Youth Studies Megadeck

• Talcott Parsons - Functionalist


  We're an Industrial society so we have youth instead of rites of passage. Youth = transitional period
• Eisenstadt - Functionalist

  Youth integrates ppl into society + lets us 'blow off steam' before conforming in adulthood
• Tony Jefferson - Neo-Marxist

  • At CCCS in Birmingham
  • Studied Teddy Boys
  • Bright Edwardian jackets - show contempt for class system
  • Casual violence - to defend their neighbourhoods from decaying
• Clarke - Neo-Marxist

  • At CCCS in Birmingham
  • Studied Skinheads
  • Skinhead culture - response to decline of WC communities
  • Wore manual workwear - to reinstate WC masculinity + accentuate their WC identity
• Cohen - Neo-Marxist

  • At CCCS in Birmingham
  • Studied Skinheads
  • Racist behaviour - reacting to immigrants who they thought caused the breakdown of their WC communities
• Hebdige - Neo-Marxist

  • At CCCS in Birmingham
  • Studied Punks
  • Punk movement = to defy dominant cultural values in UK
  • Bricolage (using old things in new way to make new meaning) = to deliberately shock society
  • SYSs are short-lived + get incorporated into mainstream society
• Heidensohn - Critiquing the CCCS

  Accused them of 'male-streaming' = ignoring Women's roles in subcultures
• McRobbie & Garber - Critiquing the CCCS

  Main focus of subcultural studies is 'whiteness' + 'maleness'
• Brake - Critiquing SYSs

  • Only provide short lived, magical + symbolic solutions
  • Don't offer practical solutions
  • Most end up conforming in adulthood anyway
• Thornton - Girl's involvement in SYSs


  • Less likely to be involved bc:
  • Greater social control from parents
  • Less disposable income
  • Spend more time on doing well in skl

  So overall less freedom - less likely to go out to clubs, concerts etc.
• McRobbie & Garber - Bedroom culture 


  Girls have close-knit friendships w/ peers so more likely to hang out together in private spaces like bedrooms + discuss teenybopper culture - popular music, fashion + mags
• Thornton - Subcultural capital

  • Boys have more subcultural capital
  • Boys criticise mainstream tastes (e.g. boy-bands) bc they see it as feminine
• Reddington - Girls + Punk

  • Girls had prominent roles in the Punk scene e.g. Vivienne Westwood
  • Still not taken seriously + treated as tag-alongs ➡️ 'pillion passengers'
• Downes - Punk


  Punk used to transgress sexual hegemony
• Hollands - Newcastle nightlife 


  Found no diff. in the numbers of M and W in Newcastle nightclubs around the 1990s, proving that bedroom culture doesn't exist anymore
• Hollands - Changing roles of girls in subs.

  1990s, emergence of 'girl power' + 'ladettes'
• McRobbie - Changing roles of girls in subs.


  Nowadays, magazines are more about self-confidence, less about romance
• Johal - 'Hyper-ethnicity'


  Youth receive 'empowerment through difference' when they embrace + exaggerate aspects of parent culture (e.g. watching Bollywood movies) instead of assimilating into white society.
• Johal - hybrid ethnic identities


  • 'Brasian'
  • Common in children of immigrants
  • E.g. having career aspirations like white peers AND respecting parent's wishes ab. arranged marriage
• Nayak - taking aspects of other cultures, cultural appropriation


  • 'White wannabes'
  • Young white males adopting aspects of Black hip-hop/rap culture
• Maffesoli

  • Neo-tribes
  • Loosely organized groups of youths w/ no strong commitments
  • Not organized along trad. social lines
  • Can be involved in more than one
• St John

  • Post-rave techno tribes
  • SM empowering youths to make groups around political/social issues
• Polhemus

  • Supermarket of Style
  • Global media + media-saturated society + hyper-reality = ppl pick-and-choose when constructing identity
  • Uncommon to stick to 1 style
• Vale & Juno


  • Modern primitives
  • Hybrid neo-tribe
  • Mix primitive body art + modern aesthetics
  • Reaction to feel control instead of helplessness in a fast-changing world
• Bennett - nightlife


  • Studied Newcastle nightlife (like Hollands)
  • Found evidence of neo-tribes
  • Noted the fluidity between them
• Hodkinson


  • Critiqued PMs by saying subcultures w/ high commitment still exist = Goths
• Holland & Chatterton - critiquing PM's


  Youths don't acc. have as much freedom to choose identity as PMs say they do due to commercial pressure e.g. ads + SM
• Hebdige - ethnicity + hybrid subs.

  • Youth subs formed in response to immigration; either embracing it or resisting it's threat to their neighbourhoods
  • Music + style of youth subs in latter 20th Cen. were all influenced by African-American/Caribbean music.
• McRobbie - Ragga girls


  • Ragga girls who adopted hip-hop/ragga style so that their subcultures could resist sexism
  • R. girls reclaimed public spaces + controlled their sexuality
• Fabio et al. 2011 - WC youth deviance 


  Boys from disadvantaged areas had higher violence rates than those from advantaged areas
• Ministry of Justice - WC youth deviance 


  50%+ youths who'd been cautioned were eligible for FSM
• Uni. of Kent - WC youth deviance 


  • Interviewed 100+ young offenders
  • Many were from highly socially deprived areas
• Chambliss - 'Saints' & 'Roughnecks'

  • 2 groups of boys in HS in US
  • Saints = MC vs. Roughnecks = WC
  • Both committed similar deviance, but Saints were rarely punished but Roughnecks were labelled + treated harshly
  • Led to 'self-fulfilling prophecy'
  • Roughnecks later ended up having limited life chances, but Saints all succeeded.
• Cicourel

  • Labelling
  • Cali police more likely to arrest those fitting img. of delinquency
  • MC delinquents more likely to be cautioned + released
• Peace & Pitts- Gender + deviance

  12,500 females involved w/ gangs
• CSJ

  • Some roles W have in gangs - baby-mamas, fixers, links
  • Gangs use sexual violence to control girls + W
• Alder - liberation

  • W are increasingly delinquent bc they're more liberated
  • More independence + equality = them assuming more masculine roles
  • More opportunities in work + education = more active roles
• Miller

  • Focal concerns
  • WC have fundamentally diff. values to the rest of society
  • Fate, autonomy, trouble, excitement, smartness + toughness
• Cohen

  • Status frustration
  • WC taught MC values in school, unable to achieve them
  • Form deviant subs w/ inverted n+v's to society to gain status from peers
• Cloward & Ohlin

  • Illegitimate opportunity structure
  • Not everyone can access the legitimate opportunity structure to achieve socially acceptable goals
  • Ppl also have varying access to crime
  • 3 diff. subs can form - criminal, conflict + retreatist