Research problem : What is felt and thought in everyday life about economic elite?

1. Judgments about Inequality and Economic Elite among the Middle Classes: Discontents and Sociology of CritiqueOscar Mac-Clure, Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile. Emmanuelle Barozet, Universidad de Chile, Chile.

2. Researchproblem: What is felt and thought in everyday life about economic elite? What do individuals in emerging countries (Chile in this case) feel and think about their national economic elite? Chile: a country with marked socioeconomic inequalities  Does a critique emerge towards the extreme inequalities represented by the national elite? We consider the economic elite as a whole, but also the distinction between the traditional elite and that of recent mobility as prototypes that, regardless of whether they constitute a single social actor, are capable of mobilizing diverse subjective judgments from the individuals in society.

3. Global economy: “the 1 per cent” The functioning of markets in the global economy generates inequality and an extreme concentration of wealth (Bourguignon, 2012; Piketty, 2013), especially in the one percent of the population that constitutes an “economic elite” (Stiglitz, 2012). Boltanski (Presidential Plenary at ISA 2014): the “patrimonial class”. Economic elite: one of the most relevant expressions of inequality at the world level.

4. Economic elite and sociology of critique The tradition of critical social theory: unveiling the structures and mechanisms that (re)produce systems of inequalities. Honneth (1995) and Boltanski (2009): a perspective that stresses the rise of social critique from the actors themselves.

5. Researchquestionsfocused mainly on the perception and judgement of the middle classes; popular sectors as comparison groups 1) In what way popular sectors and middle classes identify the economic elite and distinguish it from other social strata? 2) Is there a perception of injustice or discontent with respect to the economic elite or, on the contrary, is there a predominant acceptance and justification of the privileged position of the elite? 3) Do the judgments vary depending on diverse sectors composing the economic elite? 4) What influences people’s judgment about the elites?

6. Methodology based on experimental games • Experimental games • Increasingly used in recent decades in social studies. • A methodology aimed at a better understanding of social issues, without intending to get a statistical representativeness with respect to the whole population (although we will later reexamine this point). • Unknown person game • Players who must discover a character about which they can get partial information, paying for this information. France: Boltanski & Thévenot, 1983; Desrosières & Thévenot, 1988; Brousse et al., 2014. • European Union: Filhon et al., 2013. • Dictator game • Altruism / aversion to inequality • Henrich et al., 2005, 2010 • Engel, 2010 • Dictator game variant: donations to diverse nonprofit organizations • US: Eckel & Grossman, 1996, 2006; Eckel, Grossman & Milano, 2007. • Netherlands: Bekkers, 2007. • Fieldwork – Chile (2013) • 6 groups in 3 cities (Santiago, Concepción, Chillán) =18 groups • 3 players in each group = 54 players

7. Unknown person game: discovering economic elite • How do regular people identify and describe the elite, at a level other than the political and economic-enterprising space that is better known through public information and debate? • = Solving an enigma similar to what happens in social life: economic elite is composed of a reduced set of individuals that isolate themselves as a function of their interests. • A matching game: 3 unknown characters - middle class, recent mobility elite and traditional elite. • US$ 36 in fake moneyforeachplayerto buy response cards from the moderator. • Price of each question: marked on cards available to the participants, and each player could buy the answers that were of interest to him. • To give rise to knowledge and intuitive interpretations belonging to the everyday interaction of the participants in the exercise, the price structure of the questions and answers is based on the distinction between three kinds of resources: economic, social and cultural capital.The questions referring to the economic capital were in general more expensive than the others, while those that provided more indirect clues were less expensive • Winner of the game: the person who wrote a better description of each of the three individuals and spent less money to do it.

10. The categorization of the economic elite The elite is not fully recognized as such by everyone: it is perceived partially and only by some. Unknown person game: types of resources used by the players. How are unknown persons of the economic elite discovered: Some people do discover them from noneconomic signs that they articulate in an interpretation based on cultural and social capital.

11. Dictator game: judgements about economic elite • A player is given an amount of money of which he/she can assign a part to a stranger that simply plays the role of receiver. • The players were informed that each of the three persons of the first game owns a nonprofit organization that helps needy persons, to which they could assign all or none of the money received. • Each player received an amount of fake money equivalent to US$ 36. • The players assigned the money silently and separately from the other participants. • This unleashed the players' preferences and judgments about the characters to whom they could now give money for their corresponding foundations. • This allows analyzing in what way the judgments of the participants differ with respect to the two elite and the middle class individuals.

12. Judgment of the elite: the dictator game Dictator game: average amounts spent by the players . Judgment of the elite: it is judged critically, in particular the traditional elite, and to a smaller extent the recent elite, in contrast with a more positive evaluation of the middle class.

13. Criticism towards the elite: criteria of evaluation • 1. Cognition: notequal to judgement • What is at stake in the critical judgments of the players is above all the economic capital of the members of the elite, and not the cultural or social capital used to identify them cognitively. • Criteria of evaluation based on economic capital, but… • What is judged critically is more the separation caused by the economic assets of the elite with respect to the rest of society, than their privileged economic position or the rules of the game that benefit its members. • The members of the elite are mostly criticized for their behaviour towards the less privileged. The criteria applied refers mainly to interpersonal treatment : Are people treated with dignity and respect by the elite individuals? • It is a criticism in which a justice of the procedures prevails over a distributive (substantive) justice relative to the unequal distribution of the assets and to the structural inequalities. • Procedural justice referred mostly to… • This criticism based on procedural justice acquires greater intensity with respect to the traditional economic elite than to the recent elite.

14. Criticism towards the elite: who criticizes? • The most intense criticism of the elite, mainly the traditional one, comes from the Lower Level Non-manual Routine class composed of salespeople, cashiers and similar occupations. • Compared to Manual Workers, they qualify the economic elite more negatively •  the opposite of the prototype of the conflict between workers and capitalists during most of the 20th century!

15. Looking forward - Prospects At a global level To what extent our results may be comparable to similar situations in other countries? Is there a global convergence in the subjective appreciations with respect to the economic elite (national and global)? Prospects Reproducing experimental games through a survey at national level: statistical representation of the population (2016). Comparison with similar surveys based on games in other countries: France, Netherlands, European Union.

16. Thankyou ! Oscar Mac-Clure, Universidad de Los Lagos, Chile. oscar.macclure@ulagos.cl Emmanuelle Barozet, Universidad de Chile, Chile. ebarozet@uchile.cl

17. Judgment of the elite versus middle class: determinants Dictator game: Logit regression model for assigning or not more money to the middle class characters with respect to the elite characters, according to city of residence and social class. .

18. Diverse judgments about recent and traditional elites : determinants Dictator game: Logit regression model for assigning or not more money to the recent elite characters with respect to the traditional elite characters, according to city of residence and social class. .