Elites, Knowledge, and Power in Modern China

The ERC project “Elites, Networks, and Power in Modern Urban China” investigates how elites and elite networks in their various configurations and articulations emerged and operated not just in major cities in China, but beyond, across the Western and Japanese empires, and the power nations (Great Britain, France, United States, Japan) themselves. It focuses specifically on individual actors rather than state institutions or community organizations. The workshop seeks to address a number of core issues about the individuals and groups that emerged as elite and the modalities and processes of elite formation and (re)deployment of elite networks; the vectors, patterns and timelines of the involvement of elites in public action, from acting in an official capacity, in self- organized associations but also assuming the role of opinion leaders