1B: Types of Subcultures

What is a Subculture?

Specific section w/in existing culture
Clearly defined in some way as different

Delinquent YSCs

Young people collectively commit low-level crime (vandalism, joy riding)

Non-utilitarian crimes

e.g Teddy Boys

James Patrick (1950s) (“A Glasgow Gang observed”) (Delinquent YSCs)

Non-utilitarian violence often used as a ‘way in’ to some youth gangs

Take part in violent/ dangerous situations as initiation test, rather than to make money

Patrick gained entry using a “gatekeeper” who allowed him to get involved

Became so concerned about his own safety that he didn’t publish his study until 15 years later

Albert Cohen (functionalist) Delinquent YSCs

Made link between WC and Status Frustration

Lower-class boys strove to emulate middle-class values and aspiration in school but lacked means to be successful (lack financial, social, cultural capital)

Led to feeling of Status Frustration - sense of inadequacy compared with better-off teenagers from higher class backgrounds

Frustration leads to rejection of values and ‘acceptable’ behaviours

Can result in delinquent behaviour

This process is functional for individual - helps them to gain a status

What are Spectacular YSCs?

Very noticeable, highly visible

Way of dressing that will be distinctive and shared by other members of that distinct subculture

Flamboyant style, clothing, hairstyles

Often will be seen as criminal/deviant because they are so easily identified - this can lead to stereotypical assumptions in the wider community even though they are usually not criminal

e.g Punks, Hippies, Skinheads, EMOs, Goths

Hebdie (Marxist) - Semiotic Analysis to study punks in 1979

Semiotics - process of analysing symbols and their meaning

Punks used everyday household objects and successfully redefined them -e.g Chain from toilet or dustbin bag into jewelry/ clothing

Items like safety pins could be stolen and then magically reimagined to symbolise something else entirely

Punks identified by flamboyant/ multicoloured Mohawk hairstyles, accesorized clothing, colourful makeup and bad attitude

Most Spectacular YSCs refuse to buy items from mainstream - set themselves apart from other sub-cultures, rejecting dominant hegemonic values

Hall (Marxist) - rebellion of spectacular YSCs

Studied hippies in 1960s - rejected mainstream youth consumer culture - wore bright colours, peace symbols, grew hair long, wanted to protect environment

Condemned war in Vietnam, campaigned for the disarmament of nuclear weapons

Took hallucinatory drugs + promoted free love to symbolise rebellion

Formed part of growing ‘counterculture’ across Western world from 1960s onwards which rejected ‘mainstream common sense’ beliefs and norms

‘Dont trust anyone over 30’

What are Anti-school youth subcltures?

Groups of pupils who reject norms/ values of school and reverse them or create own distinctive norms and values

One feature is usually status frustration

Albert Cohen - Anti-school YSCs

School is the key area for playing out of Anti-School YSCs

LC children more likely to fail and consequently feel humiliated

To gain status - ‘invert’ traditional middle-class values by behaving badly and engaging in a variety of anti-social behavior

Getting detention/ being excluded becomes a Status gain

Archer and Yamashita - Anti-School YSCs

Anti-school YSCs display “hyper heterosexuality”

Close subcultural groups that are exclusively male

‘Dare-do’ attitude, rejection of school rules and hierarchies, being strong

Paul Willis (Marxist) - Anti-School YSCS

Carried out observation in the midlands in the 1970s

Found ‘counter-school culture’ amongst many WC boys who he followed over 18 months, at school and when they entered the workforce

Valued having a laugh above conformity and ‘boring school days’

Academic progress was near-irrelevant to their lives

Semi-class conscious - aware the capitalist system was set against them, knew they were destined for lower paid jobs + status

What are Gangs?

Group of people who regularly associate together to commit crime

Term used mostly by the media and police to refer to a group who cause harm to community + involve din persistent criminality

Violence as a key element

Male dominated

Harding (2014) - Gangs

Girls involved in gangs only for their use of social skills to create a role

Never leaders, but instead ‘fixers’ - hiding weapons, drugs, trading information w/ rival gangs

Boys see these jobs as ‘girl’s business’

Sexual violence is a common way of ‘keeping them in line’

Batchelor et al. (2000, 2009)

Conducted research into violent behaviour amongst girls in Scotland in the late 1990s

Found very little evidence of girl gangs

Not one of the 800 girls studied was in a gang and none knew any girls who were

Physical violence v. rare, but most had witnessed male violence against other males

What are Criminal Youth Cultures?

Youths who carry out more serious illegal acts within their gangs - theft, robbery, drug dealing, assault

Utilitarian crime - offending behaviour is economically motivated

Closely linked to WC

Venkatesh - Criminal Youth Cultures - Outlaw capitalism

Chicago crack-cocaine dealing gang that he studied was functional for its members - gave them a ‘job’ with pay, promotion, protection

Mirrored market economy - hence Outlaw capitalism

Black WC communities more likely to be involved

Cloward and Ohlin (Functionalist) - Criminal YSCs

WC youth more likely to have/need access to parallel opportunity structure (illegitimate opportunity structure)

Much greater pressure for some WC youth to deviate from mainstream norms and values because there are less opportunities to succeed in capitalist society