Egalitarian consecration : The making of egalitarian Norway and historical elite institutions

Abstract

What are historic elite institutions, and what is it like to be part of them in what is described as a distinctive egalitarian culture? While previous studies of elites in Norway have taken a quantitative approach and focused on social reproduction, this dissertation takes a qualitative approach and examines cultural aspects and concrete experiences of being part of historic elite institutions. Halvorsen examines elite schools and literary criticism as examples of elite institutions—that is, institutions associated with certain cultural notions of “elite.” The study finds a number of different ways actors relate to being part of historic elite institutions. Among other things, it finds that being part of an institution with elite traditions does not necessarily mean being interested in elite culture or ending up holding an elite position oneself; rather, both the elite-school pupils and the literary critics interviewed struggle with these notions and instead attach themselves to the egalitarian tradition. Thus, the dissertation argues that egalitarian traditions are not a veil to hide elite affiliation, but that understandings of elite in Norway are strongly shaped by the egalitarian tradition.