Mikael Holmqvist – författare

Vart Holmqvist vänder sig ser han hur näringslivets ideal och värderingar genomsyrar Handels. ( ) Det här är en kolossalt nyttig bok. Det är sällsynt med täta analyser av högskolans värld. Sverker Sörlin, Dagens Nyheter

Efter sin omtalade studie av Djursholm riktar Mikael Holmqvist nu strålkastarljuset mot Handelshögskolan i Stockholm. Handels. Maktelitens skola är den första inträngande analysen av denna institution, där inte bara den ekonomiska makteliten utbildas och fostras, utan även den politiska. Skolan grundades 1909 av det svenska näringslivet och är alltjämt ett privat universitet, men finansieras också av offentliga medel. Handelshögskolan utmärks av sin mycket selektiva antagning, och är det närmaste man kan komma en elitskola på universitetsnivå i Sverige. Vilka studenter är det som kommer in på Handels och hur formas de för framtida maktpositioner? Vilka är förutsättningarna för fri och oberoende forskning och undervisning när näringslivet leder verksamheten? Och hur påverkar denna skola det vidare samhället i en social, moralisk och politisk bemärkelse?

Mikael Holmqvist är docent i sociologi och professor i företagsekonomi vid Stockholms universitet, utbildad i Sverige och Frankrike. Han har varit återkommande gästforskare vid Cornell University och Stanford University i USA. Hans forskning handlar om arbete, makt och organisation. Holmqvists uppmärksammade bok Djursholm. Sveriges ledarsamhälle utkom 2015.

Sällan har väl en bok legat så rätt i tiden som Handels ( ). För berättelsen om Handelshögskolan i Stockholm är just en berättelse om näringslivets växande status i Sverige. Johan Anderberg, Expressen

I sin bok om Handelshögskolan visar företagsekonomen och författaren Mikael Holmqvist hur Sveriges maktnobless formas, fostras och reproduceras. Henrik Malm Lindberg, Uppsala Nya Tidning

Handels är ett övertygande underlag för att slå näven i bordet. Inte vara lika fogliga mot ekonomismens beslutsfattare som de är mot näringslivet. Fler borde hålla ett kritiskt örnöga. Annelie Jordahl, Sydsvenskan

Mikael Holmqvists nya studie ger en fascinerande inblick i det slutna system som Handelshögskolan i Stockholm utgör. Boken är lika kritisk som initierad ( ). Rikard Flyckt, Jönköpingsposten

Holmqvist förmedlar djup kunskap om eliterna skola, med ett kritiskt perspektiv, som jag finner högst sympatiskt. Han klär av skolans inre och yttre verksamheter på ett riktigt avslöjande sätt. Lars-Erik Alkvist, Dala-Demokraten

Holmqvists skildring av den självsäkra, handlingsinriktade lilla högskolan på Sveavägen är rolig på det sätt sociologi ofta är: det är ju förbluffande upplysande, hårresande ibland, att ta del av människors självbild. Per Andersson, SVT Kulturnyheterna

Mikael Holmqvists banbrytande studie om Djursholm, ett samhälle med en unik förmåga att upphöja sina invånare till ledare, är ett pionjärverk om makt. Den handlar om hur ett sådant samhälle skapas, vidmakthålls och påverkar hela Sverige i en social, moralisk och politisk bemärkelse.

Mikael Holmqvist, som intervjuat ett stort antal boende och arbetande i Djursholm och genomfört omfattande fältstudier under flera års tid, är ledarskapsforskare och professor i företagsekonomi vid Stockholms universitet.Här är några av de många lovord boken fått i pressen:

"...ett centralverk om maktens sociologi." - Åsa Linderborg, Aftonbladet

"Mikael Holmqvists verk är ett ymnighetshorn, fullspäckad av intressanta uppgifter och roliga detaljer..."- Jan Ekelund, Dagens Nyheter

"Boken innehåller allt man kan tänkas vilja veta om Djursholm som 'elitens och ledarnas boplats'."- Ingegerd Backlund, Norrtelje Tidning

"Mikael Holmqvists tegelsten Djursholm framstår som årets klart viktigaste (där kom det!) i sin genre." - Jens Liljestrand, Expressen

Social scientists are paying increasing attention to the business and financial elites: There’s a great need to understand who these elites are, what they do, and what makes them tick, as individuals but also as a class. By examining elite business schools, the institutions that train and prepare people to assume important leadership and decision-making positions in business, finance and related sectors, we may also learn how the economic elites are made. A key argument in this book is that elite schools are known to create powerful groups in society, offering them the intellectual and analytical means to act as leaders, but, most importantly, the social, moral and aesthetic skills that are deemed necessary to exercise power; in all essential respects elite schools consecrate people. By dominating much of higher education today, and by doing so in a way that creates and reproduces a market-based organization and control of society, elite business schools represent certain interests and ideologies that affect the lives of most people. In understanding how the modern economy is run, elite business schools, therefore, represent critical study objects.

This book, based on an in-depth study of the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), offers a sociological analysis of the world of elite business schools. Specifically, this book examines the consecration of SSE’s students from a number of perspectives and in a number of situations, focusing on student union activities, school culture, faculty behavior, teaching, courses and alumni events, noting the symbolic importance of economics and particularly the school’s unique relation among the world’s business schools to the Nobel Prize.

The book addresses the topics with regards to the sociology of elites, management education and organizational studies and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students also interested in business history, higher education studies, and sociology of education.

Social scientists are paying increasing attention to the business and financial elites: There’s a great need to understand who these elites are, what they do, and what makes them tick, as individuals but also as a class. By examining elite business schools, the institutions that train and prepare people to assume important leadership and decision-making positions in business, finance and related sectors, we may also learn how the economic elites are made. A key argument in this book is that elite schools are known to create powerful groups in society, offering them the intellectual and analytical means to act as leaders, but, most importantly, the social, moral and aesthetic skills that are deemed necessary to exercise power; in all essential respects elite schools consecrate people. By dominating much of higher education today, and by doing so in a way that creates and reproduces a market-based organization and control of society, elite business schools represent certain interests and ideologies that affect the lives of most people. In understanding how the modern economy is run, elite business schools, therefore, represent critical study objects.

This book, based on an in-depth study of the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE), offers a sociological analysis of the world of elite business schools. Specifically, this book examines the consecration of SSE’s students from a number of perspectives and in a number of situations, focusing on student union activities, school culture, faculty behavior, teaching, courses and alumni events, noting the symbolic importance of economics and particularly the school’s unique relation among the world’s business schools to the Nobel Prize.

The book addresses the topics with regards to the sociology of elites, management education and organizational studies and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students also interested in business history, higher education studies, and sociology of education.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the surge of populism, the climate crisis and many other destabilizing factors in our time, all point at the expectation of trustworthy knowledge and reliable organization devoted to knowledge production and dissemination. However, universities remain enmeshed in economic liberalization and ensuing cultural struggles where their funding, governance and practices reflect market imprints – even academic ideals such as originality, or social ideals such as relevance have been transformed into measurable units and thereby risk losing their historical sway. This predicament is the focus of this book.

The book explores the rise of neo-liberalization in academic system in a highly unlikely place: Sweden, a country with a strong social democratic tradition and a long history of state regulation of higher education. As an advanced welfare state with a powerful labour movement and a large public sector, market ideals and practices have been carefully curtailed historically. This notwithstanding, a neoliberal university model has evolved there, reshaping notions of academic identities, institutional directions and notions of quality. This edited collection will be of value to researchers, academics and students with an interest in organizational studies, governance, management, higher education, sociology and politics.

The COVID-19 pandemic, the surge of populism, the climate crisis and many other destabilizing factors in our time, all point at the expectation of trustworthy knowledge and reliable organization devoted to knowledge production and dissemination. However, universities remain enmeshed in economic liberalization and ensuing cultural struggles where their funding, governance and practices reflect market imprints – even academic ideals such as originality, or social ideals such as relevance have been transformed into measurable units and thereby risk losing their historical sway. This predicament is the focus of this book.

