Youth culture (marxism)

Marxism (1)

Karl Marx argues that societies are based on class divisions between those who benefit from the economic system and those who do not.  

 

  

The bourgeoise use their control of institutions to keep the masses ignorant of their exploitation this is known as ideological control. 

 

Youth subcultures are formed as a reaction to being working class, an angry reaction to being part of working class and not having a lot of power in the system  

Marxism (2)

• Youth subcultures develop around the need to explain how and why different social groups respond to the structural pressures that surround them  

• These sociologists focus on social class and the economic situation faced by young people as their explanations for the formation of youth subcultures  

CCCS – the centre for contemporary cultural studies (1) Resistance to unemployement

The CCCS could be seen as ‘Neo-Marxists’ - new Marxists who took their influences from more recent Marxist thinkers such as Gramsci and his concept of “hegemony” 

  

Gramsci = By hegemony he meant the ideological dominance or social authority that the ruling class has over the subordinate classes.  

  

These sociologists tend to focus social class and economic situations faced by young people as their explanations for the formation of youth subculture.  

CCCS – the centre for contemporary cultural studies (2) resistance to unemployment

 

• They recognised that despite looking and dressing differently from their parents an other youths, the members of these subcultures still faces the same experiences and social conditions facing their whole social class and a whole.  

• Their style could be understood as their response and solution to being part of the working class  

Neo - Marxists = challenge the functionalist view of culture, which takes no account social situations and class issues facing young people.  

Punks (1)

Punks emerged in the mid 1970s in New York City and hit the UK in 1976 by storm

They emerged as a resistance to mainstream society and because of economic and social frustration in the UK

This caused some young people to feel political anger crave individualism that the punk identity provided

Punks came from primarily working-class backgrounds, but there were also many lower middle-class punkS

Punks (2)

Punks believe free speech, freedom of thought and anti-conformity are extremely important

They express these beliefs through clothing, music and art

Some punks participate in direct action and take part in protests, vandalism and property destruction

Skinheads (1) aggression of masculinity because they feel threatened

Emerged in the late 1960’s (a working class subculture influenced by Mods and Jamaican ‘rude boys’) The Second wave = late 70’s early 80’s

Emerge = emerged from working class youth seeking identity, making a return to working class pride and was a response to the erosion of white working-class values

 

A defence from everyday life that was under attack from bourgeoisie capitalism and they had a desire to celebrate and represent their background

Skinheads (2) aggression of masculinity because they feel threatened

1.     Many working class fleet ignored by mainstream politics (post WW2)

Aligned with the Marxist youth subculture perspective

2.     Immigration from Caribbean commonwealth countries introduced new styles

 

(The skinheads were not initially racist; skinheads demonstrate that can form through cultural hybridity)

 

Style, Dress

They typically wore =

1. Short hair/ Buzz cuts

2.     Levi jeans

3.     Trench coatS

Skinheads (3) aggression of masculinity because they feel threatened

Original subculture (1960’s) = consisted of young people from white British and black Jamaican backgrounds

Originally ethnicity was second to class solidarity and the group was multicultural

Emerged as an alliance among those who shared a sense of working class pride

Later decades = the subculture revived and became political….  

Led to the group adopting far right racist ideologies

 

SHARP = emerged to preserve the original multicultural values of the group

Skinheads (4) aggression of masculinity because they feel threatened

Social class

-       original Base for unity was working class identity

-       Resistance to middle class norms

-       Reclaiming traditional working-class culture and traditional masculinity

 

Today the subculture still exists but is largely associated with racism & football hooliganism

It has changed from the 1960’s now into more fragmented groups

 

The extremism factors remain problematic

Evaluation (1)

Too focused on issue of class and ignored other factors like gender and ethnicity  

  

Neo - Marxists were finding meanings in things that didn’t actually exist 

  

Because they were looking for examples relating to class they interpreted subcultures in this way 

Challenge by feminists for ignoring girls in their analysis - McRobbie and Garber 

  

• Challenging the CCCS for ignoring girls in their subcultural analyses  

• McRobbie and Garber were part of the CCCS but as feminists they challenged most of the studies and produced their own analysis of female subcultures

Evaluation (2)

Ignored middle class subcultures like hippies  

• The middle class also had youth culture (hippies) 

• These where largely ignored by the CCCS who saw youth-subculture as working class  

• It can be argued that they picked subcultures to fit their analysis rather than the other way around  

Brake = however research on subcultures such as hippies and beatniks was carried out by break who was part of the CCCS