Geek Culture As a New ‘Image’ of Contemporary Culture

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the theoretical grounding of geek culture as a unique contemporary phenomenon, based on structural-functional, evolutionary, and systemic methodology within the overarching culturological approach. We verify the meaning of such concepts as `geek', `geek community', and `geek culture'; explore the role and the characteristics of geek culture as a supra-subculture; analyze its global universal features and the specifics of its Russian variant; describe a unique characteristic of geek culture as a self-organizing system; and highlight the dualistic features of geek culture as a `marker' of contemporary social processes.