Consecrating Civil Society Elites in Europe: Examining Civil Society Prizes

Abstract

Prize-giving is a common mechanism for the formation of social hierarchies. Although we find extensive studies of prizes in a wide range of social fields, few have explored prizes aimed at top civil society leaders. This chapter draws on a study of civil society prizes in Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK targeting top civil society leaders. The study analyses how many persons received a prize and the type of prize-giving organisation and shows that civil society elites in Italy, Poland, and the UK primarily receive prizes from the state, while Swedish civil society elites receive prizes from their peers. This illustrates that the state constitutes the bank of symbolic capital in Italy, Poland, and the UK, while civil society is its own bank in Sweden. National differences moreover illustrate differences in elite integration. Civil society elites in Sweden constitute a disconnected elite, while they form an integrated elite in Italy, Poland, and the UK.