. International Sociology 19(3): 393–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells, Manuel. 1998. The rise of the network society. Malden: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castells, Manuel. 2000. Materials for an exploratory theory of the network society. British Journal of Sociology 51(1): 5–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cox, Robert W. 1987. Production, power, and world order. Social forces in the making of history. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert Alan. 1961. Who governs? Democracy and power in an American city. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. 1968. A critique of the ruling elite model. American Political Science Review 52(2): 463–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahrendorf, Ralf. 2000. Die globale Klasse und die neue Ungleichheit. Merkur 54: 1057–1068.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, George William. 1967. Who rules America? Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Domhoff, George William. 1978. Who really rules? New Haven and community power reexamined. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, Andre Gunder. 1967a. Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America. Historical studies of Chile and Brazil. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, Andre Gunder. 1967b. The myth of Feudalism. In Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America. Historical studies of Chile and Brazil, ed. Andre Gunder Frank, 221–242. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, André Gunder. 1998. ReOrient. Global economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 1999. Auf dem Weg zu einer transnationalen Bourgeoisie? Leviathan 27(1): 113–141.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2000. Class-specific habitus and the social reproduction of the business elite in Germany and France. The Sociological Review 48: 241–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2003. Nationale oder transnationale Eliten? Europäische Eliten im Vergleich. In Oberschichten – Eliten – Herrschende Klassen, ed. Stefan Hradil and Peter Imbusch, 273–297. Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2007a. Eliten und Macht in Europa. Frankfurt am Main: Campus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2007b. The sociology of elites. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2008. Transnationale Klassenbildung? In Transnationalisierung sozialer Ungleichheit, ed. Peter A. Berger and Anja Weiß, 241–259. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2009. Transnationale Eliten – Schein und Wirklichkeit. Paragrana. Zeitschrift für historische Anthropologie. Beiheft 4: 99–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann, Michael. 2010. Elites and power structure. In Handbook of European societies. Social transformations in the 21st century, ed. Stefan Immerfall and Göran Therborn, 291–324. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann-Lange, Ursula. 2007. Methods of elite research. In Oxford handbook of political behavior, ed. Russell J. Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, 910–927. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, Anthony G. 2002. Globalization in world history. London: Pimlico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. Dead souls. The denationalization of the American elite. The American Economic Review 75(Spring): 5–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1997. World class. Thriving locally in the global economy. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenger, Alexander, Christian Schneickert, and Florian Schumacher. 2010. Globalized national elites. Transcience. A Journal for Global Studies 1(2): 85–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 1988. Selbstreferentielle Systeme. In Lebende Systeme. Wirklichkeitskonstruktionen in der systemischen Therapie, ed. Fritz B. Simon, 47–53. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 1998a. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Erster Teilband. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 1998b. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Zweiter Teilband. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 1998c. Weltgesellschaft. In Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Erster Teilband, ed. Niklas Luhmann, 145–171. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 2005a. Die Gesellschaft als soziales System. In Einführung in die Theorie der Gesellschaft, ed. Dirk Baecker, 11–37. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer-Systeme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 2005b. Differenzierung. In Einführung in die Theorie der Gesellschaft, ed. Dirk Baecker, 235–286. Heidelberg: Carl-Auer-Systeme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mau, Steffen, and Jan Mewes. 2008. Ungleiche Transnationalisierung? Zur gruppenspezifischen Einbindung in transnationale Interaktionen. In Transnationalisierung sozialer Ungleichheit, ed. Peter A. Berger and Anja Weiß, 259–282. Wiesbaden: VS Verla.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mau, Steffen, and Sebastian Büttner. 2010. Transnationality. In Handbook of European societies. Social transformations in the 21st century, ed. Stefan Immerfall and Göran Therborn, 537–570. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McDonough, Peter. 1981. Power and ideology in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. Wright. 1945. The American business elite: A collective portrait. Journal of Economic History 4(Suppl 5): 20–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. Wright. 1956. The power elite. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. Wright. 1958. The structure of power in American society. The British Journal of Sociology 9: 29–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. Wright. 1968. Comment on criticism. In C. Wright Mills and the power elite, ed. William G. Domhoff and Hoyt B. Ballard, 229–250. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller, Hans-Peter. 2002. Globale Eliten? Eine soziologische Problemskizze. In Theorie als Kampf? Zur politischen Soziologie Pierre Bourdieus, ed. Uwe H. Bittlingmayer, 345–359. Opladen: Leske+Budrich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nederveen Pieterse, Jan. 2004. Globalization and culture. Global mélange. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nederveen Pieterse, Jan, and Boike Rehbein (eds.). 2009. Globalization and emerging societies. Development and inequality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill, Jim. 2001. Building better global economic BRICs. Global Economics, Paper No: 66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, Talcott. 1964 [1951]. The social system. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, Talcott. 1968. The distribution of power in American society. In C. Wright Mills and the power elite, ed. William G. Domhoff and Hoyt B. Ballard, 60–87. Boston: Beacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelfini, Alejandro. 2009. Wie können Eliten lernen? Aufstrebende Schichten nach der Krise des Neoliberalismus in Lateinamerika. In Globale Rekonfigurationen von Arbeit und Kommunikation. Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Hermann Schwengel, ed. Boike Rehbein and Klaus W. West, 147–162. Konstanz: UVK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohlmann, Markus. 2009. Globale ökonomische Eliten? Eine Globalisierungsthese auf dem Prüfstand. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 61: 513–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehbein, Boike. 