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Chris­toph Hou­man Ellersgaard

Associate Professor

Subjects
Board Democracy Methodology Interest group Business community Sociology

Primary research areas

Power Elites
Study­ing power elites means ask­ing how elites change across time and space and how these changes in elites re­flect wider trans­form­a­tions in so­ci­et­al power struc­tures
Elite net­works
Us­ing so­cial net­work ana­lys­is, it is pos­sible to map chan­ging re­la­tions between dif­fer­ent elite groups, in par­tic­u­lar how the cor­por­ate com­munity is or­gan­ized
Class
Un­der­stand­ing how so­cial in­equal­ity and strat­i­fic­a­tion works means study­ing how the very top of so­ci­ety is or­gan­ized. Both what united the up­per classes and which fac­tions there are with­in them

I study elites and how they change – and are changed by - so­ci­ety

In my research, I focus on how elites can be domesticated by different societal institutions. Therefore, I study how elites change historically and from one country to another.  I develop new methods for mapping elites by studying their networks, careers, lifestyle and ideology. 

As a sociologist, I also have a strong interest in how we can study abstract concepts such as power through transparent, rigorous og illustrative methods. Therefore, I use and teach such relational methods, including social network analysis, multiple correspondence analysis and sequence analysis. Additionally, I want to develop our capacities to use textual and large-scale data in both research and teaching    

Publications

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30 October 2025

Fondskongerne skal have et demokratisk bagland

Chri­stoph Hou­man El­lers­gaard, Associate Professor

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October 2025

Overlapping Social Circles in Historical Elite Career Networks

Measuring Accumulated Social Status with ‘K-Circles’ and Circle Esteem in Bipartite Networks

Anton Grau Larsen

Ja­cob Lun­ding, Teaching Assistant

Chri­stoph Hou­man El­lers­gaard, Associate Professor

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Recent research projects

CLONE – Con­sequences of Long-term Or­gan­iz­a­tion­al Em­bed­ded­ness

As so­ci­ety changes, large cor­por­a­tions have to ad­apt stra­tegic­ally. In this con­text, the net­works of man­agers con­sti­tute a key re­source as a source of in­form­a­tion and to­wards build­ing al­li­ances. Our know­ledge of how dif­fer­ent types of net­work em­bed­ded­ness af­fect the stra­tegic op­por­tun­it­ies of firms across dif­fer­ent his­tor­ic­al peri­ods is how­ever still lim­ited. This in­cludes wheth­er cor­por­ate net­works can ex­plain why some cor­por­a­tions stag­nate, where­as oth­ers man­age to right the ship. And how net­works of cor­por­a­tions af­fect stra­tegic choices re­gard­ing mer­gers and ac­quis­i­tions. The CLONE pro­ject ex­plores how em­bed­ded­ness in his­tor­ic­al net­works af­fects the stra­tegic de­cisions made by large cor­por­a­tions between 1910-2020. This is stud­ied by cre­at­ing a unique data­base, com­bin­ing his­tor­ic­al data on ac­counts and net­works. By do­ing this, the pro­ject ex­tends the un­der­stand­ing of how cor­por­a­tions learn from and find al­li­ances through net­works

Outside activities

Foren­in­gen for Elite- og Magt­stud­i­er, pub­lic lec­tures , 2025 -

CBS Ex­ec­ut­ive, Course co­ordin­a­tion , 2025 -