Youth Subculture Flashcards
What’s a youth subculture ?
A culture within a culture which has its own distinct norms and values as well as being part of the wider culture. So a distinctive group of youths within the wider youth who stand out in terms of their style, dress, music taste and attitudes.
They share a particular set of norms and values that are distinct from those of adults or children eg
- their involvement in education rather than work
- their lack of responsibilities (bills and rent etc)
- the importance of the peer group
What is meant by youths?
Some argue that biological changes during our teenage years eg all the hormones, affect the period known as youth and may explain any rebellious behaviour or conflict
However sociologists don’t agree that biology affects our youth. The idea of youth varies between cultures and time periods therefore youth is actually socially constructed.
Ideas about youth aren’t straight forward at all. It’s supposed to correspond to teenage years but some sociologists argue it begins before this (eg Postman argues that the media exposes children to the adult world too soon eg sex and violence etc therefore socialising them too early). Others think that people stay in education for longer and start families later so youth extends to twenties.
What do functionalists believe about the formation of youth subcultures?
They stress the importance of social integration into society so young people feel that they belong to communities and social groups. If people aren’t socially integrated they’ll be isolated and anomie will occur as a result where people have no sense of belonging and lack shared norms and values.
Functionalists - PARSONS and EISENSTADT - formation of youth culture
Parsons
Argued that capitalism created a divide between childhood and adulthood so youth culture provides a bridge between the role of the family and the workplace so Parsons saw this as a transitional stage which allows them to become more detached from their parents while achieving their own independence and status as adults.
Eg part time job = earning an income = money management = valuable life skill
Therefore youth culture becomes a rite of passage which is a necessary transitional stage through which all young people journey
Eisenstadt
Youth culture was an important way of binding people into society. Through fostering and adopting a shared way of life with peers, young people would develop feelings of community and togetherness. It resolved the problem of anomie and ensured young people would be successfully integrated into adult society.
Functionalism formation Evaluation?
- they ignore the clear differences that exist between youth subcultures such as the skinheads vs hippies because they see youth as one homogenous group. Marxists believe that these differences are based on important social class differences which cannot be ignored eg skinheads were working class and hippies middle class
- they don’t consider any gender or ethnic related issues in any way and how this might influence youth culture. Feminists argue that gender has a large influence on youth culture eg ‘teddy boys’ sounds as though it’s majority male even though there were girls in the group.
- the research is based on the same social groups that the writers came from - white, American, middle class males therefore the research and how youth were studied can be considered biased and ethnocentric
HOWEVER, youth culture does resolve the problem of anomie and ensured that young people would be successfully integrated into adult society.
Intro to Marxism and formation of youth culture?
Marxism is a structural and CONFLICT theory which sees society as being based on the exploitation of the working class by capitalists
Marxists tend to focus on spectacular youth subcultures rather than youth culture in general but also social class and the economic situation faced by young people
The working class are controlled by HEGEMONY which is when their values are dominated by the media and education so youth subcultures are a reaction to this conflict.
Marxist explanations are associated with the CCCS ( centre for contemporary cultural studies) which produced its most influential work on subcultures in the 1970s
Marxism Formation, resistance, exaggeration?
Hall and Jefferson were part of a group of sociologists from the CCCS. Who argued that working class young people formed the weakest point in the ruling class control of society eg Teddy Boys 1950s, time of high employment and relative affluence but they were excluded from this as they didn’t do well in school and so they formed groups who hung out at local cafes. So youth culture is a form of resistance against capitalism.
As a reaction to the capitalists attempt to control the working class, youth subculture exaggerate the behaviours that define them in order to oppose the capitalist control. Clarke studied the skinhead youth culture and found that they were an exaggerated version of working class masculinity who dressed in distinctive manual workers clothing, shaved heads, stressed violence and were very territorial.
Evaluation of Marxism formation views?
