Hanna Kuusela
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hannakuu.bsky.social
Hanna Kuusela
@hannakuu.bsky.social
Sociology and Cultural Studies of elites, inequality, private wealth, dynasties, higher education, university democracy etc. Associate Professor of Sociology. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3845-8140
Succession fosters a fantasy in which rich dynasties will eventually destroy themselves in the fair game of merits.

The article should also work as a teaser for my forthcoming book Streaming Privilege. How Television Teaches us to Accept Inequality.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
From the figure of the obscene rich to the fantasy of its destruction: on Succession, schadenfreude and the godlike power of the super-rich on screen
A significant part of contemporary popular culture portrays the rich as obscene, self-destructive, addicted and deranged. This article analyses the affective intensities circulating around this tro...
www.tandfonline.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
This paper is part of a forthcoming special issue on Families & Wealth edited by @hannakuu.bsky.social @celinebessiere.bsky.social @katiehiggins.bsky.social. They threw a fabulous workshop in Finland last year where I received invaluable advice about how to move this paper forward.
October 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
I wrote this piece for the upcoming @bjsociology.bsky.social special issue on Families and Wealth, edited by @celinebessiere.bsky.social , @katiehiggins.bsky.social, & @hannakuu.bsky.social . There are going to be so many fantastic articles in it and I can’t wait to read them in their final forms.
July 23, 2025 at 2:56 PM
We show how the for-profit actors attribute the well-known discontents of marketisation almost solely to the failures of the public sector and to the wrongdoings of their competitors, creating a peculiar moral economy in which private profits have become an essential part of public services. 2/2
June 11, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Your project looks great! Happy to learn about it.
May 29, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Congratulations. Great to see this out.
May 22, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Congratulations. Well deserved!
April 1, 2025 at 6:32 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
5. Adding to this, the type of skills elite have obtained through their education varies (but not always along the level fof credentials described above). Engineers and natural scientists still constitute a substantial part of economic elites in China, France or Finland.
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
4. The credentials also differ. In sic of the countries, at least around a fifth have a doctoral degree. However this is very rare, for instance in the Scandinavian countries
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
3. The degree of international recruitment and recruitment from the economic capital of the country and other key functional urban areas varies substantially. Economic elites in Argentina, Italy, Portugal and France are born in the countries largest urban centres.
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
2. When looking at the very apex of the economic elites, the lack of gender diversity becomes even stronger. However, the gender gap in WED is strongly correlated with the WEF Gender Gap Index.
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Hanna Kuusela
Some highlights:

1. Economic elites vary a lot. However, they are varieties of pale, stale and male. Here is the age distribution across gender. Note that in particular the US is very much a gerontocracy, also when it comes to economic elites
March 28, 2025 at 10:59 AM