The unwilling foils of the political right: The cultural elite in Swedish and Norwegian newspapers

Abstract

Using classic elite understandings as our point of departure, we specify the constituent elements and repertoires of the cultural elite as these are described in Swedish and Norwegian newspapers. Through qualitative and quantitative content analyses, we contextualize and compare the cultural elite through five occupational categories and five main themes, and we ask how these characterizations affect the role this elite plays in politics. Also, we suggest a theoretical apparatus for how to link thematic analysis to national cultural repertoires and configurations. We find that there is a higher percentage of references to artists and those with authority over culture production in Sweden than in Norway, while the cultural elite are referred to as academics and culture policy influencers more often in Norway. Another finding is a high level of similarity between the two countries’ view of the cultural elite as snobbish, politically correct, powerful, arrogant and privileged. The study shows that the cultural elite are drawn into a media logic in which they are portrayed as despised adversaries of ordinary people. However, the cultural elite is a more politically contentious label in Sweden than in Norway. The Swedish cultural elite are described as both more cherished and more despised. Moreover, access to membership in the cultural elite is more difficult, and the polarization between the cultural elite and ordinary people is stronger in Sweden.

A revolt of the deplored? The role of perceived cultural distance in the educational gradient in anti‐establishment politics

“…Linked to these experiences are what Lamont ( 2018 , p. 424) terms “recognition gaps,” in which “worth and cultural membership [become associated] with upper‐middle‐ or middle‐class identity, occupation, and lifestyle, attributes that are now out of reach for a growing segment of the population.” Consequently, the lower strata may perceive themselves and are likely “to be perceived by others, as ‘losers’” (Lamont, 2018 , p. 424). Similarly, Krogstad and Stark ( 2020 , p. 8) illustrate how a Norwegian newspaper taps into such feelings of misrecognition by describing “the cultural elite as an ‘exclusive circle’ [and] ‘haughty’ individuals who view ordinary people as inferior, or, in the alleged language of the cultural elite, as ‘stupid’, ‘vulgar’ or ‘uneducated morons’.”…”

“…Moreover, recent studies have hinted at how many (populist) politicians capitalize on the perception of distance to the cultural tastes and values, and alleged arrogance, of the cultural elite more broadly (see, e.g., Krogstad & Stark, 2020 ; Westheuser, 2020 ), and establishment politicians in particular (see e.g., Lamont et al., 2017 ; Norris & Inglehart, 2019 ). These politicians would signal their alleged “‘imagined sameness’ with the people” (Krogstad & Stark, 2020 , p. 10) and “exploit and deepen mistrust of elites” (Norris & Inglehart, 2019 , p. 91). Anecdotal examples of how establishment politicians are often far removed from, and even frown on, the life‐world of the lower social strata equally abound.…”

Symbolic Violence and the Social Space: Self-imposing the Mark of Disgrace?

“…This is not to suggest that symbolic boundary drawing between the classes is not at play. The categories of ‘white trash’ (Hartigan, 1997), ‘chav’ (Tyler, 2008), ‘culture elite’ (Jarness, 2017; Krogstad and Stark, 2021), and ‘snobs’ (Lindell, 2020) testify to the existence of both exclusionary and usurpationary boundary drawings across the social space (Jarness and Flemmen, 2019; Lindell, 2020).…”

“…One such struggle concerns legitimate culture and lifestyles (Bourdieu, 1984). Here, those wielding significant volumes of cultural capital – the cultural elites (Jarness, 2017; Krogstad and Stark, 2021), or the taste keepers (Hovden and Knapskog, 2014) – tend to come out on top. By contrast, people lacking the resources to ‘properly’ move about in the cultural realm have been targets of stigmatization by way of constructs like ‘chav’ (Tyler, 2008) or ‘white trash’ (Hartigan, 1997).…”

Klebrige og bevegelige metaforer om eliter og folk

“…For eksempel beskrives den økonomiske eliten som vulgaer, indiskre og bråkete (Jarness, 2015, s. 11-12). Samtidig er det den relativt sett mindre mektige kultureliten, de smakselitistiske og «caffelatte-drikkende åndssnobbene med urbane adresser», som utsettes for størst offentlig forakt (Haarr, 2009;Krogstad & Stark, 2020). Kategorien folk, derimot, skaper helt andre forestillinger.…”