2010. Critical theory after the rise of the global south. Transcience. A Journal for Global Studies 1(2): 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehbein, Boike (ed.). 2011. Globalization and inequality in emerging societies, Frontiers of globalization series. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehbein, Boike. 2013. Kaleidoskopische Dialektik. Konstanz: UVK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehbein, Boike, Christian Schneickert, and Anja Weiß. 2009. Klasse. In Bourdieu Handbuch. Leben – Werk – Wirkung, ed. Gerhard Fröhlich and Boike Rehbein, 140–147. Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard, Thomas. 2009. A BRIC in the world: Emerging powers, Europe and the coming order. Egmont paper 31. Herausgegeben von: Egmont. Royal Institute for International Relations, Academia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Renard, Thomas, and Biscop, Sven. 2010. A need for strategy in a multipolar world: Recommendations to the EU after Lisbon. Egmont Security Policy Brief No. 5, January 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, Roland. 1990. Mapping the global condition. Globalization as the central concept. Theory Culture and Society 7: 15–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, Roland. 1992. Globalization. Social theory and global culture. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, Roland, and Jan Aart Scholte. 2007. Encyclopedia of globalization. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, Roland, and Kathleen E. White. 2003. Globalization: Critical concepts in sociology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, William I., and Jerry Harris. 2000. Towards a global ruling class? Globalization and the transnational capitalist class. Science & Society 64(1): 11–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothkopf, David J. 2008. Superclass. The global power elite and the world they are making. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, Saskia. 1991. The global city: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, Saskia. 2007. Deciphering the global. Its scales, spaces and subjects. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneickert, Christian. 2013. Globaler Habitus? Der Habitusbegriff in der Globalisierungsforschung. In Pierre Bourdieus Konzeption des Habitus: Grundlagen, Zugänge, Forschungsperspektiven, ed. Alexander Lenger, Christian Schneickert, and Florian Schumacher, 377–395. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schneickert, Christian. 2014. Transnationale Eliten aus dem “globalen Süden”. Wirtschaftliche und politische Eliten in Brasilien und Indien. In Globalisierung, Bildung und grenzüberschreitende Mobilität, ed. Jürgen Gerhards, Silke Hans, and Sören Carlson, 213–236. Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schwengel, Hermann. 2001. Transnationale Eliten und posthistorischer Populismus. Berliner Debatte Initial 1: 41–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwengel, Hermann. 2004. Auf dem Wege zu globalen Eliten. Neue politische Machtkonstellationen im Entstehen. In Elitenmacht, ed. Ronald Hitzler and Stefan Hornbostel, 63–79. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2001. The transnational capitalist class. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2002a. Democracy and the transnational capitalist class. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 581(1): 144–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2002b. Globalization. Capitalism and its alternatives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2003a. Globalization, capitalism and power. Developments in Sociology 10: 101–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2003b. Transnational practices and the analysis of the global system. In Globalization in the twenty-first century, ed. Axel Hulsemeyer, 15–32. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2006. Capitalist globalization and the anti-globalization movement. In Globalization and after, ed. Samir Dasgupta and Ray Kiely, 293–319. New Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2007. A transnational framework for theory and research in the study of globalization. In Frontiers of globalization research: Theoretical and methodological approaches, ed. Ino Rossi, 93–108. New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2008. Discourses of globalization. A transnational capitalist class analysis. In The postcolonial and the global, ed. Revathi Krishnaswamy and John C. Hawley, 215–227. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2009a. The transnational capitalist class and the politics of capitalist globalization. In Politics of globalization, ed. Samir Dasgupta and Jan Nederveen Pieterse, 82–97. London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie. 2009b. The transnational capitalist class. Theory and empirical research. In European economic elites. Between a new spirit of capitalism and the erosion of state socialism, ed. Friederike Sattler and Christoph Boyer, 497–522. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklair, Leslie, and Peter T. Robbins. 2002. Global capitalism and major corporations from the Third World. Third World Quarterly 23(1): 81–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van der Pijl, Kees. 1984. The making of an Atlantic ruling class. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel (ed.). 1979a. The capitalist world-economy. Essays. Cambridge/Paris: Cambridge University Press/Édition de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1979b. Class conflict in the capitalist world-economy. In The capitalist world-economy. Essays, ed. Immanuel Wallerstein, 283–293. Cambridge/Paris: Cambridge University Press/Édition de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1979c. The rise and the future demise of the world capitalist system: Concepts for comparative analysis. In The capitalist world-economy. Essays, ed. Immanuel Wallerstein, 1–36. Cambridge/Paris: Cambridge University Press/Édition de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2000. Globalization or the age of transition?: A long-term view of the trajectory of the world-system. International Sociology 15(2): 249–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiß, Anja. 2005. The transnationalization of social inequality. Conceptualising social positions on a world scale. In Current sociology. Thematic issue “transnational migrations and social transformations”, ed. Ulrike Schuerckens 53: 707–728.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Comparative Analysis of Social Structures, Institute of Social Sciences, Humboldt-University, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

    Christian Schneickert, Andreas Kroneder & Regine Schwab

Authors
  1. Christian Schneickert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andreas Kroneder
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Regine Schwab
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Schneickert .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Alexander Lenger

  2. Global Studies Programme, Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Florian Schumacher

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Schneickert, C., Kroneder, A., Schwab, R. (2015). Globalizing Elites from the ‘Global South’: Elites in Brazil and India. In: Lenger, A., Schumacher, F. (eds) Understanding the Dynamics of Global Inequality. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44766-6_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation