This dissertation is about coffee bars. In it I ask how and why they have emerged in the urban sphere, how they function and how they may be interpreted as indicators of structural changes on a societal level. To put it briefly: what is it that makes coffee bars so successful in modern society?
I also ask another question: how do coffee bars contribute to a new perspective on urbanity, and what characterizes this urbanity?
I decided to study coffee bars – as a phenomenon – since they aroused my curiosity about how changes in the urban environment occur. In Oslo, I had observed that in the space of a few years coffee bars went from being rare and almost exotic places to becoming part of the everyday urban
environment.
When a phenomenon arises, survives an initial boom and slowly but surely becomes integrated in the urban fabric, to the point that it becomes a natural part of it, it must have some qualities that are worth investigating.
Consequently, I began to visit coffee bars systematically: observing, taking notes and engaging in conversations. I soon came to feel that many coffee bars represented something new; that their success in a prosaic and pragmatic way reflected unmet needs. Therefore, the dissertation started out as an empirical study, in which I studied the origins of the coffee bars, their history, their design features; observed life in coffee bars; and interviewed users, workers, owners and designers. During this investigation it became apparent to me that the coffee bars I surveyed had qualities that transcended a purely pragmatic approach.
I then asked myself: Is there something in the way they work that suggests a deeper transformation of the urban sphere and its social and cultural fabric?
On the basis of these questions I decided to enlarge the dissertation and include several theoretical perspectives; this is also reflected in the structure of the dissertation.
Chapter 2 describes the methodology applied in the dissertation; discusses questions that emerged during the course of the fieldwork; and offers an interpretation of the empirical data. One of the essential questions for the social scientist concerns the relation between structure and agency; between the work, ambitions, actions and behavior of individuals, and the power of surrounding social structures. Chapter 2 elaborates on this discussion and locates the dissertation within this debate.
Chapter 3 continues the theoretical discussion by examining the term
“urbanity”. This term is essential in the dissertation; it is mentioned in the title of the dissertation, and is of vital importance for understanding the
“coffee bar phenomenon”.
Chapter 4 is devoted to the urban history of coffee, and includes a brief description of the period from the emergence of coffee bars until the present day.
Chapter 5 is dedicated to the question of the design of coffee bars. A coffee bar is typically distinguished by distinct design features, which may be related to an international design typology. Coffee bars also attract a variety of customers, and the chapter includes a quantitative description of
customers. The chapter also includes a mapping and overview of the coffee bars in Oslo; the maps show location and how the number of coffee bars has increased over the years.
Chapter 6 investigates the motives and ideas of the entrepreneurs who established the four Oslo coffee bars that are closely studied in this dissertation. The chapter refers to the agent’s perspectives concerning localization and principle business ideas, and also includes a discussion of a coffee bar’s impact on its surroundings, and the entrepreneurs’ reflections and general views regarding coffee and urbanity.
Chapter 7 examines the customers of the coffee bars; it describes how they act, what they seek, what they find and how they reflect on their participation.
Chapter 8 carries out a similar exploration of the coffee bars’ employees, the baristas. These men and women who operate the espresso machines, serve coffee and keep the queue in order are vital to maintaining the quality of coffee bars. Their work ethos, motivation and practices are explored and discussed.
The empirical findings set out in these chapters raise several questions regarding the coffee bar phenomenon.
Chapter 9 discusses the empirical findings’ implications for the term urbanity, and how urbanity in contemporary society is in the process of being
reformulated. The chapter attempts to locate the empirical findings within the relevant landscape of literature and theory, so that these questions may be discussed substantively. Chapter 10 carries out an excursion into the coffee bars more visible and sensory features. Coffee bars can be understood as representing a visual sensibility and also as signifying the term urbanity.
These qualities represent a resource in an economy where symbolic aspects are becoming increasingly important.
Chapter 11 is titled Conclusions and speculations, and represents my attempt to sum up the findings of the dissertation and establish links with the other chapters. I also include a discussion of the relationship between agents and structure, and try to outline a perspective on urbanity that enriches the arguments. Most importantly, I discuss explanations that can shed light on the main research question of this thesis, summing up the sub-questions mentioned above (and detailed below) into an overarching one: What features of coffee bars have made them into an important and growing phenomenon in our society?
In answering this question, I will consider the following questions:
• What historical context do coffee bars operate in? (recent historical background, Chapter 4)
• How does the design of coffee bars affect the spaces they occupy? (Chapter 5)
• What is the driving force behind the entrepreneurs who establish the coffee bars? (Chapter 6)
• How do the coffee bars function in relation to their customers?
(Chapter 7)
• What kind of every day practices are found in the coffee bars?
(Chapter 7)
• Do coffee bars provide an opportunity for solitude, or are they in reality more social? (Chapter 7)
• What is the role of the coffee bars’ employees? (Chapter 8)
• Do coffee bars have characteristics that can broaden our understanding of what constitutes contemporary urbanity?
(Chapter 9)
o How do individuals in search of reflexivity and self-confronting practices contribute to altered perceptions of the dominant theories of urbanity? (Chapter 9) o Does the inner life of coffee bars represent a type of
social and cultural change that can also broaden our understanding of urban life? (Chapter 9)
o Do coffee bars represent fertile ground for challenging influential theories regarding public space? (Chapter 9)