Academic interests
- Class theory and theory of elites
- Social mobility and class structuration
- Segregation and urban inequality
- Social capital and networks of power
- Social sequence analysis, correspondence analysis, social network analysis
Courses taught
Background
- Professor, 2024–
- Associate professor, 2022–2024
- Postdoctoral fellow, 2018–2022
- PhD candidate, 2014–2018
- Research assistant, 2013–2014
- MA in sociology, UiO 2013
Positions held
- Board member, Department of Sociology and Human Geography
- Board member, Norwegian Sociological Association
Awards
- Norwegian sociological association's award for best international publication in 2020/2021 for Wealth accumulation and opportunity hoarding. Class-origin wealth gaps over a quarter of a century in a Scandinavian country (American Sociological Review). With Marianne Nordli Hansen.
- His Majesty the King's Gold Medal (for 2018 PhD-dissertation, Biographies of privilege)
- Grant from The Science Studies Colloquium
- Norwegian sociological association's award for dissemination of research in various media outlets in 2018
- Norwegian sociological association's award for best international publication in 2017 for Enduring contexts. Persistent segregation by affluence throughout the life course (The Sociological Review)
- Kunnskap Oslo's award for best Oslo-related Research in 2015 for Geographies of class advantage: the influence of adolescent neighbourhoods in Oslo (Urban Studies). With Jørn Ljunggren
PhD supervision
- Iselin Hewitt's PhD project on how city planning and market-based densification impact gentrification and socioeconomic segregation
- Marte Lund Saga's PhD project on network ties between business and politics (as part of the WEB project)
- Stian Uvaag's PhD project on sibling similarities in mobility processes
Publications
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Bühlmann, Felix; Christesen, Caroline Ahler; Cousin, Bruno; Denord, Francois; Ellersgaard, Christoph Houmann & Larsen, Anton Grau
[Show all 70 contributors for this article]
(2025).
Varieties of Economic Elites? Preliminary Results From the World Elite Database (WED).
British Journal of Sociology.
ISSN 0007-1315.
76(3),
p. 663–673.
doi:
10.1111/1468-4446.13203.
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The strategies, decisions and beliefs of those who occupy prominent positions of economic power have influence on very large corporations and the markets they dominate, on vast amounts of economic resources, and on the rules of the game. However, the sociology of elites faces a dual challenge: divergent conceptualisations of what can be considered as a position of economic power and internationally incompatible sources of information hinder comparative analysis. The World Elite Database (WED) addresses this dual challenge, by generating, based on a consistent definition, standardised data for 16 countries. This research note introduces WED, its construction principles, and presents preliminary findings on how economic elites differ across countries.
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Waitkus, Nora; Savage, Mike & Toft, Maren
(2024).
Wealth and Class Analysis: Exploitation, Closure and Exclusion.
Sociology.
ISSN 0038-0385.
59(1),
p. 126–143.
doi:
10.1177/00380385241275842.
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Wealth inequalities are increasingly prominent in contemporary societies but they have not been systematically addressed by sociological class analysis. However, class analysis should have a lot to offer: in the literature on wealth inequality, wealth is often approached as a unidimensional distribution – a quantity one can possess more or less of, crystallized in notions of the Top 1%. In this theoretical intervention, we discuss ways in which class analysis can address the gravity of wealth inequality by returning to the origins in the thinking of Marx and Weber, where capital accumulation and property organization were given central stage. Drawing on more recent contributions from Bourdieu, and integrating insights from political economy, theories of racial capitalism and feminist perspectives, we outline ways to enrich class theory through attention to housing, finance, business and debt. Our intervention allows class analysis to embrace accumulation, exploitation, closure and exclusion; making it fit for purpose to address 21st-century social changes.
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Toft, Maren
(2023).
Nation-builders and market architects: How social
origins mold the careers of law graduates over
200 years in Norway.
British Journal of Sociology.
ISSN 0007-1315.
