SALELITE: The salmon elite - its politics, self-understanding, networks and wealth

Topic and aims of the project:

Despite the industry's significant economic role, there is little research on those who hold elite positions in the salmon industry. There are several reasons why the salmon farming industry is particularly interesting to study; it is characterized by particularly large private fortunes, a high degree of family ownership, the companies are locally based but have global reach, and the industry is subject to intense political debate, not least visible through the recent debate on resource rent tax. This project connects the academic fields of aquaculture, elites and power. 

Research design:

By combining document analysis, interviews and quantitative analysis, the project will shed a comprehensive light on the Norwegian salmon elite. The project is organized in three work packages, where each of the work packages addresses a different research question.

WP1: Tax policy attitudes and strategies

In the first subproject, we investigate the political debate on the resource rent tax. We are interested in how the industry argues in relation to the tax, how the owners of salmon farms have tried to influence the debate about the tax, and whether there are different perspectives and political strategies within the industry. We are also interested in possible collaboration between the industry and political parties. We are analyzing political documents from the consideration of the resource rent tax in the Storting, including consultation statements from the industry. We are also collecting other publications by the salmon industry concerning the tax and using media archives such as Atekst to examine public statements by industry representatives over the past five years.  The first subproject takes theoretical inspiration from political sociology and economy on the role of economic elites in policymaking, relations between economic and political elites, and center-periphery conflicts in Norwegian politics. The subproject is led by Katharina Sass.

WP2: Self-understanding and legitimization of influence

In the second subproject, we want to explore salmon owners' and managers' understanding of their own role in society, based on individual and anonymous interviews with them. We are interested in how the industry's owners and managers assess their own political and economic influence in society, which networks they feel part of, and how they justify their political views. We also want to investigate the extent to which they feel rooted in Norwegian local communities or rather have a more location-independent and transnational orientation. As in WP1, we will also ask to what extent there are different perspectives in the industry, for example between larger and smaller companies. Like the first subproject, this subproject also takes theoretical inspiration from political sociology and economy. In addition, it builds on elite sociological studies of the political self-understanding and networks of economic elites. The subproject is led by Katharina Sass.

WP3: Economic power, social networks, and family connections

In the third subproject, we want to investigate the economic power structures in the salmon industry, as well as take a closer look at the economic, political and social networks that owners in the industry, and the industry's organizations, are part of. We will use register data from the Brønnøysund Register to map networks through, for example, joint board membership or family connections. We will also make use of data on party financing. Quantitative analysis techniques such as network analysis, regression analysis and sequence analysis are used in this subproject. Theoretical inspiration is taken from elite sociological studies and theories of power in capitalist societies. The subproject is led by Maren Toft.