#11941. The unwilling foils of the political right: The cultural elite in Swedish and Norwegian newspapers

July 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Sociology and Political Science;
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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 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. We find that there is a higher percentage of references to artists and those with authority over culture production, while the cultural elite are referred to as academics and culture policy influencers more often. 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. The cultural elite are described as both 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 stronge.
Keywords:
Configurations; Cultural elite; cultural repertoires; polarization; politics

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