Class & Subcultures

• Hebdige (Neo-Marxist)




  • Working-class youth form politically motivated subcultures that should be read as a challenge to class inequality
  • Create 'imaginary solutions' - try to solve the problems of capitalism through creating distinctive styles, but don't actually solve them.
  • Alternative spectacular styles = way of resisting cultural hegemony
  • Short lived due to incorporation that commercialises the style into consumerism
• Willis - Marxist 


  • Working-class boys valued 'having a laff' over academic success and felt superior to their teachers.
  • 'Semi-class-conscious' as they were aware life isn't meritocratic and the capitalist system was set against them.
  • Might have trapped them further in the system as their misbehaviour led them into low paid, exploitative jobs.
• Cicourel (interactionist) 


  • Justice is negotiable and depends on the police's idea of a 'typical delinquent'
  • Most people convicted had fathers who were manual workers
  • When arrested, middle-class children were less likely to be charged if their background did not fit the image of a typical delinquent, the parents presented themselves as nice, respectable people.
• Cloward & Ohlin - Functionalists 


  • Working class are more likely to have access to the 'illegitimate opportunity structure' as they are less likely to succeed in the 'legitimate opportunity structure'
  • Provides opportunities for them to earn money in a capitalist society
• King & Smith 


  • Jack Wills clothing reflected elements of upper-class lifestyle, like sailing and skiing, and materials associated with aristocracy
  • Marketed towards students at top universities by sponsoring Oxbridge events like ski trips and polo matches
  • 'Jack Wills Crowd' used the clothing as a way of maintaining their high status
• Katz



  Youth form deviant subcultures for the pleasure of transgression, thrill of misbehaviour, and the break from routine. Deviance is impulsive, seductive, and sensual.

  1. Sexual metaphor = pulses race, excitement, adrenaline.
  2. Religious metaphor = ruin something sacred
  3. Ludic metaphor = strategic like a game
• A.Cohen 


  • Subcultures allow lower class boys to gain status through misbehaving and inverting traditional values.
  • Originally strove to emulate middle class values but were unable, which led to status frustration
• Alexander - Myth of the Asian Gang


  • Working-class British Asian men were labelled as a gang, despite just being a group of friends
  • 2001 Oldham Riots - Asian men confronted police and National Front demonstrators to protest racism, but were labelled by the media as criminal gangs who created a 'no-go' area for white people in the city