Social Ubiquity as an Elite Resource: Insights from the Literature and a Case Study

Scholars of elites have long been interested in how elite actors circulate across different social realms and in the social consequences of this phenomenon. One influential strand of research has focused on the revolving door phenomenon, examining sequential movements of individuals between public office and private-sector positions, particularly in fields such as finance, defense, and regulation. Complementing this perspective, Luc Boltanski introduced the concept of multipositionality to capture a different mode of elite circulation: the simultaneous occupation of multiple institutional positions. He described this as the capacity of elite actors to “cover and master a wide social surface,” through the simultaneous occupation of multiple positions, generating a form of power that exceeds the sum of resources attached to each position taken separately. Most subsequent research on elites has approached the phenomenon from a structural perspective. Drawing on extensive quantitative data, this literature underscores the role of multipositional actors in fostering elite cohesion within the broader power elite’s networks. By contrast, a smaller body of work—most notably Janine Wedel’s—offers close, qualitative observations of elite practices related to multipositionality. Based on her research in Central and Eastern Europe, Wedel identifies a new type of elite she calls flexians—actors who move seamlessly among government, business, think tanks, and media—suggesting that this fluid engagement across institutional boundaries is a defining feature of contemporary U.S. elites and has broader, transnational significance. While the phenomenon has been examined from multiple angles, research on multipositionality remains dispersed across literatures, and the concept has yet to be fully theorized as an important dimension of elite power. Against this backdrop, the aim of this presentation is twofold. First, I provide a critical review of existing literature across disciplines and applied to case studies from different regions, to examine the concept of elites’ social ubiquity. Second, I relate these findings to my own empirical research on Polish elites. Focusing on the policy process surrounding the reform of the Polish pension system in the 1990s, I draw on a mixed-methods approach combining a quantitative prosopographical database of actors involved in the policy process and public debates with in-depth interviews. I show that actors’ multipositionality constituted a key resource mobilized to advance the reform.