The book explores the rise of neo-liberalization in academic system in a highly unlikely place: Sweden, a country with a strong social democratic tradition and a long history of state regulation of higher education. As an advanced welfare state with a powerful labour movement and a large public sector, market ideals and practices have been carefully curtailed historically. This notwithstanding, a neoliberal university model has evolved there, reshaping notions of academic identities, institutional directions and notions of quality. This edited collection will be of value to researchers, academics and students with an interest in organizational studies, governance, management, higher education, sociology and politics.

Today most countries rely on formally organized welfare programs - in some cases to the extent that they are labeled "welfare states". These programs, which have been constructed over the last decades, make up a larger national and international system of good intentions. Overall, it appears inconceivable to imagine "civilized society" without a comprehensive organizational system of social welfare. Social welfare has become a "holy cow" in many societies; an institutionalized aspect of modern life. But how does the institutionalization of social welfare occur through the concrete activities it enacts; and why does the institutionalization of social welfare appear to be so particularly successful in relation to other institutionalizing phenomena? These are central problems for any sociological analysis of contemporary society’s organization and are the main locus of attention of this book.

Holmqvist explores how a social welfare organization becomes a self-evident phenomenon by "medicalizing" its environment: a way of "solving" social problems by viewing and treating them as medical problems. This study generates new understandings of how institutionalization of organizations comes about and contributes fresh insight to the area of social welfare policies.

Today most countries rely on formally organized welfare programs - in some cases to the extent that they are labeled "welfare states". These programs, which have been constructed over the last decades, make up a larger national and international system of good intentions. Overall, it appears inconceivable to imagine "civilized society" without a comprehensive organizational system of social welfare. Social welfare has become a "holy cow" in many societies; an institutionalized aspect of modern life. But how does the institutionalization of social welfare occur through the concrete activities it enacts; and why does the institutionalization of social welfare appear to be so particularly successful in relation to other institutionalizing phenomena? These are central problems for any sociological analysis of contemporary society’s organization and are the main locus of attention of this book.

Holmqvist explores how a social welfare organization becomes a self-evident phenomenon by "medicalizing" its environment: a way of "solving" social problems by viewing and treating them as medical problems. This study generates new understandings of how institutionalization of organizations comes about and contributes fresh insight to the area of social welfare policies.

During the past two decades, corporate management has come to take an active role in health promotion programming for employees, offering health education, screenings, therapy, and even leisure initiatives. However, little attention has been given to how contemporary worksite health programs in fact blur the traditional distinction between work and private life. This has resulted in that little research on the other side of the work-health nexus: how employers factor health considerations into workforce management and productivity control.

With the advancement of "work-site health promotion" in contemporary organizations, Holmqvist and Maravelias argue that this narrow focus, and the typical uncritical standpoint towards initiatives which are taken in the name of employees’ health, is inadequate. At a more fundamental level, the advancement of work-site health promotion may be a sign of a new or altered corporate health ethic: in contrast to the old corporate health ethic that was narrow and specific to the workplace, the new corporate health ethic appears to judge the ‘whole employee’ and especially what the whole employee may become; the risks one faces and the abilities one has to shoulder the responsibility for developing into a real corporate value. The authors suggest that health experts’ work is closely aligned with problems relating to the general management of organizations. Through a focused appraisal of this central albeit neglected occupational group in management studies, this book tries to explore and understand in some depth situations and experiences that are of general interest and concern in our society.

During the past two decades, corporate management has come to take an active role in health promotion programming for employees, offering health education, screenings, therapy, and even leisure initiatives. However, little attention has been given to how contemporary worksite health programs in fact blur the traditional distinction between work and private life. This has resulted in that little research on the other side of the work-health nexus: how employers factor health considerations into workforce management and productivity control.

