Performing Legitimacy ― Studies in High Culture and the Public Sphere

The book is an investigation of the cultural work involved in the social process of achieving and maintaining legitimacy as a not-for-profit arts or media organization in the twenty-first century. Within this work, Larsen advances a cultural approach to studying organizational legitimacy, emanating from within cultural sociology. More specifically, he analyzes the legitimation work done in the public service broadcasters in Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark), the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Hakon Larsen is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway. He has been a visiting scholar at Yale University, University of California – Berkeley, Northwestern University, and Stockholm University.