75(1),
p. 108–131.
doi:
10.1111/1468-4446.13066.
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Abstract This paper examines the types of work that jurists have historically undertaken and maps how opportunities for legal practice have been shaped by social origins across three centuries: after constitutional independence in the mid‐1800s, during nascent industrial capitalism in the mid‐1900s, and at present‐day advanced capitalism. I analyze historical archive data on law graduates from the 19th and 20th centuries in combination with administrative registry data from the 1990s onwards and employ correspondence analysis to explore how social backgrounds shape careers, considering transformations in class structures and the changing significance of juridical expertise over time. Within each period, jurists have served in very different roles including those that craft and cater to the institutional make‐up of the state and the markets. My analysis shows that the impact of social origin on occupational outcomes has undergone significant changes, mirroring shifts in the broader social structure; from the importance of legal and political capital (within regional jurisdictions) in the 19th century to the significance of economic capital as the main structuring principle, but also a greater significance of cultural capital, in contemporary times. The ability to reach the most powerful positions among law graduates—within the polity in the 19th century, and the economy in the 21st century—has been differently structured by origins. I argue that expansion of the student body, the declining standing of the university, and heightened differentiation of the social structure and the juridical field have made intimate familiarity with the business world pivotal for forging mutually beneficial alliances between jurists and the increasingly dominant capitalist class. Today, a select group of jurists have managed to connect with and contribute to the rising power of private capital. Thus, the historical tale of jurists cannot be accurately captured by notions of uniform descent from national power structures.
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Toft, Maren & Hansen, Marianne Nordli
(2022).
Dynastic cores and the borrowed time of newcomers. Wealth accumulation and the Norwegian one percent.
British Journal of Sociology.
ISSN 0007-1315.
73(2),
p. 291–314.
doi:
10.1111/1468-4446.12925.
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This paper explores the trajectories of Norwegians who, in their late-thirties, possessed financial assets, such as securities, company shares and stocks, qualifying them as the wealthiest one percent nationally. We describe the accumulation of financial wealth over a 25-year period in adulthood and study how different wealth sequences are linked to family origins and kinship ties. Although some Norwegians manage to build up large fortunes from relatively modest starting points over their life courses, we find that the value of the assets possessed by self-made individuals, and their ability to retain wealth over time, differ significantly to those based on dynastic lineage. Among the latter group, profound wealth early in adulthood and strategic positions in the economy add to propel exponential ownership of financial wealth from a young age and throughout adulthood. This chimes with C. Wright Mills' suggestion that the amassing of great fortunes is driven by two mechanisms of the big jump that enables initial asset build-up, and the accumulation of advantages that flows from advantageous economic and social ties. Kinship seems of key importance to ensure the efficacy of both mechanisms. Differences in the relationship of wealth accumulation and class origin seem to have little to do with educational strategies. We draw attention to direct wealth transfers and the institution of marriage as two little explored dimensions involved in dynastic closure.
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Toft, Maren
(2022).
Quantifying class trajectories: linking topological and temporal accounts.
BMS. Bulletin de méthodologie sociologique.
ISSN 0759-1063.
154(1),
p. 105–132.
doi:
10.1177/07591063221088321.
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In this article, I discuss the potential for quantitatively accounting of the social world as relationally constituted in both a topological and a temporal sense. As statistical procedures rest on underlying assumptions of the social world, I emphasise how multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) thinks relationally, as Bourdieu famously proclaimed, but to a lesser extent addresses the temporal pattering of social life. I point to the beneficial property of sequence analysis (SA) in thinking ‘processually’, and I argue that the combination of the two tools stimulates favourable opportunities for relational thinking in complementary ways. While adding SA to MCA inserts processual thinking into a relational space, the MCA helps embedding sequential patterns within a social structure. I critically assess this strategy by drawing on the diachronic underpinnings to Pierre Bourdieu’s oeuvre and empirically examine how his third dimension of social space – trajectory – might be ‘quantified’.
