This document discusses several key themes related to subcultures. It first examines how subcultures are connected to issues of power and resistance to dominant culture. It then explores how the concept of subculture allows for analysis of cultural divisions and fragmentation. Third, it addresses how subcultures can be interpreted and stereotyped in media. Finally, it questions whether the concept of subculture remains useful given changing societies and cultures. The document also provides examples of several historical youth subcultures in the UK like mods, rockers, skinheads and teddy boys.
3. In the course of this chapter
we shall consider four
important themes. Firstly,
subcultures, we shall
suggest, are intimately
connected to issues of power
and struggle.
4. One of the most important
approaches to subcultures
conceptualizes and analyzes
youth subcultures in terms
of opposition to and
incorporation in dominant
culture.
5. Secondly, as the concept of
subculture divides wider
forms of culture into
smaller units, the concept
potentially allows
consideration of the division
of culture.
6. Moreover, as well as
facilitating examination of
cultural divisions, the concept
of subcultures also aids
analysis of how culture is
fragmenting. Are there more
and more subcultures?
7. The third theme concerns
interpretation. It can be offered
of the meaning of any
subculture. Moreover, Such
readings or interpretations tend
to neglect the meaning of the
subculture for its participants.
8. This difficulty is compounded
by the fact that youth
subcultures are highly visible
in the mass media, where
their members are often
stereotyped as folk devils who
provoke moral panic.
9. The fourth theme is the
argument that because of
the way that society and
culture is changing, it is no
longer possible or useful to
organize the concept of
subcultures.
10. At this point, it may be
illuminating to pause and
reflect on your own
enthusiasms and activities.
Do you belong to a group
that you might not be aware
of as a subculture?
11. Would you class yourself as
a fan of any form of culture
(music, television, sport,
etc.), and how important are
these activities in your
everyday life?
13. Cohen‘s ―Folk Devils and Moral
Panics (1973) introduces a
number of important and still
salient ideas concerning the way
in which subcultures (and fans,
enthusiasts, and marginalized
groups) are represented in the
press and visual media.
14. Cohen emphasized the ‗reaction‘ of
various official bodies and the
media (esp. the press) to relatively
small-scale disturbances that took
place at English seaside towns
between 1964 and 1966, which
created a moral panic in the society
around the folk devils of mods and
rockers.
15.
16. Mod
Significant elements of the mod
subculture include fashion
(often tailor-made suits);
music, including African
American soul, Jamaican ska,
British beat music, and R&B;
and motor scooters.
17. The original mod scene was also
associated with amphetamine-
fuelled all-night dancing at clubs.
From the mid-to-late 1960s and
onwards, the mass media often
used the term mod in a wider sense
to describe anything that was
believed to be popular, fashionable,
or modern.
18.
19. Rockers
Rockers or Leather boys are
members of a biker subculture
that originated in the United
Kingdom during the 1950s. It
was mainly centred around
British cafe racer motorcycles
and rock and roll music.
20. Cohen begins with what he
calls ‗The Inventory‘, which
emphasizes the media
reporting of the clashes of
the mods and the rockers.
21.
22.
23.
24. Cohen argues that media
reporting systematically
exaggerated and distorted the
events, maintained that they
would happen again; therefore,
predicting future occurrences
of the same type and used mods
and rockers in symbolic ways.
25. According to Cohen, a word
(mod) becomes symbolic of a
certain status (delinquent or
deviant); objects (hairstyle,
clothing, etc.) symbolize the
word. Through this, a moral
panic was generated.
26. The generation of moral panic
in turn produces opinions and
actions to ‗do something about
it‘. Cohen discusses these
responses through three further
categories: (1) Sensitization;
(2) Societal Control Culture;
(3) Exploitation.
28. All sorts of groups from
football hooligans and
striking workers to single
mothers, drug users and
asylum seekers seem to be
labeled as folk devils and to
generate moral panics.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34. These panics are seen by
some commentators as
strategies on the part of
those in power to create
diversions from ―real
issues‖.
35. For example, the idea of
blaming ‗asylum seekers‘ for
delinquency and for taking up
public service is used to divert
attention from more ‗important‘
issues such as causes of
migration and political
oppression in their countries.
36. While the idea of moral
panic remains a useful tool,
it should perhaps be used
carefully in the context
where differentiated sources
of information are available
through electronic media.
39. There are seven concepts
introduced in this paper which
need to be considered in some
detail: culture, hegemony,
dominant culture, dominant
ideology, class culture,
subculture, and parent culture.
40. There are seven concepts
introduced in this paper which
need to be considered in some
detail: culture, hegemony,
dominant culture, dominant
ideology, class culture,
subculture, and parent culture.
41. We understand the word
culture to refer to that level
which social groups develop
distinct patterns of life, and
give ‗expressive form‘ to their
social and material life
experience
42. There are 3 aspects of social
life identified in this definition:
social experience, social
groups, and patterns of life.
Culture is both a level/area of
society and the forms in which
the raw material of social
experience is handled.
43. Cultural Hegemony describes the
domination of a culturally diverse
society by the ruling class, who
manipulate the culture of the society
— the beliefs, explanations,
perceptions, values, and mores — so
that their ruling-class view becomes
the worldview that is imposed and
accepted as the cultural norm;
44. It is the universally valid
dominant ideology that justifies
the social, political, and economic
status quo as natural and
inevitable, perpetual and
beneficial for everyone, rather
than as artificial social constructs
that benefit only the ruling class.
45. Clarke et al. further argue that
there is a dominant culture
which connects to the dominant
class. However, they do not
identify the content of this
dominant culture, nor do they
explain the specific content of
the dominant ideology.
46. An ideology is a set of conscious
and unconscious ideas that
constitute one's goals, expectations,
and actions. An ideology is a set of
ideas proposed by the dominant
class of a society to all members of
this society (a "received
consciousness" or product of
socialization).
47. Marx‘s assertion that classes
are ‗the most fundamental
social groups‘ generates the
assumption that cultures are
fundamentally class cultures
(The Bourgeoisie and
Aristocrats, The Landowners,
and the Proletariat).
48. Subcultures are sub-sets –
smaller, more localized, and
differentiated structures within
one or other of the larger
cultural networks. Subcultures
in this approach have to be
seen in class context.
49. Finally is the concept of parent
culture. There was a working-
class parent culture which
generated other distinguishable
subcultures. Youth subcultures
are connected to, first, their
parent culture and second, to
the dominant culture.
51. Teddy Boys date back to the
late 1940s and early 1950s,
when, following the war, a
generation of youngsters with
money to burn appropriated
Edwardian (Teddy) clothing
style currently in fashion.
52. Teddy Boys were the first real
high profile rebel teenagers,
who flaunted their clothes and
attitude like a badge. It comes
as no surprise then that the
media was quick to paint them
as a menace and violent based
on a single incident.
54. The skinheads are recognizable
by their shaven heads, steel-
toed boots, and tattoos. A group
of aggressive working-class
youths, associated with football
hooliganism, racist violence
and neo-Nazism.
55. Working-class youth subcultures
take some things principally
from their ‗parent‘ culture, but
they apply and transform them
to the situations and experiences
characteristic of their distinctive
group-life and generational
experience.