MED EN SCHYSST SERIESTAD KAN MAN SLÅ HELA VÄRLDEN MED HÄPNAD OM SERIESTADEN MALMÖ, DESS AKTÖRER OCH SERIENÄTVERK

Abstract

This master thesis in ethnology explores the creative actors and networks in Seriestaden Malmö (Comic City Malmö). A concept created by comic writer, comic scholar and critic Gunnar Krantz in 1999, but now a part of the the city of Malmös cultural branding. In Malmö, Swedens 3rd largest city, there is, both from active indivuals and collectives/networks/organisations/institutions as well as from the people working with the city council, a great interest in comics. In different ways and for different reasons. The city council wants to use the brand Seriestaden Malmö to put Malmö on a cultural map. To establish a unique cultural identity. This master thesis, through field work and interviews with active actors in the comic scene i the city, explores how this cultural identity as Seriestaden affects their lives. Mainly on a professional level. Malmö has one of Swedens most famous schools for comics – Serieskolan (The Comic School) – as well as a few university courses. This master thesis then examines how Malmö through a industrial crisis went from a industrial town to a town focused on culture and education. Gentrification and cultural branding effects, and are affected, by the actors in the often small networks of comic writers in different ways. Fanzine and underground culture is a part of Seriestaden Malmö. Using the theories of Pierre Bourdieus symbolic capital and social capital and Sharon Zukins as cities as symbolic economy – that unifies material practices of finance, labor, art, performance and design – this analysis of Seriestaden Malmö, shows how based on the either the individual comic or the comic network/collectives position(s) and symbolic and social capital, he/she/they interact with this cultural branding in different ways. There are several different comics and networks in Malmö. All using comics in their own way. This helps to create a diverse picture of what comics are and should be. It also makes the idea of Seriestaden Malmö a question of ”cultures”, rather than a unified culture.