Academic influence amongst the UK public elite. Sociology 2010;44(4):734–50

This article examines the position of academics within UK quasi-autonomous deci-sion-making. Data have been collected on 2858 individuals, sitting on the boards of 187 Westminster quangos, to assess which social groups and outside institutions hold influence on independent decision-making. These include 200 academics, sit-ting on 84 different boards. Analysis of the networks generated through mutual memberships of outside institutions shows academics are sitting in strategic posi-tions within the quango sector. This article argues that higher academics have retained their high public position. It utilizes social network analysis to demonstrate that academics hold strategic positions within governance networks, signifying both political influence and associations with the social elite. KEY WORDS academics / public elites / quangos The sociological history of the 20th century has often bemoaned the decliningsocial position of the British academics, holding cherished positions as thenation’s moral guardians at the start of the century, diminishing to mere onlookers and reviewers at its end (Annan, 1991; Halsey, 1992). Sampson’s snap-shots of British society began by lamenting the replacement of the idiosyncratic Don with a more professional ethos in academia (1965), with his most recent anal-ysis regarding academics as marginalized even with the universities (2004). The political literature offered few positives, arguing that academics who frequented public boardrooms throughout the 1960s and 1970s, providing a specialized expertise which enabled responsible and intelligent public decision-making, have been replaced by businesspeople fostering an alternative agenda (Jenkins, 1996)