TY - JOUR

T1 - Practices of Consumption

T2 - Cohesion and Distinction within a Globally Wealthy Group

AU - Lillie, Karen

AU - Maxwell, Claire

N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: this research was funded by the ESRC doctoral training programme. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.

PY - 2023/10/17

Y1 - 2023/10/17

N2 - An ongoing debate in the literature is around the existence and constitution of a so-called ‘global elite’. This article enters that debate – seeking to understand what connected but also divided a group of wealthy young people occupying a transnational space. It examines consumptive practices at one of the most expensive secondary schools in the world, educating a cross-section of the globally wealthy in Switzerland. The article offers insights into the boredom that pervaded this group, shaping some of the consumptive practices that bound its members. It also argues that other consumptive practices reflected consciously articulated differences within this group, such as national- and linguistic-based social groupings. The case study offers a unique opportunity to examine consumption as a lens onto cohesion and distinction within a particular group of transnationally located, wealthy young people, thus contributing to scholarship around the nature of the ‘global elite’ at large.

AB - An ongoing debate in the literature is around the existence and constitution of a so-called ‘global elite’. This article enters that debate – seeking to understand what connected but also divided a group of wealthy young people occupying a transnational space. It examines consumptive practices at one of the most expensive secondary schools in the world, educating a cross-section of the globally wealthy in Switzerland. The article offers insights into the boredom that pervaded this group, shaping some of the consumptive practices that bound its members. It also argues that other consumptive practices reflected consciously articulated differences within this group, such as national- and linguistic-based social groupings. The case study offers a unique opportunity to examine consumption as a lens onto cohesion and distinction within a particular group of transnationally located, wealthy young people, thus contributing to scholarship around the nature of the ‘global elite’ at large.

KW - boredom

KW - consumption

KW - elite school

KW - global elite

KW - transnational

KW - wealth

U2 - 10.1177/00380385231206070

DO - 10.1177/00380385231206070

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85174145166

JO - Sociology

JF - Sociology

SN - 0038-0385

ER -