Abstract

"This study uses computational social science methods to examine the historical processes of legitimation of status hierarchies by the State (Bourdieu 2014). I do this by analysing the British monarch’s public activities in its function as Head of State, and as listed in the daily Court Circular publication from 1837 until the present (N > 500,000 events). The Court Circular is the official list of activities engaged by the British monarch and the royal family that, after the approval of the monarch, is published daily in The Times (Royal Household 2021). The text, varying from only a few sentences to over 500 words, describes the previous day’s official royal activities, including commitments such as visits to organizations and attending receptions, investiture ceremonies, participation to cultural events such as concerts or art exhibitions, board meetings at companies, funerals, diplomatic meetings, or state banquets. I first digitalize the Court Circular by combining scraping techniques with optical character recognition. I then use named entity recognition techniques and regular expressions to extract the monarchy’s social ties. For the analyses, I employ time series and ego network analysis techniques to investigate the changes in the attributes of the individuals and organizations publicly associated with the royals during various stages in British history. I suggest that official visits to institutions and social positions are an instrument of State consecration of pre-existing status hierarchy. I also argue that the monarchy’s embeddedness with power elite networks becomes the instrument by which the monarchy transfers and acquires status"

Speaker 

Marta Pagnini, London School of Economics and Political Science & visiting at Sciences Po, CEE

Collective discussion

Compulsory Registration

For more information: pablo.cussac@sciencespo.fr