Thierry Rossier

London School of Economics and Political Science | LSE · Department of Sociology

Benz, Pierre, Araujo, Pedro, & Rossier, Thierry (2024). The Role of Research Topics on Securing Funding and Careers for Swiss Sociologists. Bulletin 165, SGS/SSS, 37-45. The decentralized structure of the Swiss academic landscape grants research organizations significant autonomy, hence fostering competition among scholars and heightening their re...

In this article we delve into the elites’ evolving forms of power to study the relationship between social change and capital accumulation. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the field of power and relying on the identification of the field’s effective agents in Switzerland, we investigate the changing relations among the most important forms o...

This article suggests a comparative field analytical approach to fields of cultural production. Combining concepts from field analysis and focusing on homology with topic modeling and multiple correspondence analysis, we compare four scientific disciplines and show homological structures along both internal and external principles of differentiatio...

In the resurgence of elite sociology, formal (organizational-based network resources) and informal (non-organizational relations) social capital have garnered attention, but their mutual dynamics remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap, examining how both forms intersect among urban business elites, focusing on their roles on corporate...

This special issue calls for a critical, historically grounded, and interdisciplinary perspective on international circulations and inequalities in the social sciences. It emphasizes the importance of considering the social sciences as a whole and in relation to broader power dynamics. To address inequalities in the production and dissemination of...

We report the results of a study of LSE home undergraduate students which addresses the signifcance of social class background in shaping a range of student outcomes. We explore how class background and other sociodemographic variables afect access (who gets in), study choice (who studies what), atainment (how students perform in summatve assessmen...

Cet article considère l’interdisciplinarité des requérant·e·s de projets de recherche comme un vecteur potentiel de crédibilité. L’interdisciplinarité est observée au niveau biographique comme autant de mobilités disciplinaires réalisées au long d’une carrière d’obtention de financements. Ces mobilités, plus ou moins fréquentes, plus ou moins longu...

Within the Social Studies of Economics, research has been dominated by case-oriented approaches. In this article, we propose and demonstrate the value of adding a quantitative, field-theoretical approach. Specifically, we outline a perspective for studying economics as a social field, focusing on the homology between research topics and the resourc...

During the last decades, economics has gained influence and power in many countries and several social contexts. The relationship between power and knowledge production is a complex phenomenon that accounts for the special role of economics in contemporary societies. This chapter provides an overview of various aspects related to economics as an ac...

This article focuses on (inter)disciplinary collaborations through the co-application to research projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the main provider of research funding in Switzerland. We suggest that interdisciplinarity is a potential mode of distinction and that its frequency and the disciplines involved may be associated...

This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites' integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organizations among eight key sectors, and identify for...

This paper analyses the transformation of identities and institutions of economic experts as politico-economic professionals brought about by the Brexit process between 2016 and 2020. In order to understand the transformation from order to chaos in times of COVID-19, a mixed methods approach is applied. In a first step, a discourse analysis of two...

Extended abstract submission (1,000 words + bibliography): November 15th, 2021 Notification of acceptance: December 21st, 2021 Preliminary paper submission (ca. 3,000 words + bibliography) to be discussed during an online workshop by the guest editors and the other contributors to the special issue: April 2022 Full paper submission: August 31st,...

This article focuses on historical elite dynamics and investigates elites’ integration over time. We describe the changing relations and composition of the central circles in Swiss elite networks at seven benchmark years between 1910 and 2015 by relying on 22,262 elite individuals tied to 2587 organisations among eight key sectors, and identify for...

Economists occupy leading positions in many different sectors including central and private banks, multinational corporations, the state and the media, as well as serving as policy consultants on everything from health to the environment and security. Power and Influence of Economists explores the interconnected relationship between power, knowledg...

Economists occupy leading positions in many different sectors including central and private banks, multinational corporations, the state and the media, as well as serving as policy consultants on everything from health to the environment and security. Power and Influence of Economists explores the interconnected relationship between power, knowledg...

Economists often argue that economics is a “pure” and “autonomous” discipline. In contrast, the relatively dense institutional and interpersonal networks owned by economists show how the discipline stands at the edge of several social fields and thus can be particularly heteronomous. These networks provide a certain volume and form of social capita...

This paper studies the different biographic pathways to an economics and business studies professor position between 1957 and 2000 on the specific case of Switzerland. It focuses on the accumulation and conversion of capitals during academic trajectories, and their relation to three types of resources: scientific reputation, network relations, and...

The Chilean military regime offered a prime example of interactions among elite groups in the making of macroeconomic policies. Through the lens of both Bourdieu's field theory and Mills's elite coordination through networks, we show how Chilean elites sought to implement these policies despite being divided by their transnational and national ties...

Economists often argue that economics is a “pure” and “autonomous” discipline. In contrast, the relatively dense institutional and interpersonal networks owned by economists show how the discipline stands at the edge of several social fields and thus can be particularly heteronomous. These networks provide a certain volume and form of social capita...

This article focuses on the importance of quantifying Bourdieu’s “research programme”, linked with the concepts of field, habitus, and capital. It presents possible ways of doing statistics within this framework and argues that continuous methodological development should be pursued. To support this argument, the article highlights the methodology...

LIFETIMES OF COMMITMENT. METHODOLOGICAL PROPOSAL TO EXPLORE THE BIOGRAPHICAL CONSEQUENCES OF ACTIVISM AMONGST THE FRENCH MAY 68 GENERATION Based on 366 biographical interviews and 284 life calendars collected from individuals who were activists in the 1960s in five major French cities, and as part of a collective research project that explores the...

»Internationalisierung der Volks- und Betriebswirtschaftslehre: Exzellenzimport, kosmopolitisches Kapital oder amerikanische Dominanz?«. In recent times internationality has become an indicator for scientific excellence arguing that it will create talent, diversity, and inspiration. But what does “internationality” really stand for in science? In o...

As a scientific discipline and profession, law has been for centuries at the heart of social and political power of many Western societies. Professors of law, as influential representatives of the profession, are important powerbrokers between academia, politics and the corporate world. Their influence is based on scientific reputation, institution...

This paper studies the rise of professors of economics and business studies in the second half of the 20th century in Switzerland. It focuses on three types of power resources: positions in the university hierarchy, scientific reputation and extra-academic positions in the economic and political spheres. Based on a biographical database of N = 487...

Résumé Cette thèse questionne l’affirmation et les transformations des sciences économiques (économie politique et gestion d’entreprise) en Suisse au XXe siècle. Nous utilisons une base de données biographiques sur cinq cohortes (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000) de professeurs d’université (N=561). Premièrement nous montrons que les sciences économiq...

In Switzerland, the panorama of scientific research is deemed to be deeply affected by language barriers and strong local academic identities. Is this impression confirmed by data on research projects? What are the factors that best explain the structure of scientific collaborations over the last forty years? Do linguistic regions (Switzerland is d...

À partir d’une base de données originale sur les professeurs de droit et de sciences économiques des universités suisses sur l’ensemble du XXe siècle, cet article rend compte des diverses dynamiques d’internationalisation de ces élites. Trois enseignements majeurs peuvent être tirés de nos analyses. D’abord, d’un point de vue diachronique, il est p...