Youth Culture revision notes

  • Youth defined as a separate social category from children and adults only became the subject of sociological and media interest in the 1950s.
  • Early theories focused on the concept of youth culture, i.e. the idea that young people in general shared a common culture and identity which set them apart from adult culture. There are however problems with seeing youth as a uniform group of a particular age

The development of youth sub-cultures

  • The idea that youth subcultures are a product of social class is an argument put forward by Marxist sociologists working from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at Birmingham University. They argue that ‘spectacular’ youth subcultures, such as skinheads and punks, were a form of ‘magical’ resistance to the social and economic problems faced by young working class people.
  • However, other sociologists reject the claim that youth subcultures are a product of social class. Post-modernists, for example, reject the term ‘subculture’, and replace it with ‘neo-tribe’ to reflect the ‘pick and mix’ approach to style that young people have today. They argue that issues of gender and ethnicity are now more important than social class.

Subcultures as a product of class: Marxist arguments

  • During the 1970s and early 1980s, most sociological attention was paid to the concept of deviant youth 'subcultures'the idea that some young people belonged to groups with their own norms, values, rituals, sanctions and dress codes that were antagonistic to mainstream culture, e.g. mods, rockers, etc.
  • In the 1970s, the question of class divisions within youth cultures was examined by Marxist writers especially those associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS). Marxists see workingclass youth cultures as linked to the decline of workingclass innercity communities.
  • These cultures are seen as an attempt to symbolically or 'magically' recreate traditional notions of workingclass community through dress, style and behaviour. Moreover, such styles allegedly represent a form of workingclass ideological or cultural resistance to rulingclass hegemony (i.e. cultural dominance).

Example 1: Teddy Boys

•Hall and Jefferson argued that the rise of the Teddy Boy in the early 1950s coincided with the expansion of employment and a general rise in affluence.

•However, Teddy Boys were mainly those youths who had been excluded from this.

•Their clothing style of the middle class Edwardian ‘Dandy’ jacket was an attempt to show their contempt for the class system by copying the style of their so-called ‘superiors’.

Example 2: Skinheads

  • Cohen and Clarke argued that skinhead gangs in the early 1970s were an exaggerated attempt to recreate traditional notions of workingclass community which were in decline because of recession in traditional workingclass industries and slum clearance.
  • The response of skinhead youth was to stress traditional elements of working class culture through their value system, dress and behaviour and to organise themselves collectively in gangs which emphasised loyalty, toughness, masculinity and aggressive defence of territory.
  • Aspects of skinhead style were borrowed from manual work (e.g. the Doc Marten industrial boots, braces, the haircut, etc.) and symbolised an aggressive resistance to those elements seen as threatening the workingclass community, such as immigrants and property developers. As such, skinhead subculture could be seen as an attempt to preserve a working class identity which was felt to be under threat.

Example 3: Punk rock

  • Hebdige argued that punk was a form of resistance to a society that was interpreted by youth as being in social, moral and economic decline and conformist and lacking in imagination.
  • Hebdige argues that punk style took conventional items such as safety pins, razor blades, etc. and deliberately used them to shock mainstream society by wearing them as fashion accessories.
  • Punk subculture was shortlived because commodity incorporation commercialised aspects of punk style into commodities to be bought and sold as mainstream fashion and ideological incorporation trivialised punk style through media articles suggesting punks were merely confused youngsters going through a phase.

An evaluation of Marxist arguments

  • It doesn't account for the adoption of some of these styles by middleclass youth.
  • There is no empirical evidence that youth interpret their styles in the way the WCS do and there is a danger that sociologists read too much into youth styles and see what they want to see.
  • Only a very small minority of youth have ever been involved in deviant subcultures because the majority of young people lead very ordinary, mundane and conformist lives.
  • Critical sociologists such as Cote and Allahar see youth subcultures as the products of manipulation by the media, rather than some attempt to resist capitalism. As such, youth subcultures are the product of commercial interests whose only interest is making money.

Middle class youth and resistance

  • Middle class youth do participate in some of the spectacular youth subcultures and there are some spectacular youth subcultures that are largely middle class. They tend to agree about the importance of the ‘self’. Self-development, individualism and could either involve

(i)active political opposition such as the young CNDers in the 1960s or the students in 1968 and later in the mid 1970s and more recently the school students against the war or

(ii) withdrawal from society such as the beats and later the hippies.

  • The latter share some similarities with the young who join New Religious Movements.

All of these subcultures have a counter cultural tendency, they have a system of values that are in opposition to the dominant ideology and value system of the time.

  • Brake (1977) Hippies and Skinheads Studied hippies and found they were a relatively well-organised subculture comprising largely of students and ex-students. They lived on benefits or student grants. They were full of contradictions according to Brake for example they

(a)were disdainful of technology (the hippy trail to India) but yet listened to music on big sound systems or stereos.

