Researching Elites and Elite Spaces

Abstract

Part of a special section on researching elites and elite spaces. Introducing this special section, the writer notes that it is important to know more about, and critically engage with, the people who are most important in shaping the processes that forge contemporary landscapes of power; these people are frequently perceived to belong to an elite group, and they often occupy privileged positions in political, economic, and cultural networks. The contributors to this special section focus upon the negotiation of power and status between researcher and researched in the context of social and anthropological studies of powerful people, and they emphasize the ethical dilemmas confronted by researchers engaged in this type of work.