This research address the topic of hipster phenomenon and its discursive manifestations in the online magazine VICE. The theoretical part of the thesis submits the basic discursive frameworks which serve as a theoretical anchoring for the practical part based on discursive analysis of the articles. The analysis itself is based on 11 articles mainly from the section ​Remembering the Hipster, ​which was chosen as the most appropriate for this study. The aim of the thesis is to explore the main discursive manifestations of hipster culture in those articles and to find out, whether those reproduced manifestations overlap with identified categories from the theoretical part, or whether they differ from each other. The main purpose of this analysis is then to find out what does it mean to be ​hipster according to VICE magazine contributors.

Denna C-uppsats behandlar hipsterkultur ur ett dramaturgiskt perspektiv. Hipsterkultur som fenomen är paradoxalt med flera oeniga åsikter om kulturens innebörd och med ett begränsat forskningsfält med få vetenskapliga studier gjorda i Sverige. Genom deltagande observationer inom fyra olika institutioner i SoFo på Södermalm, Stockholm syftar vår studie till att öka förståelsen för hur hipsterkultur iscensätts i dagens svenska samhälle. Vidare appliceras teoretiska begrepp från sociologen Erving Goffman såsom ‘framträdande’, ‘scenmiljö’ och ‘centrala aktörer’ vid analys av empiriskt material från dessa deltagande observationer. Våra upptäckter visar att hipsterkultur inte längre stilmässigt innefattar samma yttre attribut som beskrivs i tidigare forskning, utan har utvecklats till en ny, modern version med nya trender att följa.

The report includes a study that underlies a development of a 3TEMP Hipster thermos. The report includes development of a new concept with suitable material that is supported by calculations. The entire process from requirement specification to a completed concept of the thermos is in detail described. The quality of the thermos in terms of usability and design has been beneath required level and is wished to be improved. A central part of the project includes a study of a spiral shaped tank consisting of spiral wound pipes as a alternative. The study showed by replacing the traditional cylindrical tank with a spiral shaped pipe instead resulted in an increased mass, higher heat loss while filling. However, the improved and increased isolation thickness results in a improved insulation effect than existing thermos that favor it while being used. The thermos contains a design that symbolise quality and exclusivity. The electropolished austenitic stainless steel SS-2333 is by the dimension 25.4 x 1.65 mm in order to allow roll bending as manufacturing method to create the tank system where the material also improved the quality of the thermos. The study also resulted in alternative material to apply for the thermos such as phenolic foam and austenitic stainless steel AISI 205 in order to increase the quality of the thermos. Also, Tomlinson tap is utilized to increase the usability for the customers. The solution of alternative is also presented as a geometry modelling in CAD and was shaped to meet 3TEMP’s requirements.

The aim of this paper is to make a cultural analysis of how young Swedes present themselves and review other’s presentations on the dating application Tinder. I have interviewed seven people between the age of 20 and 34 with experiences from using Tinder and/or other dating applications and websites. Characteristic for my informants is that they have a completed or ongoing higher education, that they call themselves feminists and have leftist political views. These common characteristics have influenced my results, which I have pointed out in my analysis.    I have done a thematic analysis, which means that I have highlighted interesting themes brought up by the informants during the interviews.  These have been further analyzed from the theoretical concepts of self-presentation, gender and social class.      In addition to the interviews, I have conducted a self-reflective analysis of how I present myself and judge other people's profiles on Tinder. Since I am a young university student and consider myself to be a feminist with leftist valuations, it could be expected that I have similar preferences and ways of interpreting other people's Tinder profiles as my informants.      As the results show, my informants have more or less deliberately used different strategies to control what kind of impression their profile visitors get of them. Most of the informants express a strong political awareness and believe that it is important that their dating partner have similar values ​​as themselves. They often make judgments of which values other people have based on what kind of clothing style, poses and gestures they present themselves with on Tinder. But even though my informants seem to have very clear criteria for what kind of persons they want to date, some of them also express a curiosity about meeting people with values, styles and tastes that differs from their own.        One of my informants had different experiences from Tinder than the others, since she was the only one who used the dating application to meet persons of the same sex. How LGBTQ people experience Tinder is a subject that would be interesting to do some further research on.

This thesis forms a sociological investigation of the ‘hipster’ subculture that has grown in importance in recent years. Using the methodology of semiotic analysis, it examines the trends and themes shown by the images that hipsters post on the microblogging website Tumblr, as well as analysing hipster journalism, texts and companies. This communication is conceptualised with reference to Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality in order to show that hipsters communicate in a way that distorts the perception of real space and results in the abstraction of the meaning of ideas like “global” and “local”. It also explores the importance of secret knowledge in a community that manages to be both secretive and extremely open, comparing this example with the historical case of the Beat Generation, who hipsters have adopted as their progenitors, and discusses how their influence drives the hipster to view the world as a literary text to be re-read and re-interpreted.