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Hansen, Marianne Nordli & Toft, Maren
(2021).
Wealth Accumulation and Opportunity Hoarding: Class-Origin Wealth Gaps over a Quarter of a Century in a Scandinavian Country.
American Sociological Review.
ISSN 0003-1224.
doi:
10.1177/00031224211020012.
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Although the Scandinavian countries are often considered to epitomize social democratic governance, Scandinavia’s profound wealth inequalities, seen in relation to the more modest income differences, constitutes a fascinating paradox. Drawing on class theoretical concerns with strategies for reproduction and a Bourdieusian emphasis on class fractions, we explore how class-origin wealth gaps evolved over the past 25 years in Norway, and how they compare to class-origin income gaps. First, we find that class-origin wealth gaps have increased in recent years, whereas income inequalities are fairly persistent among men, and increasing among women. We find that educational attainment is important for channeling income inequality, but that education is less important for understanding wealth gaps. Second, we document differences between people whose family contexts were most highly endowed with economic capital and those who grew up in families that were engaged in cultural fields or the professions. Finally, we highlight how analyses based solely on net worth neglect important ways class origin perpetuates and accelerates wealth inequalities via the acquisition of debt. We argue that recent decades have fostered new instruments for opportunity hoarding that are most successfully used by the sons and daughters of the economic upper class.
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Toft, Maren & Jarness, Vegard
(2020).
Upper-class romance: homogamy at the apex of the class structure.
European Societies.
ISSN 1461-6696.
doi:
10.1080/14616696.2020.1823009.
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This article focuses on social closure by way of marital homogamy within the upper class. It offers new insights into the social structuring of romantic partnerships, while drawing on research on assortative mating and contemporary elite and class analysis. The analysis is based on detailed data covering the entire Norwegian population. Our main point of focus is the upper class, whose patterns of partner choice have been little studied. By drawing on Bourdieu’s model of the social space, we move beyond conventional operationalisations of class. The analysis demonstrates that romantic partnerships within the upper class are structured along three dimensions of class: (i) vertical inter-class closure (upper-class individuals are disproportionately more likely to have partners in upper-class positions); (ii) horizontal intra-class closure (a tendency for marrying within the same upper-class fraction); (iii) closure by class trajectory (upwardly mobile newcomers are disproportionately more unlikely to have upper-class partners). We also demonstrate how class divisions intersect with gender divisions. Among the men, there are important differences between the upper-class fractions: the cultural fraction is more homogamous than the other fractions, and the economic fraction is comparatively more likely to have partners from lower down in the class structure.
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Toft, Maren & Flemmen, Magne
(2019).
Var klassesamfunnet noen gang på hell?
Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift.
3(2),
p. 137–155.
doi:
10.18261/issn.2535-2512-2019-02-03.
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Selv om klassebegrepet står sentralt i sosiologien, er det også omdiskutert. En rekke sosiologer har betvilt at klasse er av betydning i «senmoderne samfunn». I 1987 kom debatten til Norge, i form av boka med den megetsigende tittelen Klassesamfunnet på hell. I denne artikkelen tar vi et gjensyn med boka, og spør hvordan dens konklusjoner og spådommer har tålt tidas tann. Vi identifiserer teoretiske og metodologiske svakheter ved boka. Konklusjonen om små klasseskiller og et klassesamfunn i forvitring hviler på en teoretisk sammenblanding av det vi med Giddens kan omtale som klassesamfunn som institusjonell orden og strukturasjonen av klasseforhold. Denne sammenblandingen gjør at forfatterne forveksler endringer i klasseskillenes konkrete uttrykk med selve klassesamfunnet. Samtidig hviler konklusjonen på en metodologisk tilnærming hvor «effekten av klasse» forstås som ikke bare helt isolert fra, men òg i motsetning til, noen av klasseskillenes konstituerende elementer, som yrke og utdanning. Gjennom empiriske analyser av mønstre av inntekt, mobilitet og stemmegivning på tre tidspunkt fra 1980-tall og fram til i dag, synliggjør vi både kontinuitet og endring i klassestrukturasjon i Norge.
