Illuminations: C Wright Mills

Christadoulou (Central) Meeting Room (CMR1), OU, Milton Keynes

Illuminations is a series of monthly informal talks on a range of key theorists who exert powerful influence within the social sciences. The format is a short presentation, followed by a general discussion on their insights, influence and interpretation in different settings. The aim is to provide a general introduction and create ongoing discussion of their work(s) for colleagues and postgraduate students from across the university, before retiring to the Cellar Bar for refreshments. 

In May's talk, Alan Shipman (Lecturer in Economics, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences) will introduce the contribution of C Wright Mills to sociological theory, especially in the area of class, power and social structure.

Mills’s Power Elite (1956) is still routinely referenced by the many accounts of how a handful of corporate bosses/bankers/political leaders rule the world. Mills’s attribution of extraordinary power to a small group of political, corporate and military leaders 'in command of the major organisations and hierarchies of modern society' seems prescient, and easily extrapolated from his US-focused analysis to today’s shrunken globe.

After reviewing his overall contributions, the talk will argue that today’s political developments can be better understood through Mills’s neglected analysis of links between the power elite, the non-elite experts immediately surrounding it and two neglected social groups.