topic 4: conflict theories — marxism, neo-marxist and feminist Flashcards
define Marxism
Structuralist theory
Conflict 🤬 theory
Conflict stems from capitalism and fundamentally unequal, oppressive class system
Conflict of interests between bourgeoisie + proletariat
🔺
Hebdige on general youth subcultures 🎃💥
— working class youth form POLITICALLY MOTIVATED SUBCULTURES
— challenging class inequality 🔺
- used GRAMSCI (neo-marxist): youth aren’t yet fully dominated by ruling class so can still CHALLENGE
- still have capacity for free thought 🧠, not yet socialised into capitalism 🛍
— youth subcultures SYMBOLICALLY RESIST societal problems
— spectacular styles resist cultural hegemony 👩🎤
— status
— community
— sense of protecting territory
^ IMAGINARY SOLUTIONS: capitalism is never actually solved
- capitalist society quickly adapts: INCORPORATION
(capitalism commercialises 🛍 youth cultural styles, stripping away ideological importance)
Bennett (youth culture, punk)
criticises CCCS (centre for contemporary cultural studies)
Punk ISN’T expression of working class: mainly just middle class art 🖼 students
postmodernism against marxism on youth subcultures
based on INDIVIDUALISM, STYLE, SHARED MEANING, not rebellion against capitalism 🚫🛍
some youth subcultures SUPPORT CAPITALISM (King and Smith 👑🐎)
some provide functions that help shape future capitalistic regimes (functionalism, anomie, transition)
feminism against Hebdige on youth subcultures
he ignores that REBELLION AGAINST PATRIARCHY is cause for female deviant youth subcultures (Pussy Riot, ladettes)
Stuart Hall et al — Policing the Crisis
mugging 1970s 🇬🇧
MORAL PANIC 😱 about black men being muggers
—> complete over-exaggeration created by media, causing huge unnecessary concern over public safety
UK Capitalism faced social + economical unrest in early 70s
—> creating moral panic helped capitalism in 2 ✌️ ways
1. SCAPEGOAT: immigrants blamed, not flawed capitalist system
2. JUSTIFICATION: gives government excuse for suppressing certain groups
resulted in extreme labelling 🏷
Yehudh
moral panics always have “disproportionality” / exaggeration
New Right sociologists against marxism + evidence (youth subcultures)
labelling young black males as criminals NOT JUST A STEREOTYPE
—> based on truth, due to inadequate socialisation
Sewell: young black males lack male role model and turn to rap culture 👨🏿🎤 (hyper-masculinity)
Official crime stats: black people are 3% of population but 12% of prisons
Scraton 1987 youth subcultures of resistance
neo-Marxist
ethnic minorities commit crime as POLITICAL ACT not CRIMINAL ACT
organised CULTURES OF RESISTANCE 💪 in response to institutional discrimination
origins in ANTI-COLONIAL STRUGGLES
Lea and Young 1993
criticising Scraton 1987, Left Realists
majority of crimes are INTRA-RACIAL (‘black on black’) so can’t be political struggle against white majority
we SHOULDN’t ROMANTICISE crime and ignore the consequences 😍🚫
Criminal subcultures = response to poor economic, social and political marginalisation, relative deprivation
FBI 2014: 90% of black people killed are killed by other black people
Reddington
women seen as SUB-SUBCULTURE
research 🧐 is done in a MALE-STREAM way, young women rendered invisible
e.g. “the rewrite of punks to exclude the very large and productive presence of young women”
—> Souxsie and the Banshees excluded from analysis of punks?? 🎸🎵
reflects patriarchy: Valerie Hey’s research was REJECTED bc there was “nothing to investigate”, young women’s friendships seen as trivial
counter to Reddington
young men 5x more likely to be arrested
3x more likely to be excluded from school
—> focussing on male subcultures justified because there is more deviance?
evidence for young womens’ subcultures being different to mens’
Hey
McRobbie and Garber
evidence showing female youth subcultures being assertive
Jackson, ladettes 2006
Pussy 🐱 riot
Riot Grrrl
The Slits (band) 🎵
Adler
rebellious female subcultures response to the liberation of women
as gender convergence 📈, womens’ assertiveness independence + power 📈 (leads to crime + deviance)