Marxists have been criticised for ignoring the importance of ethnicity as class is not the only form of inequality in society and certain ethnic groups have formed youth subcultures as a reaction to the inequalities they feel. For example Rastafarianism gave political expression to the feelings of oppression felt by many Afro Caribbean migrants and their children.
McRobbie has argued that critical sociologists such as Marx have largely ignored the role of girls in subcultures. Malestream sociologists have failed to notice that girls don’t fit in with their descriptions of the groups despite the fact that they too are members of working class eg females have been part of teddy boys but have been ignored.
Functionalists would argue that Marxists exaggerate the concept of resistance because they argue that the sole purpose of youth culture is to smooth the transition from childhood to adulthood so he argued that any differences in the people is unimportant; what is important is that youth operates as a transitional mechanism that benefits the individual in their move to adulthood.
HOWEVER, the CCCS can be praised for conducting research into youth using a holistic approach to understanding youth.
Intro to feminism and their prescence in youth subculture formation?
Feminists claim that when exploring youth subculture studies, females are only briefly mentioned in the background and has led to sociologists such as McRobbie to use the term ‘invisible girl’ when describing the role of females in youth culture. McRobbie also extended the concept of bedroom culture to suggest that females are prevented from going out and joining ‘visible’ subcultures.
BUT
It’s worth noting that women didn’t really enter the workplace until the 1970s and therefore weren’t around to carry out studies on the role of females in subcultures. Therefore it’s suggested that as a result girls in subcultures were largely ignored and there’s photographic evidence through history of a large prescience of teddy girls, girl mods and girl hippies. And more recently there are girl only subcultures eg New Wave Girls.
Feminism formation evaluation?
A criticism of the feminism approach is that there are very few studies of girl subcultures in Britain. In recent years females have been more involved in gender neutral movements such as rave/goth/emo subcultures which may suggest there’s a ‘blurring’ of femininity and masculinity in our post modern era. So post modernists emphasise that our identities are more fluid and gender is not an important element when examining youth cultures.
Feminists have been criticised for dealing with only gender related issues which neglects social class and ethnicity. Status frustration emphasises that gender may not be as important for youth culture as other issues such as class ‘working class skinheads and middle class hippies’ whereby each subculture have their own identity, norms and values.
Functionalists such as Eisenstadt has argued that the sole purpose of youth culture is to smooth the transition from childhood to adulthood so he argued that any differences in the people is unimportant; what is important is that youth operates as a transitional mechanism that benefits the individual in their move to adulthood.
HOWEVER, some girls are pushing the girl power movement and trying to lessen the inequality between women and men and push for issues concerning women to be improved. Feminists would support their movement.
Post modernism and the formation of youth culture? And Supermarket of Style - Polemus
According to post modernists there is no longer a coherent, structured social world in this postmodern era and as a result youth style has become increasingly fragmented and diverse as they’re no longer based on factors such as class, ethnicity or gender.
Polemus argues that Youths can choose from different fashions/musical tastes/identities in the same way as supermarket shoppers are offered numerous choices of food. Shopping at the supermarket of style means that different styles are fused together eg white wannabes. This is an example of hybridised youth culture which is a result of Globalisation and the huge influence of media in our generation.
Overall, Young people can pick and mix elements of what they would like to be - they believe in style over substance so fluidity and choice are central for today’s youth
Post Modernism formation of NEO TRIBES
Bennett researched clubs in Newcastle and found no evidence for youth subcultures. Instead he found a loose, fluid and relatively short term youth grouping occurring with no fixed membership or deep commitment. These neo tribes were based around fashion and lifestyle, group identities were no longer formed around gender or class but young people FLIT from tribe to tribe. These tribes aren’t exclusive so a young person can be part of many simultaneously. Neo-tribalism recognises the shifting nature and fluidity of musical and stylistic preferences eg clubbing is multidimensional as clubbers can engage with different crowds and different music.
