youth subcultures Flashcards
what is youth?
a period of biological change
development of children into adults
a social construct
Postman: youth is disappearing because youth have wider access to adult world (violence and sex)
what is a youth subculture?
a group of youths that stand out in terms of their fashion sense, music, attitudes and dress.
have theor own distinct norms and values
what are spectacular youth subcultures?
highly visible and distinct youth subcultures
recognizable by style and attitudes
e.g. mods, punks, etc.
functionalist and youth subcultures:
society is based on consensus
individuals must feel integrated in society - social solidarity
can experience anomie
with no integration, society would break down.
youth feel integration from family, peers or school.
youth culture offer a transitional phase.
Marxist and youth subcultures:
Marxism / Neo Marxism
Society is based on conflict
Focus on youth spectacular subcultures
Neo-Marxist thinkers are influenced by the concept of hegemony
Gramsci’s view is that the ruling class have ideological dominance over the lower classes
Looked at class and economic situations that caused young people to form subcultures
CCCS: Centre for contemporary Cultural studies
Functionalist and youth subcultures:
Parsons - Right of Passage
Youth provides a bridge between childhood and adulthood
Transitional stage which enables young people to achieve
independence from parents and status as adults
E.G, parttime job while continuing schooling
Youth culture become a right of passage- a journey for young people.
Eisenstadt – Letting off Steam
Youth culture is a way of binding young people in society
An isolated time (anomie) before adulthood
A shared way of life with peers allows youths to develop a community feeling
Provides and outlet for tensions, letting off steam, speaking out and rebelling
Abrams – Teenage Consumer
Emergence of youth culture linked to the spending power of teens
More job opportunities and money = consumerism taking off
Targeted by the media and businesses
Neo-marxist and youth subcultures:
Hall and Jefferson – Resistance
1960/70s was a time of high unemployment, racial tensions and strikes
Subcultures formed as a resistance against ruling class and a reaction to their economical situation
Argues that youth resist and reject dominant hegemonic culture through adopting subcultures.
Brake – Magical Solutions
Membership of subcultures provides safety from social and economic problems experienced by the working class
They convince themselves that their generation would be different, and they were solving social problems of their
time.
These solutions are magical because they are an illusion and cannot be sustained.
Feminist and youth subcultures:
Society is based on gender equality
Heidensohn accuses functionalists and the work of the CCCS of being malestream
Accounts of subcultures were written by males on young males
Males are more interested in researching male involvement as it is easier to build a report
Argues that making girls invisible allowed them to exercise patriarchal dominance.
Postmodernist and youth subcultures:
Youth culture has become increasingly fragmented and diverse
Youth styles are much more fluid and changeable- mixing things from many different sources, crossing over ethnic,
gender and classes.
MIPS: Manchester Institute of Popular Culture
Carried out research into ‘club cultures’
Emphasis on the role of the media as an integral part of club cultures
Moved away from notions of opposition or counterculture and started to stress that subcultures are much mor about
style.
deviant youth subcultures
class:
youths from working class backgrounds are most likely to be involved in deviance
Jacobson et al
¾ of children in custody had an absent father, disrupted education of some kind or some in deprived or violent households
Farrington
socio-economic deprivation was a key predictor of future criminality
it is more hidden among the middle class - negotiated away and the police focus on the working class.
Gender:
20% of recorded crime was the because of males with females only making up 4%
females peak offending age is 15 and males is 18- girls grow out of it sooner because they mature quicker
1994-2004: number of women in prison increased by 150%
Muncie
rise in recorded crime by females caused a moral panic about female offending and ‘girl gangs’ suggesting the rise in female imprisonment was an over-reaction.
Age:
37% of ASBOs in 2012 were given to youths aged 10-17- most likely for robbery or vandalism
ethnicity:
mainly white British = majority of the population
African-Caribbean accounted for 21% of young people in custody but only 3% of the population
young black males were 7x more likely to be stopped and searched- constantly goes up and down- disproportionate (stereotypical)
Asians makeup 5.6% of the population but 9.6% of stop and search rates and 7.1% of prison - the largest rise in an ethnic group - Islamophobia
discrepancy between races in justice system
Lea & Young
crime is ‘inter-racial’
takes place in ethnic minorities and is racially motivated
functionalist and deviance subcultures
Merton - strain theory:
