Economic Elites in the Climate Change Transformation: Practices, justifications and regulations of unsustainable lifestyles in Sweden

Our society is caught up in a double crisis.

While social inequality has reached scales that experts compare to the 19th century, the climate crisis jeopardizes our very survival. Elites make a disproportionate contribution to this crisis as income/asset ownership and emissions are closely related.

This research project explores current and alternative roles of economic elites in the climate change transformation in Sweden and the ways these roles are justified and contested. It is structured into four work packages (WPs).

WP1: Conceptualizing economic elites in the climate change transformation; WP2: Presentations and self-presentations of economic elites; WP3: Attitudes towards wealth and elite lifestyles; WP4: Policy forums about regulations of economic elites.

Theoretically combining sustainable welfare and elite research perspectives, we apply a mixed-method design triangulating literature and media analyses, semi-structured interviews, a representative survey and deliberative policy forums.

Cooperating with stakeholders from the public sector, business and civil society and an International Scientific Advisory Board consisting of some of the world’s leading experts in sustainability and elite research, this research project will contribute to the design of broadly supported policies regulating elite lifestyles that are a necessary precondition for Sweden to meet its climate policy goals and to address inequalities.