Youth Culture studies

Jefferson

Neo-Marxist who studied the Teddy Boys

Brake

Neo-Marxist who studied the Hippies - also argued that young people join youth cultures to provide a "magical solution" of their lives, this means that they feel they have a voice and can impact society

Letts

Neo-Marxist who studied the Early Skinheads - also argued that youth cultures provide a way for minority-ethnic groups to celebrate their diversity

Cohen and Clarke

Neo-Marxist who studied the Late Skinheads

Hebdige

Neo-Marxist who studied the Punks

Hodkinson

Neo-Marxist who studied the Goths

Charles

Neo-Marxist who studied Grime

Venkatesh

Studied Gangs - argued that young people from dysfunctional families who live in deprived areas and are marginalised find it hard to gain status and material wealth so they join gangs

Harding

Studied County Lines - argued that young people from poor families get involved in county lines because they need the money to try and help their family

Batchelor

Feminist who studied Girls in Gangs - argued that young girls from dysfunctional families try to find a sense of belonging and therefore are often groomed into gangs and taken advantage of

Cloward and Ohlin

Argued that working class boys join deviant youth cultures based on which one are available to them in their local communities (opportunity theory) - they identified three types: criminal (young boys joining an adult criminal gang), conflict (young boys joining a youth gang), and retreatist (young boys using drugs)

Willis

Marxist who studied working class boys and Anti-School Subcultures - found that they didn't bother with school because they knew they wouldn't achieve high grades and would end up working the same job as their father

Becker

Interactionist who argued that negative labels lead to young people joining deviant youth cultures

Chambliss

Interactionist who studied The Saints and The Roughnecks - found that two groups who were equally deviant got labelled differently which led to them having different opportunities

Reiner

Interactionist who argued that Canteen Culture within the police and schools lead to young black boys to feel targeted and they are given the master status of "criminal" -\> leads them to join deviant youth cultures

Gillborn

Interactionist who argued that schools treat black children differently and penalise them more harshly for bad behaviour which may lead them to join anti-school subcultures

Sewell

Interactionist who argued that schools are openly racist and assume that all black boys are anti-school

Stan Cohen

Interactionist who studied the fights between the Mods and Rockers and found that the media had created a story which exaggerated a fight between a Mod and a Rocker. The media caused further conflicts (deviancy amplification) and labelled young people as folk devils which caused even more conflicts - moral panic

Durkheim

Functionalist who argued that young people join youth cultures for a feeling of social solidarity (where people feel they are part of something bigger)

Eisenstadt

Functionalist who argued that young people go through a "limbo" stage (a period of uncertainty) so they join youth cultures for a sense of belonging and a shared set of norms and values - they also act as a safety outlet for young people to find their own opinions and get any frustrations out of their system in an acceptable way. This helps young people teste the boundaries of society and learn what is and isn't acceptable

Parsons

Functionalist who argued that youth culture acts as a bridge between family and wider society - he also argued that youth cultures are a part of the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood

Hirschi

Functionalist who argued that most people don't engage in deviant youth cultures due to their social bonds (e.g. attachment to family, belief in value consensus, etc)

Merton

Functionalist who argued that some young people have socially acceptable goals however they don't have socially acceptable means of achieving them (innovators) therefore they may join gangs or county lines to help them achieve those goals if they feel they are unable to get a job

Albert Cohen

Functionalist who argued that working class boys strive for middle class success, however since they are unable to achieve this they experience status frustration. In an effort to achieve status they behave badly and engage in anti-social behaviour -\> anti-school subcultures

CCCS

Marxists who argued that youth cultures emerge to resist capitalist hegemony

McRobbie and Garber

Feminists who found that girls were not able to participate in youth cultures due to their parents and therefore created their own bedroom culture

Jackson and Tinkler

Feminists who found that girls created their own anti-school subculture (the Ladettes) as they were labelled as laddish and bad girls which encouraged their behaviour

Frith

Feminist who argued that pop culture reinforces gender roles and are therefore denied a creative form of self-expression

Rose

Black Feminist who argued that black women in pop culture (especially hip hop) are demonised by the media and are blamed for crime

Attwood

Feminist who studied Riot Grrrls - found that female punks formed a feminist subculture where they could resist the patriarchy and express theirselves through music

Beck

Postmodernist who argued that many concepts (e.g. social class, gender, ethnicity, etc) are no longer relevant in a postmodern world but sociologists try to keep them alive and they become "zombie categories" - young people no longer join youth cultures due to class or gender or ethnicity

Maffesoli

Postmodernist who argued that youth cultures no longer exist and that young people flit from neo-tribe to neo-tribe and mix and match styles from different tribes to suit them

Polhemus

Postmodernist who argued that young people have access to a "supermarket of style" where they create their own identity by picking and mixing various styles from different cultures and tribes

Sharkey

Postmodernist who argued that young people no longer subscribe to one set of behaviours to form a youth culture, and instead they form neo-tribes

Bennett

Postmodernist who argued that youth cultures don't exist anymore and instead young people are buying into fluid styles where they adopt and adapt a style to suit themselves and do not commit to a set of norms and values

Livingstone

Postmodernist who argued that young people have developed global youth cultures where they can combine styles from different cultures to create hybrid youth cultures - he also argued that New Bedroom Cultures exist and allow young people to engage in social activities from their bedrooms

McLuhan

Postmodernist who argued that globalisation has created a global village which provides young people with a wider access to to different styles and identities to choose from

Mac an Ghaill

Argued that as a result of changes to the labour market, young boys do not know what their role is in society and go through a "crisis of masculinity" where they feel threatened by young women and act in aggressive and misogynistic ways

Johal

Found that Asian youth cultures often fuse with British culture and form hybrid cultures (Brasian)

Gilroy

Argued that negative labelling by police officers can cause ethnic minority deviant youth cultures

Archer

Marxist who argued that working class join youth cultures in response to their low status