Future Elites Research Articles

The development gap in economic rationality of future elites

We test the touchstones of economic rationality—utility maximization, stochastic dominance, and expected-utility maximization—of elite students in the U.S. and in Africa. The choices of most students in both samples are generally rationalizable, but the U.S. students' scores are substantially higher. Nevertheless, the development gap in economic rationality in incentivized risk choices between these future elites is much smaller than the difference in performance on a non-incentivized canonical cognitive ability test, often used as a proxy for economic decision-making ability in studies of economic development and growth. We argue for the importance of including consistency with economic rationality in studies of decision-making ability.

The Association des Étudiants Musulmans du Niger (AEMN): Shaping Good Muslims, Producing a Muslim Elite Islamic Activism in the Educational Landscape in Niger

Over the past three decades, African students have created several religious associations that reconfigured the social and political landscapes of sub-Saharan universities. Scholars often focused on this type of religious activism and yet didn’t study the associations’ educational agenda comprehensively. This article intends to fill this gap by examining the socioreligious activities of the Association des Étudiants Musulmans du Niger (AEMN) and the impact of its educational discourse at the Université Abdou Moumouni (UAM) in Niamey, Niger. Mainly relying on empirical data gained through participant observation and interviews, it explores the ways the association pervades and shapes the educational landscape, notably by establishing partnerships beyond the university. The association’s leaders, so it appears, promote an educational ethos that redefines the role of academia and its benefits for the Nigerien society. Correlating students’ religiosity with academic performance, they try to reconcile Islamic values with scientific knowledge in the process of producing the future elites of the nation.

Thucydides in China

At the turn of the twentieth century, Chinese historiography went through a revolution in that traditional historiography was replaced with nineteenth-century Western historiography with Rankean doctrines at its core. This set the stage for the reception of Thucydides, who was seen as the model of an objective historian. At the same time, appraisal of Thucydides was also dictated by the political ideology of the times. More recently, as China emerges as a global power, the importance of international relations has been elevated and Thucydides appeals to many because of his realpolitik interpretation of history popularized by Graham Allison’s theory of “Thucydides’s Trap.” At the same time, the extremely influential Chinese Straussians, mindful of China’s rise and contemplating a leading role for her, see in Thucydides the value of political education for the future elites. Underlining all these trends is a strong nationalist tone.

Elite Communities and Polarization in Neoliberal Society: Consecration in Australia’s and Sweden’s Wealthy Neighbourhoods

‘Elite communities’ are the areas where the wealthy, and even ‘superrich’, live, socialize and raise their children as future economic and financial elites; they are the places where a few lead socially and economically privileged lives. Earlier studies have concentrated on the inner dynamics of these settings, focusing on the way residents are constructed and socialized as elites through their social, communicative and aesthetic abilities that are perceived as exemplary in contemporary neoliberal society. In this paper, we broaden the perspective, by exploring how these areas contribute to polarization, that is, how they generate distinctions based on money, morals and manners that are peculiar to neoliberalism’s idealization of ‘entrepreneurship’, ‘self-management’, ‘leadership’ and the pursuit of an ‘active lifestyle’. Our data come from two major ethnographic studies: one conducted between 2010 and 2015 of Sweden’s wealthiest community, Djursholm, that is populated by the country’s business and financial elites; the other conducted between 2016 and 2019 of three of Australia’s most prestigious and economically privileged suburbs, Toorak (Melbourne), Mosman (Sydney) and Cottesloe (Perth).

Learning to ‘tell China's story well’: the constructions of international students in Chinese higher education policy

ABSTRACT This article takes a policy-as-discourse approach to understanding how Chinese policy texts construct international students. This is important given the growth of China as a study destination, and the fact that the majority of the studies on Chinese internationalisation policy are descriptive, and poorly integrated with literature focused on other contexts. Drawing upon a thematic analysis of 19 policy texts, the article reveals that economic rationales are absent in the policy texts; it also reveals five somewhat contradictory ways in which international students are constructed in policies: As ‘para-diplomats’ and ‘future elites’, but also as sources of ‘mutual exchange’, of ‘insufficient quality’ and finally, as requiring ‘guidance’ to understand Chinese laws. The article also discusses these constructions and problems with the assumptions within them, and how such problems could be thought about differently, with reference to the ‘critical internationalisation studies’ literature developed largely with a focus on the Global North.

