Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-6th-edition.csl
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Geek nostalgia: the reflective and restorative defence of white male geek culture
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6050-7020
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Mathematics Education. (UmSER)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3614-1692
Independent Academic, UK.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4902-5519
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6413-6538
2024 (English)In: New Media and Society, ISSN 1461-4448, E-ISSN 1461-7315Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

During recent decades, geek culture has become increasingly visible, and the geek has left the cultural margins, becoming more popular than ever. At the same time, nostalgia has emerged as a central component of geek culture. Framed by a post-structural understanding of gender and race and drawing on cultural theorist Svetlana Boym’s distinction between reflective and restorative nostalgia, this article explores how and why geeks nostalgically long for a time when they were largely marginalized. We combine readings of Swedish online geek podcasts and YouTube channels with ethnographic visits to geek conferences and pop-cultural “geek fairs,” such as Comic Con and SciFiWorld. We argue that geek nostalgia represents a clinging on to a “constitutive wound,” allowing the geek figure to mobilize masculine victimhood in ways that simultaneously underpin geek privilege and allow the geek to continue operating as a white male gatekeeper of geek culture.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2024.
Keywords [en]
Geek culture, gender, masculinity, nostalgia, race
National Category
Educational Sciences Ethnology Media and Communication Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-221477DOI: 10.1177/14614448241232067Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85185910257OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-221477DiVA, id: diva2:1840539
Part of project
The Geek as gatekeeper? Changing relations between gender, race and technology, Swedish Research Council
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-03401Available from: 2024-02-25 Created: 2024-02-25 Last updated: 2025-02-18

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(243 kB)652 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 243 kBChecksum SHA-512
67e70fcf87f5680ec74b7498d273845dfb51d1d079b63ad2924d645c477314c72c5726ee89e67bf546228dbabace72bc02bf7e9c897b948015f508857b7da75c
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Berge, MariaSilfver, Eva

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ottemo, AndreasBerge, MariaMendick, HeatherSilfver, Eva
By organisation
Department of Science and Mathematics EducationDepartment of Education
In the same journal
New Media and Society
Educational SciencesEthnologyMedia and Communication Studies

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 653 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 840 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-6th-edition.csl
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf