1A: Formation of Youth Culture / Subcultures

What is Youth?

Stage of transition between childhood and adulthood

Usually seen as happening between ages 15-25

Life stage (specific phase in a person’s life span along with birth, childhood, adulthood etc

Social construction - our understanding of youth depends on time and placewe live in + attitudes and values of groups within that time/ place

Berger on Youth

Argues that youthfulness is a personal quality and attitude rather than a matter of age

Not all young people are youthful, many youthful people are not young

Regardless of age, youthful people tend to be impulsive, energetic, thrill seeking

e.g 40 year old may skateboard - seemingly youthful activity

Pilcher on Youth

Argues youth is centred on an increasing withdrawal from family and parental control

She notes this leads to concerns that youth are vulnerable + fragile, needing protection from corrupting influences ‘stranger danger’

Youth is carefree but need for some formal/ informal control to stop youth from becoming deviant

Davies study of Subcultures (2000s)

Subcultures differed little from values of their parents

Few young people would now be (by 2020) part of a distinctive and rebellious subcultre

Instead, people aged 15-25 are increasingly conformist, mainstream, conservative

What is youth culture?

Young people have a distinct and different way of life from other ages

This might be shown through attitudes to life, clothes, language, music but ALSO values and beliefs

Can vary depending on time and place

Youth culture example - Bemba girl

Bemba girl living in Zambia becomes a woman on the day of her first period

These girls then have same rights and status as adult Bemba women - marry, have children, fulfil role of wife and mother

Youth culture example - Fulani boy

In Sudan, Fulani boys only become full adult males after completing ritualistic whipping ceremony

After this they gain full rights and status of Fulani adult male - can marry and become provider for a family

Youth in LEDcs

Children expected to work and be useful to members of their family at an early ages

e.g farm hands, water fetchers, service jobs or in the home

Same case for working-class boys and girls in the UK well into the middle of the 20th century

Roberts on transition from childhood to adulthood

3 types:

Abrupt eg Bemba and Fulani

Gradual eg UK - education to 18, adulthood in mid or early 20s

Lengthy eg leaving college at 18 then onto uni until 22/23, tendency to take a gap year

Lengthy transitions have become more common in Modern Western Europe (expansion of higher education, cost of living)

Development of YC in the UK + Western Society

1950s - Youth began to emerge as a separate identity

"Teenage” - first used in 1954 ‘that feeling of betwixt and between’

Prior to this - abrupt transition between childhood and adulthood, straight into adult world of work at as young as 12

No fixed biological periods to explain the concept of ‘youth’ - social construction

Education as a reason for emergence of Youth Culture from 1950s onwards

1994 Education Act - compulsory State secondary education aimed at all 11-15 yr olds in the UK (before this many WC children left school at ages 11 to 13)

Created a more gradual transition to childhood, led to creation of teenage culture in UK

By 1980s nearly all teenagers remained at school until 16

Education and Skills act 2008 - changed age to 18

Access to higher education rapidly increased from 1960s - further lengthened transition

Media and Advertising as a reason for emergence of Youth Culture from 1950s onwards

Post war period: TV + Radio much more influential

Companies began to target new age group (11-15) as a new consumer market

Hula-hoop: first product aimed at this age group

Quickly grew to music and fashion, with influence from USA (James Dean, Elvis Presley etc)

New and confrontational form of expression

Rejected ‘conservative values’

The Economy as a reason for emergence of Youth Culture from 1950s onwards

Crucial factor in this development were rising disposable incomes

Post WW2 - high economic growth rates across West “Golden Thirty Years” 1948-1970s

Relatively easy to find jobs - boosted spending power of most households

Youths enjoyed more disposable income

Expansion of leisure and entertainment industries

Immigration as a reason for emergence of Youth Culture from 1950s onwards

Booming economy led to govt deciding on policy of recruitment for unfilled jobs - often manual - from former British Colonies

Large numbers of immigrants arrived from late 1940s onwards (Caribbean< West Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) - Windrush Generation 1948

Fundamental to creation of youth subcultures as it gave rise to racism and increasing concerns about losing traditional “British” identity

Teddy Boys - one of the first UK youth subcultures to emerge

Other youths borrowed style and music of the immigrants + integrated it into their own YSCs

Hall and Jefferson (Marxist) - Teddy Boys

Attempt to recreate a sense of WC community

Started to form by mid 1950s, members mostly WC ‘lads’ that felt threat from growing immigration

“birds, booze, fun”, protect their territory

Bought Edwardian style suits to challenge and resist ideologies on social class

Wore drainpipe trousers suede shoes, listened to American Rock and Roll Music, easily identified by hairstyles

Minor crimes - fighting, petty theft - usually seen as criminal in the media but not organised with a defined hierarchy like most gangs

Teddy Girls - pencil skirts, rolled jeans, flat shoes also formed during this time