YS topic 1A formation of youth subcultures

Berger

• youthfulness is a personal quality and an attitude to life rather than a matter of age.

Pilcher

• youth is centered on a withdrawal from family and parental control.

Davies

• did a study of subcultures in 2000’s

• people hardly differed from their parents meaning that few young people have distinctive rebellious subcultures

• very conformist and conservative.

Roberts

• identifies 3 different stages of transition from childhood

• abrupt transitions (childhood to adulthood very quickly)

• gradual transitions

• lengthy transitions (traditional adulthood over a longer period of time)

Hall and Jefferson

• studied the teddy boys

• was an attempt to recreate a sense of working class community

• members were mostly working class “lads” that felt a sense of threat from growing immigration.

Cohen

• made links between the working class and status frustration

• boys behave badly to gain status and a sense of purpose from their peers instead of academics.

social construction

something exists not because of nature but because society has agreed to treat it as real or important.

stages of transition

youth is a stage of transition from childhood to adulthood.

relative

something being dependent on or compared with something else.

abrupt transition

when the transition from adulthood to childhood is very short.

gradual transition

when the transition with ageing gradually takes longer and we slowly gain more rights.

lengthy transition

long term societal changes.

teddy boys

one of the first UK subcultures to emerge.