About EPIC - Elite Power Investigations Centre
The Elite Power Investigations Centre (EPIC) was founded in 2014 by Inderjeet Parmar (City University London), Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Naná de Graaff (both at VU University Amsterdam) and Mark Ledwidge (Canterbury Christ Church University) to foster and disseminate critical research on the power of elites, specifically private and state-private elites in national, transnational and global politics. Between the four of us we have done or are currently undertaking extensive research on the role of elites in US politics (in particular in relation to foreign policy) & US society; in EU politics; in the politics of the global energy order and on elites of rising powers such as in particular China. We are trained political scientists as well as (political) sociologists and political economists but we very much aim at an interdisciplinary and indeed trans-disciplinary approach drawing upon a variety of scholarly traditions – including as embedded within history, anthropology, economics, business and management studies – in the research on the structure and agency of elite power. Employing various research methods ourselves – from archival research and process tracing to elite interviewing and social network analysis – we favour methodological pluralism as we believe that complex social phenomena such as elite power can only be captured in their complexity by employing a variety of methods and approaches.
Although we are academics seeking to enter into dialogue with other academics interested in the power of elites we also hope to be able to provide in due course interesting material, research findings and resources for a broad array of civil society organizations such as trade unions or NGOs, as well for journalists, politicians and political activists and basically anyone who is seeking a better understanding of how power works in our society, and recognizes the power asymmetries – deeply rooted class, race, gender, culture and other social structures of exclusion and inclusion – of contemporary global politics as the divide between elites and the rest of society has arguably only been widening in recent decades. Although currently mainly a collaborative effort of the four founders and current board members, we hope that through the launching of EPIC and its website we will be able to reach out to other researchers inside and outside academia in order to further build what hopefully will grow into a transnational network of people who find the study of elites not just interesting but indeed necessary to understand the world around us and reveal the structures that might prevent us from realising particular common values.
Although we are academics seeking to enter into dialogue with other academics interested in the power of elites we also hope to be able to provide in due course interesting material, research findings and resources for a broad array of civil society organizations such as trade unions or NGOs, as well for journalists, politicians and political activists and basically anyone who is seeking a better understanding of how power works in our society, and recognizes the power asymmetries – deeply rooted class, race, gender, culture and other social structures of exclusion and inclusion – of contemporary global politics as the divide between elites and the rest of society has arguably only been widening in recent decades. Although currently mainly a collaborative effort of the four founders and current board members, we hope that through the launching of EPIC and its website we will be able to reach out to other researchers inside and outside academia in order to further build what hopefully will grow into a transnational network of people who find the study of elites not just interesting but indeed necessary to understand the world around us and reveal the structures that might prevent us from realising particular common values.
