Hip and Cool: A Study of Distinction & Exclusion

SOCIOL XL 191V

This course explores the past, present, and future of hip and cool. Examine the social psychology of the hipster; the roles of race, class, gender, and location; and see how hipness is marketed, purchased, and performed.

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What you can learn.

Develop definitions of hip, cool, and the modern hipster
Learn to clearly identify distinguishing characteristics of hipsters from different eras
Learn the connection between mindset and subculture
Learn about how cultures influence and create personality types
Understand the relationship between marketing, trends, taste, and behavior
Learn ethnographic skills, culminating in an ethnographic field research project

About this course:

This course explores the past, present, and future of hip and cool. Students examine the social psychology of the hipster; social dynamics that create the hipster; the cultural and personal production of style and taste; the roles of race, class, gender and location in the production of the hip and cool; how hipness is produced by both the culture and the individual; and see how hipness is marketed, purchased, performed, and transformed through the use of clothing and music. Learning is grounded in academic and popular texts, and informed through ethnographic field investigations of the production of the hip in Los Angeles. Transferable for UC Credit.