Why do business leaders, senior politicians and civil servants move to leading positions in EU civil society? The article addresses this question through thirteen unique life-work history interviews with leaders of some of the most prominent EU civil society organisations (CSOs). It explores the specific social resources that EU civil society and individual elite actors gain through the process of boundary crossing, including cultural capital (organisational and procedural knowledge), social capital (professional and personal networks), symbolic capital (status and publicity), and a form of civil society-specific symbolic capital that is associated with the act of ‘doing good’ that might facilitate policy influence.
Landorff, Laura and Anders Uhlin (2024) “Why Do Business Leaders, Senior Politicians and Civil Servants Move to Leading Positions in EU Civil Society? Exploring Capital Gains through Boundary Crossing”, European Politics and Society, https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2024.2355936