Abstract
Growing inequalities have prompted research on the wealthiest groups and their cohesive practices and ideologies. This article suggests that emotional expression – how the members of the wealthy upper class feel about themselves and the rest of society – provides a way to examine their position in society. Drawing from interviews with business executives who belong to the richest 0.1% in Finland and to their society’s power elites, I argue that just as low-income groups feel resentful towards more affluent groups, the wealthy also harbour resentment towards more disadvantaged groups. The wealthy executives create an emotionally laden self-justification – a deep story – in which they feel positively about themselves but assign negative feelings to other classes. In this narrative, the optimistic business elites thus become gloomy societal elites, who build empathy walls against the less advantaged groups even in Finland, one of the world’s most equal countries.
Highlights
As the wealthiest groups pull further away from the rest of society economically (Atkinson et al, 2011; Piketty, 2014), it has become topical to examine what is taking place in the upper echelons of society
This distancing can be ideological: upper classes and wealth elites, including business elites, have particular beliefs, ideologies, cohesive practices (Davis, 2017; Mirowski and Plehwe, 2015; Wedel, 2009) and political views (López, 2013; Page et al, 2013; Reis and Moore, 2005), which often serve to legitimise their position in the top income
I draw from work on emotional reflexivity, which recent contributions to Sociology have developed (Burkitt, 2012; Holmes, 2010), and use Hochschild’s (2016) notion of deep story, which captures the felt experience of a particular social group
Summary
As the wealthiest groups pull further away from the rest of society economically (Atkinson et al, 2011; Piketty, 2014), it has become topical to examine what is taking place in the upper echelons of society. Of greatest interest is the issue of whether the wealthiest groups are distancing themselves from the rest politically and culturally This distancing can be ideological: upper classes and wealth elites, including business elites, have particular beliefs, ideologies, cohesive practices (Davis, 2017; Mirowski and Plehwe, 2015; Wedel, 2009) and political views (López, 2013; Page et al, 2013; Reis and Moore, 2005), which often serve to legitimise their position in the top income. I develop my argument by studying executives who belong to the wealthiest 0.1% of Finland and are part of the national power elites, holding important positions in policy advocacy and elite networks (Kantola and Kuusela, 2019: 199–236) They are a powerful upper class (Bennett et al, 2009; Savage et al, 2013; Scott, 2003, 2008: 37; Wedel, 2009) at the forefront of turbulent societal and economic changes With a focus on Finland, I show how wealth elites, who have been the vanguard of the growing inequalities, are becoming an important societal force even in the most equal countries
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