Creating performance benchmarks for the future elites in speed skating

ABSTRACTSports performance benchmarks useful to select and guide future elites are limited in literature. The present study introduces a method to enable comparison between sports performance of different generations and creates performance benchmarks for the future elites in speed skating. 1500 m Season Best Times (SBT) of Dutch skaters (1043 females, 1812 males, age 13–26 years), who competed in at least six seasons between 1993 and 2013, were corrected for the prevailing world record (WR): rSBT=(SBT/WR)*100%. Regression analyses showed that the calendar year affected SBT (p<0.01), but not rSBT (p>0.05). Based on rSBT, performance groups were defined: elite (rSBT<110%), sub-elite (110%<rSBT<115%), high-competitive (115%<rSBT<120%), medium-competitive (120%<rSBT<125%) and low-competitive (rSBT>125%). Benchmarks were based on the slowest rSBT per age of the elite group. Of the total skaters performing within the elite benchmarks, the elite performance group represented <20% up to age 16 and <50% up to age 21. An out of sample group (n=299) confirmed the usability of the benchmarks. So, by correcting time-trial performance for the prevailing WR, elite performance benchmarks can be made based on multiple generations of elite skaters. The benchmarks can be used to select and guide future elite skaters from age 13–26 years.

Exploring thought processing similarity using attitudinal constructs: a Chinese versus U.S. contrast

This study uses three advertising attitudinal constructs (i.e., practice, institution, and global) that have been developed in the West to determine if Chinese thought processes can replicate Western results. It proceeds through a comparison of Chinese future elites and American college students. The results of a causal modeling application on these constructs provide evidence of the usage of both Western and Eastern thought processes among Chinese respondents. However, the latter evidence a duality that suggests that the practice of advertising is ignored in forming overall attitudes toward advertising. Basically, the Chinese appear to be able to ignore dissonance-producing properties.

Back to Normalization or Conflict with China in Greater Central Asia?

Analysis of primary survey data collected among university students in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan shows that China’s surging influence is felt by locals in Greater Central Asia (GCA). If China continues to interact more through the bazaars and road constructions, it will embed itself deeper into the local imaginations. The future elites of GCA might not necessarily see the rising influence of China in the framework of “great game” competition between Russia and China. Rather, China’s relations with GCA is just back to a kind of “new normal” which both regions had enjoyed back in the 19th century.

Socialisation of China's Soft Power: Building Friendship through Potential Leaders

Despite the amount of research indicating the growing success of China's "soft power" in the developing world, few theoretically informed discussions explain its soft power influence. Using Robert Cox's critical theory of international relations, this article contends that China has co-opted the future elites of the peripheral world to decrease the "China threat" argument. Through a survey of China Scholarship Council (CSC) recipients from 2009 to 2015, the authors' findings show that the CSC has played a considerable role in the socialisation of its soft power to reduce less developed countries' fear of a revisionary China.

Educating against Revolution: French Émigré Schools and the Challenge of the Next Generation

The education of children as future elites after the Restoration was a persistent concern for French émigrés after the Revolution of 1789. Focusing on discourse on émigré education and émigré schools in Britain and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, this article examines how, in the 1790s, the émigrés' rejection of the Republic and their quest for monarchical restoration resonated in pedagogical activities. Under difficult living conditions and unclear prospects of political exile, education became a consolidating strategy of combating the Revolution with pedagogical means. The social composition, educational programmes, and public representations of émigré schools reveal their pivotal role in émigré community life, involving priests, women, writers, politicians, local supporters – and children. Comparison between Britain and the Holy Roman Empire allows for differentiating strategies of integration into the host societies and of immunization against revolutionary influences. Education contributed to strengthening the émigrés' identity and mobilizing their hosts for the ideological, military, and humanitarian struggle against the Revolution. The students' later careers call for reconsidering experiences of exile education among the elites of Napoleonic and Restoration France.

China in Central Asia: Local Perceptions from Future Elites

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seems to have exhibited its goodwill by aiming to integrate its neighbors peacefully and cooperatively into joint economic prosperity; nevertheless, there are various concerns about the implications of China’s mounting influence in Central Asia. This article attempts to compare the results of several small-scale surveys conducted among university students in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, so as to get a glimpse of local perceptions in Central Asia on the growing Chinese influence in their countries. Our primary survey analysis shows that Kazakhstani respondents tend to believe China has the biggest influence in Central Asia, while Kyrgyzstani respondents believe that Russia outperforms China in status in the region. However, both Kyrgyzstani and Kazakhstani respondents believe that Russia’s influence will largely decline and be overtaken by China in the next decade. Although our respondents have some awareness of China’s presence in their countries and an understanding of China’s influence, they do not consider the Chinese development model a suitable one for their country. China’s much advocated Belt and Road Initiative has not seemed to reach the radar of the young respondents included in this study.

Place of residence as a factor differentiating physical activity in the life style of Ukrainian students

Determining the state of physical activity of societies as an important component of a health promoting life style is a very up-to-date problem. Studies of physical activity among students, the future elites in their environments, become of increasing importance. An important problem is the recognition of factors differentiating this activity on the example of place of residence. For this purpose, the study covered 2,125 students (60.8% females and 39.2% males) from the National Institute in Lutsk, Ukraine, aged 17-22 (mean age: 20.4). The method of a diagnostic survey was applied which included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The following measures of physical activity according to the place of residence (rural area, small town with a population up to 100,000; medium-size town - 100,000-200,000 inhabitants; large city - over 200,000) were taken into consideration: level of physical activity, self-reported physical fitness, sports disciplines practiced by the respondents, and those which they would like to practice, and the BMI, and leisure time possessed. The study showed that the place of residence positively differentiated physical activity among students from medium-size towns and rural areas, compared to their contemporaries from small towns and large cities. Significant differences were also found with respect to the BMI, which was significantly less favourable among respondents from the rural environment. However, no differences were observed between the place of residence for leisure time, self-reported physical activity, and forms of physical activity practiced, and those which the respondents would like to practice.

Going beyond cultural capital: evaluating children of immigrants in a prépa de proximité

AbstractChildren of working-class immigrants in France appear to be particularly poorly suited for study in the classes préparatoires. These are after all the schools where France prepares its future elites for the entrance examination to the grandes écoles. One’s cultural capital plays a central role in these establishments, where students are often evaluated on ways of thinking, speaking, and writing first inculcated by their families, and subsequently confirmed by the French educational system. On first view, coming from a family that does not necessarily speak French at home and that has only recently arrived in France would seem an obvious and major disadvantage in a prépa. However, this account fails to take into consideration the role of certain French professors who work especially hard with students of immigrant origin to compensate for their lack of cultural capital, emphasizing rather their effort and potential to overcome hardship and succeed in French higher education. This article explores these relationships between professors and students through an ethnographic study of a prépa located in suburban Paris.RésuméLes enfants des ouvriers d’origine immigrée semblent particulièrement mal partis pour faire des études dans les classes préparatoires françaises. Ce sont, après tout, les établissements où la France prépare sa future élite pour les concours aux grandes écoles. Le capital culturel qu’on possède joue un rôle central dans ces institutions, où les élèves se trouvent évalués d’après leurs façons de penser, parler et écrire, façons inculquées par leur famille et légitimées par la suite par le système éducatif français. Au premier regard, venir d’une famille qui ne parle pas français à la maison et qui vient seulement d’arriver en France semblerait un désavantage majeur dans une prépa. Et pourtant, cette vision ne prend pas en considération le rôle de certains professeurs qui travaillent particulièrement dur avec des étudiants d’origine immigrée afin de compenser leur manque de capital culturel, mettant plutôt l’accent sur leur effort et potentiel pour surmonter leurs difficultés et réussir dans l’enseignement supérieur en France. Cet article explore les rapports entre ces professeurs et leurs élèves à travers une étude ethnographique dans une prépa « de proximité » située en banlieue parisienne.

