Higher Education and Elite Business Schools:
The Case of Anticipatory Socialization in Student Unions

Mikael Holmqvist

Professor, Stockholm Business School (Stockholm University)

Wednesday 27th October, 11:30 am - 1 pm (OSC location for internal audience or online via Zoom)

 Discussants: Caroline Bertron (University Paris 8 - Cresppa-CSU) & Bruno Cousin (Sciences Po - CEE)

Business schools and management education are dominating much of higher education in many countries today, resulting in the spread of corporate ideas and values throughout societies; still these institutions remain relatively unexplored in terms of the way they socialize their students. A particularly interesting group are “elite business schools”, i.e., the places where future business and financial elites are made – the future leaders of the neo-liberal economy.

In this talk I examine the way students at Sweden’s premier business school, The Stockholm School of Economics, are educated and consecrated as elites through “anticipatory socialization” in student union activities.

Data come from a variety of sources, such as interviews with students and students’ own descriptions on websites.

It is argued that extracurricular activities constitute important socializing practices in creating and re-producing economic elites by business schools, perhaps more importantly than what is taught in classrooms and lecture halls.

Last publication: "Economics as symbolic capital: The consecration of elite business schools", Theory and Society, 2021. 

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