Boundary Trouble: Struggles for Aesthetic Sphere Autonomy in Norway

This article discusses major culture controversies occurring in Norway over the last decades as instances of boundary blurring between the aesthetic and non-aesthetic spheres, focusing on aesthetic sphere actors’ struggles for autonomy. Drawing on influential sociological theories, it examines how the spheres of state, market, civil, intimate relations, and religion are perceived as threatening aesthetic sphere autonomy, both by aesthetic sphere and non-aesthetic sphere actors. The analysis identifies key figures who are able to transform aesthetic sphere discussions, practices, and decisions into public sphere controversies, and it explores the repair activities used to restore legitimate relations between social spheres. Finally, it assesses whether the aesthetic sphere’s legitimate relations with other spheres are characterized as autonomous or semi-autonomous, and how current relations are evaluated by actors both inside and outside the sphere of aesthetics. The article demonstrates that contemporary struggles for aesthetic sphere autonomy are complex and involve numerous actors, and that the legitimacy of inter-sphere relations is context dependent.