Образовательный бэкграунд властной элиты Грузии и российско-грузинские отношения

Following the extensive biographical material, the article explores characteristics of educational backgrounds of the Georgian ruling elite. The defeat of the M. Saakashvili's party in the 2012 elections did not change its qualitative characteristics. A significant part of the Georgian ruling elite received education in Western universities in the field of law, international relations etc., which formed a critical attitude towards Russia. The Georgian ruling elite has established educational standards for its members, and in every new government – no matter which political course is proclaimed – these standards are becoming more dominant. The author has also concluded that education in Western universities and practical activities in Western NGOs are the means used by the elite to form the anti-Russian attitude, and for the West it is a mechanism of the Georgian elite incorporation in its sphere of influence. The author argues that Russian universities are not competitive and attractive for the Georgian elite at present. The qualitative analysis of its educational background explains the nature of Georgia–Russia relations to some extent. It is concluded that a significant difference in educational backgrounds of the Russian and Georgian ruling elites dooms them to serious contradictions. At the same time, the author suggests that owing to the activity of the West, the future elites in other republics of the former USSR will also focus on the Western education.

Assessing Materialism among the Future Elites of China

ABSTRACT. This study assesses Chinese college-attending future elites as to their materialism values. Its intent is to reveal suggestive insights into the extent of materialism being manifested for China's needed increase in domestic consumption. The results revealed a bifurcation of materialism values, and theory-based difference assessments validated the study results. The most powerful predictors of materialism were vertical individualism, vertical collectivism, and life satisfaction, with the latter evidencing an inverse relationship. The study's overall results suggest that the materialistic values of future elites may both facilitate and impede China's economic prosperity. Insights are also revealed into the unique nature of materialism among future elites, and strategic perspectives are presented.

Between secular education and Islamic philosophy: the approach and achievements of Fethullah Gülen’s followers in Azerbaijan

Fethullah Gülen is the leader of a very influential Islamic community in Turkey, one of the most important and most transnational Islamic movements in the world. In Azerbaijan, inspired and influenced by his ideas, many Turkish businessmen and educators have endorsed and supported his movement, most importantly with a huge network of private high schools. When this community arrived in Azerbaijan just after the end of the Soviet Union, its main objective was to encourage Islamic revival in this newly independent state where Islam had been weakened by Soviet anti-religious campaigns. However, after a few years, the movement has changed its strategy, terminating religious activism and limiting its engagement solely and uniquely to secular and modern education. However, through successful, modern education, the movement is able to promote Islamic philosophy and ethics. If the ultimate objectives of the movement are unclear, it is evident that it wants to contribute to future elites from its ranks and to be influential in Azerbaijan. Because of this lack of clarity, the movement constantly attracts controversy.

Between secular education and Islamic philosophy: the approach and achievements of Fethullah Gülen’s followers in Azerbaijan

Fethullah Gülen is the leader of a very influential Islamic community in Turkey, one of the most important and most transnational Islamic movements in the world. In Azerbaijan, inspired and influenced by his ideas, many Turkish businessmen and educators have endorsed and supported his movement, most importantly with a huge network of private high schools. When this community arrived in Azerbaijan just after the end of the Soviet Union, its main objective was to encourage Islamic revival in this newly independent state where Islam had been weakened by Soviet anti-religious campaigns. However, after a few years, the movement has changed its strategy, terminating religious activism and limiting its engagement solely and uniquely to secular and modern education. However, through successful, modern education, the movement is able to promote Islamic philosophy and ethics. If the ultimate objectives of the movement are unclear, it is evident that it wants to contribute to future elites from its ranks and to be influential in Azerbaijan. Because of this lack of clarity, the movement constantly attracts controversy.

Reconciling custom, citizenship and colonial legacies: Ni‐Vanuatu tertiary student attitudes to national identity

AbstractNation‐building remains a key challenge in Vanuatu. From the origins of this new nation in 1980, it was clear that creating a unifying sense of national identity and political community from multiple languages and diverse traditional cultures would be difficult. This paper presents new survey and focus group data on attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Vanuatu. The survey identifies areas of common attitudes towards nationalism and national identity, shared by both Anglophone and Francophone Ni‐Vanuatu. However, despite the weakening ties between language of education and political affiliation over recent years, the findings suggest that there remain some key areas of strong association between socio‐linguistic background, and attitudes to the nation, and national identity. These findings cast new light on the attitudes of likely future elites towards regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic fault lines in Vanuatu and the challenges of building a cohesive sense of political community and national identity.

