Why do business leaders, senior politicians and civil servants move to leading positions in EU civil society? Exploring capital gains through boundary crossing

Abstract

ABSTRACT Why do business leaders, senior politicians and civil servants move to leading positions in EU civil society? The article addresses this question through thirteen unique life-work history interviews with leaders of some of the most prominent EU civil society organisations (CSOs). Inspired by sociological approaches in EU civil society research, the article combines insights from the literature on EU lobbying and CSO professionalisation with the Bourdieusian concept of capital to explore the specific social resources that EU civil society and individual elite actors gain through the process of boundary crossing. It shows how EU civil society gains predominantly cultural capital (organisational and procedural knowledge), social capital (professional and personal networks), and symbolic capital (status and publicity), while individual elite actors gain primarily a form of civil society-specific symbolic capital that is associated with the alleged goodness of civil society and the act of ‘doing good’ that might facilitate policy influence. The article provides original, first-hand insights into how the civil society sector seeks to strike a balance between passion and professionalism and raises important normative questions about the integration of elites across economic, political, and civil society fields in Brussels.