Youth culture (functionalism)

Functionalism (1)

See society as being based on consensus, and feel it is very important that individuals feel integrated into societyso they feel social solidarity with others and learn to share the value consensus. 

  

If people are not socially integrated anomie will result - people will have no sense of belonging and lack shared norms and values.  

Youth = as a transitional stage from childhood to adulthood 

• Children experience social integration through their families  

Functionalism (2)

Youth cultures = According to functionalism youth cultures are a passing phase because as the teenager moves into adulthood, youth cultures lose their function for that individual.  

  

Once transition is complete youth cultures are no-longer necessary and they simply disappear.  

Parsons (1)

Argue that youth only emerged as a social category due to results in family associated with the development of ofcapitalism  

  

• In pre capitalist societies the transition from childhood to adulthood was marked by an initiation our rite of passage of some kind  

  

Development of capitalism created a divide between the role of family, as a purely nurturing environment and the specialised requirements of the workplace 

  

The expansion of compulsory education and training filled the gap = 1944 education act = set a school leaving age of 15, which created a ‘period of dependency’ for all young people

Parsons (2)

• In pre industrial societies there was no need for ‘youth’ because children became adults after learning what was expected during rites of passage.  

Parsons sees youth culture as a rite of passage that individuals must go through between childhood and adulthood.   

Parsons (3)

• Parsons does not consider any distinction between youth culture and subcultures  

• Parsons is not interested in different youth subcultures, he believed they have the same general theme  

They develop as a response to anomie. So they are inevitable in modern societies.   

Use a bar/batmitzvah as a real life example

Eisenstadt (1956) (1)

• The function of youth culture is to socially integrate young people into society. Youth culture provides a set of values and norms they share with their peers and a sense of belonging to a common cause or outlook.  

• Youth culture provided teenagers with an opportunity to temporarily rebel and to push the boundaries before they settles down to adult conformity.  

• Youth culture functions to minimise social disruption, to encourage social integration and to reinforce consensus on norms and values and ultimately social order.  

Eisenstadt (1956) (2)

 

Saw youth as bringing young people into society  

  

Youth culture can provide a safe outlet for the tensions that the transition from childhood to adulthood might bring.  

 

• Experimenting and reinforcing acceptable norms and values and thus will ultimately contribute to social order 

Abram’s (1959) (1)

Abram’s book = “The teenage consumer” - Abram’s suggested that the emergence of youth culture was linked to their emergence as a distinct group with spending power who started to be targeted by the media and business  

Young people with spare money and few responsibilities began to get out of control  

Youths from the 1950’s onwards, were able to earn reasonable amounts of money and used this to buy consumer goods aimed directly at this age group (music, clothes) 

  

Evaluation (1)

functionalists perceptive is too broad.  

  

Functionalists were generalising about youth culture as a whole and did not count for the individual subcultural differences between young people, functionalists did not consider these aspects of individuals =  (on the grounds of social class, race, gender) 

   

  

Evaluation (2)

Other theories did (Marxist focused on the impact of social class on the development and distinction of youth cultures) (feminists considered gender differences relating to youth) 

  

Most evidence used by functionalists for their arguments came from middle-class american males 

It is questionable wether the same transitional issues apply to young people in all western cultures, so their analysis can be considered ethnocentric.