With the advancement of "work-site health promotion" in contemporary organizations, Holmqvist and Maravelias argue that this narrow focus, and the typical uncritical standpoint towards initiatives which are taken in the name of employees’ health, is inadequate. At a more fundamental level, the advancement of work-site health promotion may be a sign of a new or altered corporate health ethic: in contrast to the old corporate health ethic that was narrow and specific to the workplace, the new corporate health ethic appears to judge the ‘whole employee’ and especially what the whole employee may become; the risks one faces and the abilities one has to shoulder the responsibility for developing into a real corporate value. The authors suggest that health experts’ work is closely aligned with problems relating to the general management of organizations. Through a focused appraisal of this central albeit neglected occupational group in management studies, this book tries to explore and understand in some depth situations and experiences that are of general interest and concern in our society.

Efter de två omtalade böckerna Djursholm och Handels, kommer nu Mikael Holmqvists tredje bok om Sveriges eliter: Kungen – Sveriges ledare.

2023 har Carl XVI Gustaf suttit på tronen i 50 år. Baserat på ett rikt och omfattande forskningsmaterial undersöker Mikael Holmqvist hur kungen kan förstås som ”Sveriges ledare”, utifrån nutida sociala och politiska utgångspunkter.

En central fråga är hur kungen profileras som statschef, och hur en viss image av honom har skapats. Holmqvist visar på hur kungens profil i hög grad är ett resultat av dagens marknadsekonomiska samhälles krav och förväntningar, där näringslivets eliter har kommit att bli vår tids ledare och symboler för framgång.

Genom sina aktiviteter, tal och uttalanden som landets statschef, förkroppsligar och symboliserar kungen det marknadsekonomiska samhället, där begreppet ”ledarskap” är centralt för hur han framställs, det vill säga idealiserandet av allas vår förmåga att vara aktiva, engagerade, företagsamma, entreprenöriella, och att tänka positivt.

​​"Mikael Holmqvist lyckas säga något genuint intressant om kungahuset."Dagens Nyheter

"För en gångs skull görs en systematisk analys av kungens agerande utifrån ett maktperspektiv, inte ett reportage för nöjesläsning om kungafamiljens väl och ve."Jonas Sjöstedt, Arbetet

"Petter Larsson har läst sista delen i en mästerlig trilogi om den svenska eliten."ETC

"Undersökningen är en djupt seriös och mycket omfattande studie. Genom den har Mikael Holmqvist åtgärdat en hel del av det som han själv har efterlyst."Norrbottens-Kuriren 

Efter de två omtalade böckerna Djursholm och Handels, kommer nu Mikael Holmqvists tredje bok om Sveriges eliter: Kungen – Sveriges ledare.

2023 har Carl XVI Gustaf suttit på tronen i 50 år. Baserat på ett rikt och omfattande forskningsmaterial undersöker Mikael Holmqvist hur kungen kan förstås som ”Sveriges ledare”, utifrån nutida sociala och politiska utgångspunkter.

En central fråga är hur kungen profileras som statschef, och hur en viss image av honom har skapats. Holmqvist visar på hur kungens profil i hög grad är ett resultat av dagens marknadsekonomiska samhälles krav och förväntningar, där näringslivets eliter har kommit att bli vår tids ledare och symboler för framgång.

Genom sina aktiviteter, tal och uttalanden som landets statschef, förkroppsligar och symboliserar kungen det marknadsekonomiska samhället, där begreppet ”ledarskap” är centralt för hur han framställs, det vill säga idealiserandet av allas vår förmåga att vara aktiva, engagerade, företagsamma, entreprenöriella, och att tänka positivt.

​​"Mikael Holmqvist lyckas säga något genuint intressant om kungahuset."Dagens Nyheter

"För en gångs skull görs en systematisk analys av kungens agerande utifrån ett maktperspektiv, inte ett reportage för nöjesläsning om kungafamiljens väl och ve."Jonas Sjöstedt, Arbetet

"Petter Larsson har läst sista delen i en mästerlig trilogi om den svenska eliten."ETC

"Undersökningen är en djupt seriös och mycket omfattande studie. Genom den har Mikael Holmqvist åtgärdat en hel del av det som han själv har efterlyst."Norrbottens-Kuriren