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Toft, Maren
(2018).
Upper-class trajectories: capital-specific pathways to power.
Socio-Economic Review.
ISSN 1475-1461.
16(2),
p. 341–364.
doi:
10.1093/ser/mwx034.
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This article explores a much theorized but rarely empirically investigated temporal component to the structuring of life chances at the apex of the class structure. By following 21 complete birth cohorts, I utilize sequence analysis and systematically explore pathways that lead to the Norwegian upper class during 10 years of adulthood. Separate analyses of each cohort map these trajectories at different stages of adult life and cross-cohort similarities are found. The analysis reveals that durable access is differentiated from long-range vertical mobility and a stepping stone function of middle-class attachment. Trajectories are also shown to be highly capital specific, thereby indicating that capital conversion within social space rarely traverses horizontal divisions. I argue that elite research and class analysis would benefit from approaching questions of processes of group formation in a manner that entails a systematic account of temporality while acknowledging the class structure in a multidimensional way. This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/
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Toft, Maren & Flemmen, Magne
(2018).
The gendered reproduction of the upper class.
In Korsnes, Olav; Heilbron, Johan; Hjellbrekke, Johannes; Bühlmann, Felix & Savage, Mike (Ed.),
New Directions in Elite Studies.
Routledge.
ISSN 9781138059191.
p. 113–133.
doi:
10.4324/9781315163796-6.
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Toft, Maren
(2018).
Mobility closure in the upper class: assessing time and forms of capital.
British Journal of Sociology.
ISSN 0007-1315.
70(1),
p. 109–137.
doi:
10.1111/1468-4446.12362.
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Most understandings of the ways classes become social groupings centre on processes of mobility closure whereby mutual appreciation and recognition within classes arise from homogenous experiences over time. The mapping of such structured biographies, however, remains understudied. This paper explores intra‐ and intergenerational mobility patterns in the upper strata of the Norwegian class structure and aims to include temporal processes and multiple forms of capital in the quantification of class trajectories. By combining multiple correspondence analysis and social sequence analysis, two important but often neglected aspects of recruitment to the upper class are emphasized: first, by introducing multiple forms of capital, different ways of maintaining mobility closure are demonstrated; second, different pathways to power are highlighted by distinguishing between divergent class careers. A key aim of the analysis is to explore internal divisions within the upper class in forms of parental capital (an ‘origin space’) and link these divisions to a typology of ‘destination careers’ in adulthood. The analysis suggests that individuals from modest origins are more likely to have careers that feature a biographically late arrival and/or short‐term affiliations to upper‐class positions whereas individuals from families rich in capital are more likely to have stable careers in the upper‐class fractions from which they originate. The analysis thus reveals important divisions in the trajectories of Norwegians who reach the upper class; not only are there differences in their upbringing in terms of the availability of different amounts and types of capital but such divisions also seem linked to their own class careers later in adulthood.
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Ljunggren, Jørn; Toft, Maren & Flemmen, Magne
(2017).
Geografiske klasseskiller : Fordelingen av goder og byrder mellom Oslos bydeler.
In Ljunggren, Jørn (Eds.),
Oslo - ulikhetenes by.
Cappelen Damm Akademisk.
ISSN 9788202521615.
p. 359–376.
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Oslo er en unik by i norsk sammenheng. Ikke bare er Oslo hovedstad, politisk maktsentrum og det nærmeste Norge kommer en internasjonal storby: Oslo er også ulikhetenes by. Ingen andre steder i Norge er det tydeligere at sosiale skiller følger geografiske skillelinjer. Det er også stor offentlig interesse for temaet. Jevnlig dukker det opp debatter om byen er «delt» eller ikke og om hva slags sosiale ulikheter som kommer i kjølvannet av omfattende nasjonal og internasjonal innvandring. Hittil har det likevel ikke kommet noen samlet forskningsinnsats om temaet.