(b)Rejected impure foods but took synthesised street drugs

(c)Rejected materialism but needed benefits

Subcultures as a product of individual choice - Post-modernist approaches

  • In the work of Bennett, Hetherington and other writers, a key difference from earlier sub-cultural approaches is that they reject the view that the cultural behaviour of young people is shaped or determined by social class or social and economic conditions faced by young people.
  • Hetherington (1998) for example, in a study of new age travellers, found that they came from a wide-range of backgrounds and not from one class position.
  • Both Bennett and Hetherington emphasise the element of choice in young people’s cultural behaviour. Young people choose particular lifestyles, rather than being pushed into patterns of cultural behaviour by structural forces such as class.
  • Furthermore, Bennett argues that we should use the term ‘neo-tribe’ rather than youth subculture in order to emphasise the elements of choice and fluidity in contemporary youth lifestyles. By ‘neo-tribes’ Bennett means a social grouping with a loose structure organised around lifestyle themes and consumer choices, rather than a shared position in the social structure. They share a common state of mind rather than class position.
  • Bennett illustrates his arguments by referring to his study of dance music in Newcastle in the 1990s. He argues that cultural identities are much more fluid and less stable than they were in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Young people no longer have fixed commitments to just one set of cultural influences and tastes, whereas skinheads, punks etc fiercely identified with these identities to the exclusion of others.
  • Other postmodernists such as Kahane argue that contemporary subcultures are very real attempts to construct new and original subcultures from the vast choice of music, styles, and languauge available to young people.
  • Sarah Thornton suggests that although many subcultures are the product of commercial interests, many young people subvert them and make them original in ways never thought of by the fashion/music industry.
  • Another important part of postmodern thinking is the impact of globalisation on youth subcultures. Luke and Luke argue that cultural influences are now global rather than national or local. This means that hybrid youth subcultures are emerging, in which elements form global youth cultures and adapting them according to local ideas and values
  • Hebdige argues that new technologies such as the Internet have resulted in the creation of virtual or proto youth cultures that require no collective physical interaction and in which class, gender and ethnicity are less important.
  • Reimer (1995) argues that the central feature of youth in modern societies is the preoccupation with 'fun' the constant search for excitement and stimulation that cuts across all other sources of identity (class, gender, ethnicity, and so forth).

An evaluation

  • However, not all sociologists are convinced that class no longer shapes the lives of young people, as postmodernists suggest.
  • Harriet Bradley(1997) argues that postmodernists have no consistent definition of class. They ignore the extent to which economic class differences still affect what people can afford and therefore what lifestyle choices they can make.
  • Marshall (1997) argues that they are highly selective in the arguments and evidence they use and tend to neglect evidence that economic class inequalities are stíll a major factor in shaping people's lives.
  • Westergaard (1997) accepts that lifestyle and consumption have become increasingly related to identity. However, he sees these as strongly influenced by economic differences such as wage inequality.

Functionalist Theories: subcultures as a form of transition

  • The Functionalist sociologist, Eisenstadt (1956) argued that the general function of youth cultures is to smooth the transition between childhood and adulthood.
  • He argued that adolescents generally experience status contradictions and powerlessness within the family.
  • Eisenstadt argued that young people therefore lack a stable identity and status and, as a result, they turn to their peers for support.
  • Youth cultures are functional to society because they ease the tricky transition from childhood to adulthood and maintain social order.

Criticism of Eisenstadt

  • He implies that the transition from youth to adulthood is a universal experience, but not all young people experience this transition in the same way.
  • He neglects social class, gender and ethnic divisions between young people and therefore the fact that some people feel more marginalised and powerless than others.
  • A number of surveys have questioned the existence of a generation gap, e.g. research by Wyn and White (1997)found 'most young people tend to be fairly conventional in outlook and lifestyle'.
  • Bennett illustrates his arguments by refering to his study of dance music in Newcastle in the 1990s. He argues that cultural identities are much more fluid and less stable than they were in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Young people no longer have fixed commitments to just one set of cultural influences and tastes, whereas skinheads, punks etc fiercely identified with these identities to the exclusion of others.
  • Hebdige argues that new technologies such as the Internet have resulted in the creation of virtual or proto youth cultures that require no collective physical interaction and in which class, gender and ethnicity are less important.
  • Reimer (1995) argues that the central feature of youth in modern societies is the preoccupation with 'fun' the constant search for excitement and stimulation that cuts across all other sources of identity (class, gender, ethnicity, and so forth).

Gender and sub-cultures: Have girls been ignored ?

  • Research into youth subcultures ignored girls for a number of years. The focus of the research carried out by largely male sociologists was on boys and what they were doing. McRobbie and Garber suggested, in 1975, there were a number of reasons.
  1. GGirls are absent from subcultures. They are not members of the groups particularly early groups such as the Mods and Rockers.
  1. GGirls are/were present but just invisible. McR and G argue girls were involved – you can see them in the photos and the old film footage of the early 50’s and 60’s.

Evaluation

The subcultures arose partly as a result of increased disposable income and leisure time but girls wages were much lower than boys and girls magazines encouraged girls to spend on household items in anticipation of marriage (known as saving for their bottom drawer). They were though the girlfriends of……………………….