Evaluation of post modernism formation
A disadvantage is that there are still examples of identifiable subcultural groups in society such as goths or egos and with their shared styles and musical tastes do fit the description of youth subcultures and therefore the fluidity of youth identity is not entirely an accurate concept to describe all youths.
Functionalists such as Eisenstadt would disagree and say that youth culture still exists and is to smooth the transition from childhood to adulthood so he argued that any differences in the people is unimportant; what is important is that youth operates as a transitional mechanism that benefits the individual in their move to adulthood.
HOWEVER, there’s a great deal of supporting evidence for the ideas of globalisation and hybridisation in terms of youth subcultures whereby there is a blending of different youth subcultures and possibly ethnic influences eg Bhangra music blends Indian music with hip hop and has become extremely popular with young people in the hip hop subculture.
Youth subculture formation related to social class? Examples to use!
Overall the CCCS analysed spectacular youth subcultures and suggested that social class and feelings of deprivation and frustration are what lead young people to form subcultures and that slightly different economic situations can explain the differences between them. They saw youth subcultures as a form of resistance to the capitalist system and against their social class deprivation and saw their rituals of fashion, music and attitude as the way in which they expressed their resistance.
- SKINHEADS
- economic conditions threatened their working class identity so as a form of resistance they over exaggerated - TEDDY BOYS
- DELINQUENT SUBCULTURE / STATUS FRUSTRATION
Evaluation of youth culture formation and social class - general points
The role of class does seem to be important for some youth subcultures eg skinheads are working class and hippies are middle class.
Functionalists such as Eisenstadt has argued that the sole purpose of youth culture is to smooth the transition from childhood to adulthood so he argued that any differences in the people is unimportant; what is important is that youth operates as a transitional mechanism that benefits the individual in their move to adulthood.
Youth subculture formation relating to GENDER. males vs females studied too
Males
- teddy boys
- skinheads
- delinquent working class
Females
- absence of them = bedroom culture
- prescience of them = new wave girls
Thornton said that girls had less disposable income, married earlier and earned less than their male counterparts so the teenage market was always dominated by boys particularly in the days of spectacular subcultures studied by the CCCS. Girls invested more time in school etc whilst boys were investing time and money into music and going out etc which led to a difference in subculture capital. Feminists would agree due to the invisible girl etc and absence of girls.
Post modernists would argue that now their prescience is more obvious eg unisex subcultures / neo tribes are less gender specific and bedroom culture may be a thing of the past.
Youth subculture formation and ethnicity ? Evaluation of hybridity too
Resistance = Rastafarianism
Vs
Hybridity = Brasians
Resistance against white racism / slavery. It was a spiritual and political movement for Caribbean/Jamaicans. They liked reggae music, had dreadlocks and wore Ethiopian flag coloured clothing and smoking marijuana.
Hybridity is positive as it leads to more mixing and understanding between different groups and is a form of CULTURAL EXCHANGE.
eg Brasians. JOHAL and BAINS suggested that modern British born Asians embrace and celebrate their culture by making it trendy and fashionable. This hyper ethnic style is an exaggeration of their parent culture eg Bollywood. This involves code switching between peers vs family (can be seen in films like bend it like beckham). They don’t want to leave their Britishness but johal argues that this generation switches between one culture form and another depending on the context of for situation.
Or Hybridity is negative as some argue that taking aspects of other ethnic cultures into white subcultures is a form of CULTURAL APPROPRIATION eg the popularity of henna tattoos, bindis and dreadlocks have been criticised as forms of disrespect as they’ve stripped the meanings from symbols and used them in a superficial way such as a white wannabe eg a white girl with dreadlocks which are a symbol of African Pride.
whats a spectacular youth culture?
Highly visible subcultures of the 1950’s - 1970’s eg Teddy Boys and Skinheads. They had very flamboyant and instantly recognisable styles and often had confrontational attitudes. They’ve particularly been studied by the CCCS at Birmingham University (neoMarxists) and their analysis generally focused on social class influences.