Oslo - ulikhetenes by tilbyr nettopp dette. Med bidrag fra noen av de fremste ekspertene på temaet, fra disipliner som sosiologi, samfunnsgeografi, statsvitenskap, historie, pedagogikk, samfunnsøkonomi, sosialantropologi og arkitektur, analyseres Oslos sosiale ulikheter fra flere vinkler. I et tilgjengelig språk, uten å gå på akkord med vitenskapelige idealer, berøres sosiale ulikhet knyttet til blant annet:
Oslos historie
bostedssegregasjon, boligmarked og flytting
stemmegivning
formue
Oslo-skolen
helse
migrasjon
rus
russetid
arkitektur
gentrifisering
nabolagseffekter
livssjanser
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Flemmen, Magne; Toft, Maren; Andersen, Patrick Lie; Hansen, Marianne Nordli & Ljunggren, Jørn
(2017).
Forms of Capital and Modes of Closure in Upper Class Reproduction.
Sociology.
ISSN 0038-0385.
51(6),
p. 1277–1298.
doi:
10.1177/0038038517706325.
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We investigate the recruitment into the upper class, analysing the impact of different forms of capital and modes of closure. Unlike many Bourdieu-influenced approaches to class, we systematically investigate divisions by composition of capital: the relative weight of economic to cultural capital. We find capital-specific barriers to mobility: access to the upper class fractions is not only differentiated by one’s parents’ volume of capital or the general class hierarchy, but also by the relative weight of cultural to economic capital. Drawing on theories of social closure, we further investigate the role of two distinct modes of closure – credentialism and private property. The degree of closure differs significantly between subfractions of the upper class, based on the degree to which they refer to positions involving specific credential requirements. Our findings underline the importance of capital composition, but also that closure operates by neither credentials nor property alone.
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Toft, Maren
(2017).
Enduring contexts: Segregation by affluence throughout the life course.
Sociological Review.
ISSN 0038-0261.
66(3),
p. 645–664.
doi:
10.1177/0038026117741051.
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Although temporal processes are fundamental to the ‘spatialization of class’, they remain understudied. This article thus provides empirical evidence of residential pathways in the Oslo region over the life course; it does so by using population-wide data in a 24-year panel, while focusing on residency in affluent and deprived areas. By utilizing sequencing and clustering techniques, the analysis shows that exposure to dense poverty and affluence is reproduced and intensified within individual biographies; this is indicative of vastly limited life experiences from late adolescence into adulthood. Accordingly, the relationship between class origins and class destinations that is often reported in studies of class mobility is likely to be reinforced due to prolonged experiences in advantaged or disadvantaged surroundings over time. Rather than being ‘stuck in place’, however, the disadvantaged are more geographically mobile and less spatially isolated than their affluent counterparts. The socio-spatial patterns suggest that the affluent employ strategies of spatial withdrawal that may be enabled by a dual process of closure consisting of the extensive marketization of housing and classed sentiments of belonging. The article argues that revealing the way in which spatially mediated contexts unfold throughout the life course seems to hint at spatialized processes of class structuration, thereby shedding light on contemporary inequality.
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Rye, Johan Fredrik & Toft, Maren
(2025).
Michael Burawoy (1947-2025): En sosiologisk klassiker - Sosiologen.
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Med UC Berkeley-professoren Michael Burawoys brutale dødsfall mandag 3. februar er en sosiologisk klassiker gått ut av disiplinens rekker.
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Toft, Maren
(2025).
Sosiopodden - Episode 14, Formuer og familiebånd: Økende formuesulikhet i Norge.
[Internet].
Podcast.
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Toft, Maren
(2024).
Sociology Seminar Series, Nuffield College: Harvesting the family tree: kinship, capital and big business.
