Youth Subcultures Flashcards
Mead
Social Construction of Youth:
Samoan culture suggested little ‘storm and stress’ associated with adolescence due to homogenous culture
Transition into childhood is discreet
Postman
Social Construction of Youth:
Disappearance of childhood
Media is to blame for exposing children to adult world too young
Sexualises them
Parsons
Functionalist Youth Subcultures:
Emerged with development of capitalism
Capitalism required training and socialisation for young people
Youth is an important stage where an individual learns to establish independence and is a ‘right of passage’ between childhood and adulthood
Eisenstadt
Functionalist Youth Subcultures:
Youth culture brings young people into society
Provides a shared set of norms and values with peers and sense of belonging
Safe outlet to allow young people to ‘let off some steam’
Abrams
Functionalist Youth Subcultures:
Linked to emergence as a distinct group with spending power
Targeted by businesses and media
Gramsci
Class and Youth Subcultures:
Hegemony of ruling class
Causes youth subcultures as working class want to resist
McRobbie and Garber
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Girls absent from youth subcultures and when they did appear were passive
Looked at the ‘mod girl’ who, similar to male counterpart, were smart and paid attention to their appearance
‘Teenybopper’ subcultures in early 1970s and ‘bedroom subcultures’ were less researched as they took place in the home
Redhead
Postmodern Youth Subcultures:
Growth of media and socialisation
Subcultures growingly formed within/through media
Maffesoli
Postmodern Youth Subcultures:
Neo-tribe refers to much more loosely organised group with no fixed membership or deep commitment
Young people move from tribe to tribe in order to satisfy individual needs
Bennett
Postmodern Youth Subcultures:
Researched nightclubs in Newcastle
Neo-tribes based around cross-filtration of styles, music and lifestyle but no shared values
Didn’t define themselves as part of a group, neo-tribes recognise this shifting nature and fluidity
Thornton, Postmodern Youth Subcultures
Postmodern Youth Subcultures:
Club culture is shared taste in dance and rave
This is subcultural capital which clubbers then use to gain status and distinguish themselves from mainstream followers
Media is a source of subcultural capital
Clarke
Class and Youth Subcultures:
Skinheads represent an exaggerated version of WC masculinity
They wore manual worker clothes and had a macho attitude which was often aggressive
Jefferson
Class and Youth Subcultures:
Teddy Boys mimicked MC superiors with clothing
Often excluded from general affluence in school
Hebdige
Class and Youth Subcultures:
Mods and Rockers were resistant to MC dominating mainstream media
They used money to resist the MC
McRobbie
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Girls have become more active in relation to consumer culture
Active in using magazines, critiquing or even laugh at them
Hollands
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Increase in numbers of women in city at night
‘Quite suicidal’ was the response to a study of females when asked how they would feel if restricted from going out for three months
Men still have ‘men’ dominated subcultures like the ‘community pub’
There’s also a growing demand of women to socialise in exclusive female subcultures
Thornton, Gender and Youth Subcultures
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Girls have less disposable income as they marry earlier and earn less than males
Girls spend more time doing well at school whereas boys invest time into music and magazines (more subcultural capital)
6575
Reddington
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Active female members of spectacular subcultures
Punk involved women and was based on ethos of ‘anyone can do it’
McRobbie and Garber
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Black ‘ragga’ girls used music to dance in a sexually explicit way
Ridiculed male sexism and opened up own cultural space
Bennett
Gender and Youth Subcultures:
Post modern Neo-tribes are less gendered and opened up space for girls to develop identity
1990s riot grrrls seen as a form of resistance against patriarchy
Cashmore
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Rap can be seen as the ultimate hybrid music form
Local artists in different countries modify the style and sound to adapt to their own culture
Mercer
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Discussed styling of hair within black culture and its symbolic meaning
Afro and dreadlock hairstyles seen as emphasising black identity and resisting racism in society
Straightened hairstyles are seen as imitative of white culture and therefore assimilation
Hebdige
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Rastafarianism seen as a resistance to white culture and racism with roots in slavery
Vale and Juno
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Heavy tattoos and piercing often seen as a ration to powerlessness created in fast changing world
Regain a sense of power and control
Hutnyk
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Differences in power between ethnic groups results western subcultures stripping meaning from other cultures and using them artificially
Cultural exchange suggests two way process but this is rarely the case
E.g. British culture often imposed as part of an imperial past without exchange or appreciation
Johal
Ethnicity and Youth Subcultures:
Some British Asians adopt a hyper-ethnic style, an exaggerated form of parent culture
Can provide an empowerment through difference
However, religion, marriage and foods may lead to a code switching position