Elite-led democratisation in aid-dependent states: the case of Mauritania

Why did Mauritania, an Arab League member, undergo a short-lived democratic transition after a successful coup in 2005? Mauritania's democratisation is puzzling because it occurred despite the presence of two conditions that are thought to hinder the prospects of democracy: poverty and strategic importance to the West. We trace the democratisation process undertaken by Mauritania's successful coup leaders in 2005 by focusing on the regime's foreign aid sources. We find that because coup leaders overthrew a Western ally, they feared aid flows would decline. The coup leaders therefore calculated that democratisation would shore up ties by signalling that the new regime was committed to maintaining a strong relationship with Western donors. Our findings have important implications for top-down democratisation in North Africa and the Middle East. Strategic importance appears to be a matter of degree, and states with modest importance to donors, such as Mauritania, may use democratisation as a means to posture themselves as valuable to powerful external actors. Democratic reforms, however, can have sticking power and trap future aid-dependent elites who attempt to strategically manipulate domestic reforms.

Expanding the Boundaries of the Black Atlantic: African Students as Soviet Moderns

This article by Maxim Matusevich proposes to develop the model of modernity presented by Paul Gilroy in his seminal essay The Black Atlantic , to better understand the modernizing impact of African students in the Soviet Union on their host society. While it is true that the Soviet Union, just as its Russian predecessor, possessed no African colonies and, in fact, remained unrelenting in its critique of European colonialism and North American racism, it experienced its own modernizing encounter with the Black At­lantic. In the aftermath of the 1957 Youth Festival in Moscow, first dozens, and eventually thousands of African students made their appearance in the USSR. They arrived in Moscow, Leningrad, Baku, Kiev, Minsk, and other Soviet cities attracted by generous educational scholarships but also inspired by their own postcolonial dreams of reforming and rebuilding their newly independent nations. For the Soviets, steeped in anticolonial rhetoric and guided by Cold War exigencies, these young Africans seemed to be "natural allies" who could help to enhance Moscow's credentials in the Third World and cultivate its future elites. However, the reality of the encounter between these postcolonial nomads and a largely isolationist society produced some unintended consequences. From the point of view of Soviet authorities, the community of African students in the Soviet Union continued to be a source of ambivalence and even, on occasion, political and cultural subversion. Cosmopolitan and globally minded African students repeatedly challenged the norms of Soviet political and cultural discourse and, in doing so, proved to be the true harbingers of modernity and globalization for the hosts. In the course of the encounter with Soviet society, they inadvertently expanded the reach of the Black Atlantic, bringing its tidal waves well beyond the Iron Curtain. Статья представляет собой оригинальную попытку применить модель модерности, предложенную Полем Гилроем в его знаменитом эссе "Черная Атлантика", для понимания модернизационного воздействия африканских студентов в СССР. Автор рассматривает период после московского фестиваля молодежи и студентов 1957 г., когда в СССР стали прибывать десятки, а позднее и тысячи африканских студентов. Их привлекали не только щедрые стипендии; они вдохновлялись постколониальной мечтой реформирования своих ставших независимыми наций. Советы рассматривали их как естественных союзников и агентов укрепления позиций Москвы в третьем мире. Однако в реальности контакты между этими постколониальными номадами и изоляционистским советским обществом привели к ряду неожиданных последствий, анализ которых и составляет главный предмет рассмотрения в статье. Космополитичные и глобально мыслящие африканские студенты бросали вызов советскому политическому порядку и культурному дискурсу и, как показывает автор, оказывались провозвестниками иного типа модерности и глобализации в принимающем обществе. Взаимодействуя с советским обществом, они непреднамеренно расширяли и пределы Черной Атлантики за рамки железного занавеса.