Håkan Johansson

I am Professor of Social Work at Lund University, Sweden. For many years, my research has focused on social policy and welfare state development, with particular attention to the Swedish welfare state and the Nordic social model.

More recently, my research has turned to wealth, economic elites and the super-rich. I study the role of economic elites in climate transition and I am particularly interested in how growing concentrations of wealth are reshaping societies traditionally associated with equality, and how wealth and the wealthy come to be perceived, justified and admired.

I am also Chair of the World Elite Database (WED, https://worldelitedatabase.org/), an international research network bringing together more than 75 researchers from 26 countries. The network maps and compares economic elites across countries to better understand the pathways that lead to positions of economic power.