This is where the international research project Wealth and Social Cohesion from a Relational Perspective (WESOREL), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and running from 2025 to 2029, comes in. The project takes this open question seriously and turns attention to an area that has so far received little scrutiny. Most research on inequality and social cohesion focuses on income, even though wealth is far more unequally distributed and shapes everyone’s life in more fundamental ways. We know a great deal about how wealthy elites use their position, through lobbying, philanthropy, or media ownership. But we know much less about what their growing distance means for everyone else: for trust in institutions, for everyday solidarity, and for the sense that the same rules apply to all. In short, for the glue that holds societies together.

WESOREL shifts the perspective. At its core is the concept of relative wealth: not just how much those at the top own, but how far they have pulled away from everyone else. As this gap widens, it may gradually undermine the foundations of social cohesion. To better understand these dynamics, the project combines large-scale international survey data with in-depth studies in Germany, Chile, and the United States. Its findings, along with an open-access database on relative wealth measures, will be made available to researchers, policymakers, and the wider public.