SUBCULTURES

Subcultures

Subcultures

Introduction

The phenomenon of youth subculture from a sociological point of view is unique, and that's why. Children subculture is not opposed to culture adult or on their values, either in its form. It is created primarily by adults, reflects them, adults, the vision of what should be a world of childhood. Much of this sub-culture, speaking a kind of island, is instructive, moralistic in nature and serves educational purposes. Another of her children and completed their horror stories, jokes or games, then a similar initiative looks more like an imitation of the adult world, an attempt to model it either reflect elevated and romantic terms.

Youth subcultures became a particularly interesting object of study in the 1970s because their members collectively and often explicitly constructed countercultural or oppositional social and cultural identities on the basis of new styles elaborated through a rearticulation of the meanings and uses of cultural commodities

The classic subcultural theories developed by the CCCS in the 1970s on the basis of empirical research on material conditions and cultures of British postwar working-class youth (such as teddy boys, mods, skinheads, hippies, bikers) represent a crucial point of reference in the literature on popular culture, youth deviance, and music subcultures. In this context, the most important work published by the CCCS was Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post War Britain (Hall and Jefferson 1976). Many of the scholars of the CCCS within this book later produced some of the most widely quoted authorial works on youth subcultures, such as Profane Culture by Paul Willis (1978), Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige (1979), and Feminism and Youth Culture by Angela McRobbie (1990).

Discussion

Theories of Subculture

Thrasher argued that urbanization, along with the miseries of poverty, created classic conditions in poor communities for the growth of what he called gangland. Similarly, while Shaw and McKay initially focused on social disorganization theory to explain juvenile delinquency and gang behavior, the criticisms of the weaknesses of social disorganization theory led them to develop sub-cultural explanations. They argued that the subculture of gangs could serve as a social mechanism for transferring deviant normative values and behaviors from older to younger members.

Since these early writings on subcultures, several subculture theories were developed, each with its own set of important concepts and theoretical formulations. Four of the most influential subculture theories are Albert Cohen's (1955) sub-cultural theory of delinquency, Walter B. Miller's (1958) focal concerns, Gresham Sykes (1957/1990) and David Matza's (1964) techniques of neutralization and delinquency and drift, and Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti's (1967) subculture of violence. More recently, James Diego Vigil's (2002) multiple marginality theory has drawn upon the ideas contained in subculture theory. Each of these theories will be briefly reviewed.

In 1955, Albert Cohen developed one of the most influential subculture theories of delinquent gang behavior. He focused on young males who live in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Cohen asserted that lower-class boys are judged by middle-class standards in school. However, lower-class boys fail to succeed in meeting these middle-class ...