Kulturel kapital blandt topdirektører i Danmark – En domineret kapitalform?

Abstract

Betydningen af institutionaliseret kulturel kapital i form af diplomer fra højere læreanstalter er central for Bourdieus forståelse af dominansrelationer i det franske samfund omkring 1980’erne. Imidlertid viser en prosopografi – en kollektiv, relationel biografi – af de 100 vigtigste danske topdirektører i 2007, at universitetsgrader ikke har samme betydning i Danmark som i større industrilande. Snarere end kulturel kapital har især kapital opnået gennem lang tid på feltet – organisatorisk kapital – og nedarvet kapital betydning. Frem for at fungere som et krav er meritter fra universitetsverdenen snarere en relativt sjælden strategi i karrierevejen mod posten som topdirektør. Der fandtes således ingen egentlige eliteuddannelser, der fungerede som rekrutteringsgrundlag for erhvervslivets absolutte topposter herhjemme. Studiet tyder på, at man derfor muligvis ikke kan overføre den store betydning af kulturel kapital i det franske samfund til det danske. Søgeord: Bourdieu, kulturel kapital, geometrisk dataanalyse, magtens felt, elite. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Christoph Ellersgaard and Anton Grau: Cultural Capital among CEOs in Denmark – A Dominant Form of Capital? Cultural capital in its institutionalized form – i.e. diplomas from élites universities – is a key element in Pierre Bourdieu’s understanding of relations of dominance within French society around 1980. A prosopographical study of the 100 most important Danish CEOs in 2007 shows that degrees from élite universities do not play the same pivotal role in a Scandinavian welfare society such as Denmark as they do in France, Britain or Germany. Instead both organizational capital acquired through investment of considerable time in the field and inherited capital are important for CEOs in Denmark. Institutionalized cultural capital in the form of merit from higher education is a rare strategy in the trajectory towards executive position. The article concludes that élite education as a selection potential for top CEOs did not exist in Denmark when the current CEOs accumulated forms of capital giving merit to consideration as CEO candidates. This implies that the importance of cultural capital in the French society is not directly transferable to the reproduction of the field of power in Denmark. Key words: Bourdieu, cultural capital, geometrical data analysis, field of power, élite.