[HKU Stone Centre 2026 Annual Lecture] Wealth Elites and Power Today: A New Analytical Model

[HKU Stone Centre 2026 Annual Lecture] Wealth Elites and Power Today: A New Analytical Model Exploring how wealthy elites gain influence – whether quietly behind the scenes or loudly through public visibility – and what this reveals about power today. Abstract In the 2020s, oligarchic and wealthy elites have re-emerged into public and political prominence in many parts of the globe. I draw on research from the World Elite Database project to reflect on how elites are consecrated and develop a public profile in the UK to make a wider argument about the nature of elite power. I show that although a large number of ‘quiet’ elites are able to operate ‘under the radar’ by escaping public attention, a smaller number of ‘loud’ elites seek to gain influence by cultivating ‘outsider’ identities. I propose a new theory of wealth and ‘gravitational power’ to make sense of these findings. About the Speakers *** Mike Savage is a Professorial Research Fellow at LSE’s International Inequalities Institute. Mike played a formative role in the creation of the III, as founding co-Director with the late Prof John Hills. Between 2015 and 2020, he was Director of LSE’s International Inequalities Institute. He played a key role in securing the Atlantic Fellows programme to be a flagship of the III. This is the largest global programme in the world devoted to challenging inequalities, and he was its founding Director in 2016-17. Since 2019, he has convened the III’s Wealth, Elites and Tax Justice research theme, which has enjoyed major policy and academic impact. Mike has enjoyed a distinguished career as a sociologist, having retired from the LSE Department of Sociology in 2024. He has played a major role in the revival of the study of social class in recent decades so that it has become once more a central plank of the discipline. He is one of the major sociologists to embrace the growing awareness of intensified economic inequality to draw out the broader systemic social challenges these have produced. He promotes the need for academic research to be co-produced with campaigning organisations, is committed to a public facing vision of sociology. *** James M. Stone is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston-based Plymouth Rock Assurance Group. He studied at Harvard University, where he received both his BA and PhD in economics, graduating with highest honours in economics and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. Stone has had a distinguished career in public service and business. In 1975, he was appointed Insurance Commissioner of Massachusetts by Governor Michael Dukakis, and in 1979 he was appointed Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission by President Jimmy Carter. He has also served in a range of leadership roles in media, public policy, education, and nonprofit organisations. His past and current appointments include service on the boards of The Boston Globe Newspaper Corporation, GlobalPost, Management Sciences for Health, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Stone is the author of Five Easy Theses (2016), as well as numerous articles on insurance, finance, and economics. In 2024, he received an honorary degree from University College London. Date/Time: 07/12/2026 14:00-16:30 Venue: CPD 3.04, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong Organized by: James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Socio-Economic Inequality in Asia (SCoSEIA)

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