The press tended to focus on the more sensational aspects of the youth subcultures, the teddy boys ripping up seats in cinemas, the Mods and Rockers on the beaches on the South coast and girls did not tend to participate in such activities.

The teddy boys and the Rockers tended to use their culture to escape family life and go to the ‘caff’. Most girls would not have been allowed to be out for so long. Girls had to protect their reputations and not ‘get into trouble’. Girls in the ‘50’s who spent too much time on the streets might be thought to be ‘asking for it’.

3. Girls had their own different subcultures Its not so much that girls were

absent or not but they had a complementary way of interacting among themselves and with each other to form a distinctive culture of their own, Teenybopper culture.

Evaluation

This links to the notion of girls involved in ‘bedroom cultures’. This subculture was safe for girls. They could participate in their bedrooms – posters, magazines, records, fan clubs. Concerts were rare enough to be affordable on low incomes. Membership of the teenybopper type culture also carried no ‘risks’ for girls. They didn’t have to engage with real boys which especially in the days before the pill carried not just issues relating to reputation but also that of pregnancy.

These subcultures could still be seen as girls resisting.

4. Girls are invisible to male sociologists who are gender blind. McR and G are particularly critical of their male colleagues at the CCCS. They argue that the male subcultures they researched were sexist and macho and marginalized girls – at least in the public domain of youth clubs and street corners.

Evaluation

See points above re Teenyboppers. McRobbie and Garber argued that the domestic world of home and in particular bedrooms could not be ignored. What McRobbie argued was that the gender dimension had to be considered as well as that of class when researching/analysing what girls were doing. She argues they had to resist patriarchal attitudes as well as the hegemony of the dominant class. The ‘bedroom’ was a way of resisting the patriarchal attitudes at home.

‘Ragga girls’ became very good at reclaiming and challenging male sexism in public spaces.

5. Girls are in subcultures – the number of girl gangs is growing.

Studies of girl gangs in the USA by Campbell and Nicoll note that violence, drug dealing, robbery and possession of dangerous weapons are common activities carried out by young women.

Young women joined gangs to compensate for low status in their families and communities and as an alternative to taking on lowskilled, tedious, lowpaid jobs.

Ethnicity and sub-cultures

  • Hebdige (1979) claims that all approaches to youth sub-cultures have ignored the influence of ethnic minorities on youth culture. There are clear links between fashion, music, dancing and urban youth cultures in Britain.
  • Rastafarianism for example gave political expression to the oppression felt by many African Caribbean youths in the 1970s.
  • Bhangra forms an important part of Asian youth culture. The traditional beats of music from the Punjab have been adapted to suit young tastes and lifestyles. This has been blended with rap and reggae to produce new sounds.
  • This reflects the multi-ethnic lifestyles of many ethnic minority youths in Britain – new styles which are not necessarily based around resistance or racism.
  • Hip Hop culture is the result of mixing of black culture from the Bronx and current music styles. The rap artist Eminem is an example of hybridity (blending together) of different ethnicities and the eventual absorbing of these styles in mainstream culture enjoyed by countless youth globally.
  • Although research has been done in the USA for some time, sociologists in Britain have given ethnicity and youth sub-cultures little attention. They have focused on white british youths making their approach ethnocentric.

What about ordinary youth ?

  • Subcultural theorists are often accused of ignoring the ‘ordinary’ majority of youth. Surveys of ‘ordinary’ teenagers in the 1990s tend to find that many experience some degree of conflict with their parents over dress and leisure habits, and do not have strong or developed political views.
  • In 1996, The Independent reported a large survey of 12 to 19 year olds under the headline ‘Sober teens shun rebellion’. The report went on to state that ‘rather than rebelling against their parents, teenagers respect adults’ points of view.’
  • Bo Reimer argues that personal choice and taste are becoming more important than structural factors in influencing the lifestyles of ordinary youth. In other words, the basic lifestyle orientation of youth culture is towards entertainment. In Howard Parker’s terms it is a leisure-pleasure culture. The central feature of youth in modern societies is the preoccupation with 'fun' the constant search for excitement and stimulation that cuts across all other sources of identity (class, gender, ethnicity, and so forth).
  • According to Reimer, this orientation towards entertainment cuts across class, gender and ethnic boundaries, and these generalisations are as true of drug consumption as of other aspects of youth culture. The culture is to a large extent an integrated lifestyle – with music, dance, youth literature, fashion and style complementing each other.
  • Hebdige argues that new technologies such as the Internet have resulted in the creation of virtual or proto youth cultures that require no collective physical interaction and in which class, gender and ethnicity are less important.

Youth and Crime

  • The official statistics show that juvenile crime has declined in recent years after having reached a peak in 198485.
  • Ricky Taylor's (1998) analysis of official statistics between 1957 and 1997 shows that in 1958, 56% of all offenders found guilty or cautioned were aged 20 or under compared with 38% in 1997.
  • However, only one in ten crimes result in arrest and conviction so it is likely that youth involvement in crime is higher than the official statistics indicate.]

Patterns and Trends of Delinquency