Moral Elites: The Historical Positioning of Civil Society Leaders in National Moral Economies

Objective: Conduct a ground-breaking historical-relational comparative study of civil society elites’ integration in and effects on four European countries’ moral economies, explaining diverging paths through career trajectories and position-takings.Question: Why, how, and with what consequences were civil society elites historically integrated into national moral economies?Hypothesis: The position and position-taking of civil society elites since the mid-19th century crucially shaped national moral economies.Motivation and scientific significance: Counters the almost completely neglected historical impact of civil society elites in elite studies, civil society scholarship, welfare state research, and political economy; challenges compartmentalisation of social science through comprehensive theoretical framework; breaks new methodological ground in integrating career trajectory analysis and NLP topic modelling textual analysis; significantly reorients scientific and public understanding of the historical role of civil society elites.

Societal value: Strengthens transparency and accountability of civil society elites by pinpointing their historically changing dependencies; enhances the understanding of the role of civil society elites in stabilising and deepening democratic institutions, social policies, and regulation of the economy.

Profile of PI: Strong background in historical sociology, civil society research, welfare state research, sociology of religion; strong international network with several European and US American universities; organiser of and presenter at international conferences; ambitious and original academic publishing record highly relevant to the project proposal’s study object and theoretical and methodological approach.

Key deliverables: At least three quality journal articles per PhD candidate and two per post doc; two cross-WP theoretical and methodological articles and a cross-WP monograph; two edited volumes or spec