Abstract

This paper provides an introduction to the contributions collected in the symposium. First, it points out the conditions in which a strong attention has re-emerged towards élites in Europe: the financialization of the economy, a growth of inequality fostering the instability of the economic system, the existence of a super-rich class accumulating fortunes through value extraction. Then, the paper illustrates three different levels of analysis emerging in the researches about élites: a) personal ties; b) organizational ties (mediated by individuals, capital and commercial exchanges); c) spatial ties (which can be observed in a fourfold perspective, by territory, place, scale, and network).