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Toft, Maren
(2023).
Rike barn leker best. Utdrikningslaget gir et sjeldent innblikk i vennskapet og nettverket til norske milliardærarvinger.
[Journal].
VG.
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Toft, Maren
(2023).
Destinasjon Frankfurt. Sosiolog Maren Toft fyller venstresidas kanon med kritisk teori, by-og-land-konflikt, migrasjon og emosjonelt arbeid.
[Journal].
Klassekampen.
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Toft, Maren
(2021).
Hiring, matching, elites, and the bank of mum and dad: culture inequality, and social mobility.
[Internet].
Culture and inequality podcast.
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Toft, Maren
(2021).
«Vi sitter nederst ved bordet». Skam og stigma oppstår ikke av seg selv, men påføres av noen, viser en ny bok.
[Journal].
Morgenbladet.
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Toft, Maren & Hansen, Marianne Nordli
(2021).
Hvem foreldrene dine er, betyr stadig mer i Norge.
[Journal].
Forskning.no.
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Toft, Maren
(2021).
“Stayin
“Stayin' Rich in Norway : ' Rich in Norway : Methodological Tools Methodological Tools to to Research the Research the UpperUpper--Classes”Classes”.
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Toft, Maren
(2018).
De som lever i vedvarende rikdom gjennom hele livet, er blant de aller mest isolerte her i landet.
[Internet].
Forskning.no.
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Toft, Maren & Flemmen, Magne
(2017).
Was class society really ever on the wane? Revisiting and reframing the 'Death of class' debate.
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Toft, Maren & Ljunggren, Jørn
(2016).
Å vokse opp i en klassedelt by.
Agenda Magasin.
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Det kanskje vanligste spørsmålet vi stiller til nye bekjentskaper – «hva holder du på med?» – handler om mer enn at vi trenger noe annet enn været å snakke om.
Grovt sagt fungerer ens yrke (eller fravær av yrkesaktivitet) ofte som en god indikator på langt mer enn de konkrete oppgavene vi gjør mellom åtte og fire. Men hva slags typer jobber man har, er sjelden bare et utslag av rene tilfeldigheter. Mye av forskjellene i folks muligheter og valg i livet kan spores tilbake til barndommen og det vi i sosiologien ofte omtaler som «sosial bakgrunn».
Til tross for store nasjonale variasjoner og historiske endringer, er det fortsatt en sammenheng mellom det å ha ressurssterke foreldre og ens livssjanser. En rekke utfall i livet henger sammen med ens tilgang til ressurser i barndommen, og disse ressursene kan være av ulik art.
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Toft, Maren
(2016).
Ungdom med velstående naboer har større sjanser senere i livet.
[Radio].
Radio Nova: Opplysningen 99.3.
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Toft, Maren
(2015).
Trajectories in the Norwegian field of power.
Intragenerational class mobility: a holistic approach.
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Toft, Maren
(2018).
Biographies of privilege: Spatiotemporal structures of upper-class formation.
Universitetet i Oslo.
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The point of departure for the study is the central emphasis placed on biographical experiences for elucidating processes of group formation in sociological theory. The study devotes specific attention to contextualized accounts of class biographies in both time, space and according to the dynamics of class fractions. Class analysis often relies on temporal snapshots, disregards intra-class variation, and abstracts class reproduction away from the spatialized contexts in which much social life is played out. Notwithstanding the growing attention devoted to both space and class fractions in recent contributions, a key argument in the study is that these matters remain insufficiently linked to temporal dynamism and life course variation. Thematically, the articles deal with three biographical features that are anticipated to promote homogenized experiences along class divisions; in addition to the conventional interest in intra- and intergenerational class immobility, the study adds ‘contextual immobility’ as indicated by the degree to which one’s neighbourly environment is reproduced over time.
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Published
May 12, 2015 1:18 PM
- Last modified
Aug. 14, 2026 10:21 AM