Sedan 00-talet har hipstern blivit synonymt med unga, trendkänsliga och urbana människor som anammar en särskild livsstil och bosätter sig i gamla arbetarklasskvarter. Syftet med denna studie är att studera hur hipstern skildras i media i relation till klass och plats, med fokus på den mediala bilden av hipstern i Stockholm. Studiens teoretiska urvalsram bygger på Bourdieus teorier om kulturellt kapital och klass samt hans analys av den nya medelklassen – the new petit bourgoisie. Genom att tillämpa sig av Bourdiues kulturella kapital kan man studera hipsterns livsstil och smakpreferenser. Studien bygger på en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av 19 tidningsartiklar som publicerats mellan 1 januari-13 och 30 april-14. Utifrån en abduktiv ansats undersöktes underliggande teman, diskurser i materialet. Studien visar att hipstern kan knytas till en kreativ och medveten medelklass som använder sig av sitt kulturella kapital för att uttrycka en unik livsstil och ockuperar kreativa yrken inom media och kultur. Vidare finns det en stark koppling mellan hipsters och Södermalm. Materialet visade även på att det finns en viss avsky gentemot hipstern. Vidare diskuteras huruvida hipstern ska ses som tillhörandens av en ny fraktion av medelklassen som utmanar rådande dominerande livsstilar med sin livsstil. Som förslag till vidare forskning diskuteras hur man kan studera hipstern i relation till nya former av kulturellt kapital samt bredda den sociologiska diskussionen kring hipsters.

The thesis deals with the problems of a community of young nonconformist on the labour market, specifically the community of hipsters. The theoretical part is focused on explanation of terms - community, generation, nonconformity and labour market. The practical part is devoted to a description of community, an analysis of topics arising from the research community and resulting from the theoretical part of thesis and then an interpretation of the research results on the labour market with the use of sociological methods. The goal of thesis was processed of data using a case study, which it describes and analyzes the main aspects of community´s life, the working life in this case. I consider the main contribution of this thesis a description of nonconformist´s behaviour in this community on the labour market, which can be useful for companies to know, because they are maybe concerned about the employment of people from this subculture.

This research seeks to address the topic of the influence of the YouTube advertising on society as seen by the members of hipster subculture. This work aims to explore the attitude of hipsters towards the YouTube thanks to an analysis of the interviews and also with the help of a theoretical framework of core concepts such as subculture, hipster, lifestyle or advertising practices. The reason I address hipster attitudes is the fact, that hipster phenomenon has become widespread nowadays. Moreover, those individuals are associated with skeptical stance towards the mainstream trends. Therefore, I have decided to confront the ostensibly distrustful view of hipsters towards YouTube as a representative of modern mainstream and then analyze self-proclaimed attitudes of hipsters as such.

The purpose of this essay is to show how femininity is construed in a visual hipster discourse. The material used mainly consists of four adverts from the fashion company American Apparel and four blogs with the word hipster in the title. The method used is inspired by semiotics and discourse analysis and the theory is based on feminist visual culture. Focus is placed on both a deep analysis of the images and texts individually, and a review of the discourse and context in which they interact, in order to discover how femininity is construed among hipsters. Throughout the course of the analysis, gender and sexuality is a consistent focus and leads to other aspects related to power not being prioritised. The analysis section is divided into two main areas of focus where American Apparel is the first part and the hipster blogs the other. Each section begins with an analysis of images and text and is concluded with a summary. In the concluding discussion, it becomes clear that sexist images are used to represent women primarily by American Apparel, but this stereotype is also apparent in the blogs. It is also clear from the analysis of the material that unique and alternative fashion is promoted. Rather than re-contextualising femininity, the traditional objectification of women is hidden behind the hipster ideal. The essay concludes with several brief thoughts and discussion on whether it is possible to apply this ideal of women on a larger part of society than just hipsters.

After examining Harmony Korine's feature films, shorts, art installations, music videos, paintings, and novel, a clear pattern of stereotyping and misappropriating African American aesthetics emerges. This thesis addresses the mass appropriation of hip-hop aesthetics by whites, and Korine's complicity in this cultural phenomenon. Additionally, it explores the notion of hipster racism, Carmen Van Kerckhove’s term for respected artists who feel enlightened enough to stereotype in an ironic or comedic manner. Looking closely at cultural appropriation in Spring Breakers, this thesis considers hipster racism and the notion of modern-day minstrelsy. / text