Cultural Diversity and Subcultures

Question 1

Cultural Diversity

Answer 1

The existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

Question 2

Subculture

Answer 2

In complex, diverse societies in which people have come from many different parts of the world, people often retain much of their original cultural traditions and form subcultures within a larger culture.

Question 3

Subculture Examples

Answer 3

Teachers, police, Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Havana, Harlem, teenagers, and ‘Little India’ where there are lots of South Asian residents, restaurants and shops - for instance in Southall, London.

Question 4

Counterculture

Answer 4

A culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture.

Question 5

Hebdige (1995)

Answer 5

Subcultures bring like-minded individuals who feel neglected by society together and allow them to develop their identity.

Question 6

Functionalists and Subcultures

Answer 6

In any given society there is a mainstream or consensus way of life, and those who do not conform to it belong to subcultures - though this does not mean that they are entirely separate from the mainstream culture.

Question 7

Mods and Rockers

Answer 7

• Stanley Cohen is generally recognized as first coining the term “moral panic”
• In Folk Devils and Moral Panics, Cohen described how the Mods and Rockers—two relatively small, disorganized youth “gangs” that had been in existence in England for years—suddenly attracted widespread media and public attention, leading to police crackdowns, stiffer sentencing, and calls for new legislative initiatives to deal with the “problem”
• Cohen observed that the Mods and Rockers actually caused relatively little in the way of measurable harm, and that they soon disappeared altogether from the public imagination

Question 8

Punks

Answer 8

Wore messy, baggy, ripped up clothes with black eye makeup and hair painted green, yellow, and red.

Question 9

Teddy Boys

Answer 9

Working-class British adolescents who adopted styles in menswear that had a somewhat Edwardian flavor, which were longer jackets with more shaping, high turned-back lapels, cuffed sleeves, waistcoats, and narrow trousers. Adapted these styles to make an elongated, loose jacket with wide, padded shoulders, narrow trousers.

Question 10

Goth

Answer 10

Person who follows the fashion of wearing black and white make-up and black clothes