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Module Two: Media and Popular Culture Unit M1: Youth Subcultures

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Module Two: Media and Popular Culture Unit M1: Youth Subcultures Media and Popular Culture Youth Subcultures Module Two: Media and Popular Culture Unit M1: Youth Subcultures Media and Popular Culture Youth Cultures and Subcultures Syllabus Area opular culture, Definitions and Themes. “P Culture and sub-culture, youth culture; consumer culture and life style; modernism and post-modernism". What? The keywords in this unit are: Youth subcultures Adolescence. Non-sociological theories of 1. Consumerism and Affluence youth subculture 2. Effect of the 2nd World and Culture and Subculture socialisation. Deviant youth cultures 3. The Extension of Education. Spectacular subcultures 4. The Influence of the Mass Media. Mass society Identity Anomie Self-fulfilling prophecy Why? You will be able to define: The concepts of youth culture and subculture and the difference between the two ideas. Varieties of sociological theories of youth (including Functionalist, Marxist and Interactionist perspectives). The manufacture of youth subcultures. How? You will be able to apply your knowledge to: Non-sociological theories of youth Sociological theories of youth Decision You will be able to evaluate: The difference between sociological and non-sociological theories of youth subcultures. A variety of sociological theories of youth culture and subculture. The significance of the concepts of class, gender and ethnicity in relation to youth subcultures. The concept of youth subcultures. © Chris.Livesey: www.sociology.org.uk Page 1 Media and Popular Culture Youth Cultures and Subcultures Youth Subcultures In previous Units we have looked at various ways that the concepts of culture and subculture can be defined and, to some extent, the relationship between culture, identity and life style. In this Unit, therefore, we can start to develop these ideas by applying them to a particular form of subculture, namely the concept of youth subcultures. What? The key ideas in this section are: Adolescence. Non-sociological) theories of youth subculture Youth culture and subculture Self-fulfilling prophecy Youth as a transition period The majority of studies have been written after the 2nd World War and concentrate on Historically, the study of youth Why? the development of youth subcultures after subcultures is a relatively new this time. There are exceptions however. of area of sociological analysis for reasons Pearson (“Hooligan: A History of which will become clear as we progress Respectable Fears”, 1983) focuses on through this Unit. various youth subcultures throughout the 20th century. Early studies in this area were mainly produced by Functionalist sociologists (the dominant sociological perspective in 1940's For example, general themes in this / '50's) and tended to focus upon youth as "sociology of youth" tended to be things a distinctive form of culture. like: The relatively modern nature of youth Youths holding norms and values that subculture studies is not too surprising, were significantly different to the norms given the fact that most sociologists tend to and values held by their parents. agree that the idea of youth as a distinct The idea that youth represents a period of phase in social development is itself a "ambivalence" - a distinct phase in social relatively modern phenomenon - one that is development that represents a transition characteristic of advanced industrial period from childhood to full adulthood. societies with well-developed educational systems. Philip Aries, for example ("Centuries of How? For example, the idea that Childhood", 1962) argues that youth is a children exist in a state of relatively modern concept and he claims it "innocence" is one idea that was only from the mid-17th century that "young springs to mind here - a people" started to be seen as both dependent on concept that is still fairly adults and as having special characteristics of their current in modern societies) own. © Chris.Livesey: www.sociology.org.uk Page 2 Media and Popular Culture Youth Cultures and Subcultures See, for example, According to Aries, such ideas developed initially amongst Martin Shipman ("The the upper classes and, although Aries’ methodology Limitations of Social has been criticised, it is evident that youth - as opposed to Research" 1982). childhood - is a concept that has started to have significant Part of Shipman’s meaning in the 20th century. We need only think, for criticism is that Aries example, of the way young people were treated in Victorian misinterpreted evidence Britain to suspect that the concept of youth is a relatively about the way children modern one in our society. One of the earliest attempts to were supposedly viewed develop the idea of youth as a distinctive phase in social and treated as “young adults” in the past. development involved the concept of adolescence. Exercise 1 Identify and explain two problems we might encounter when trying to define the concept of “youth”. What? The Transition From Child To Adult. Adolescence. In psychology, for example, the concept of adolescence become current Why? In basic terms, pathology relates at the end of the 18th century. to the way social behaviour is Adolescence defined a period "between related to biological development. childhood and adulthood" and G.Stanley Hall For example, changes in body ("Adolescence", 1904) provides the first 20th chemistry during puberty may century discussion of a claimed relationship theoretically produce behavioural changes in the individual - between adolescence and distinctive patterns of behavioural changes that the behaviour amongst young people. individual is relatively powerless to prevent or control. Hall's work focuses upon the relationship between biological / chemical changes and human If something is pathological, therefore, it means we cannot stop behaviour and represents an attempt to it happening (a pathological liar, for understand youth culture as a form of example, cannot stop lying). pathological response. © Chris.Livesey: www.sociology.org.uk Page 3 Media and Popular Culture Youth Cultures and Subcultures How? In this respect, Hall noted that the "problems of youth" included: Unbridled sexuality Rejection of parents / teachers Lack of concentration Extremes of emotion / violence Unpredictability. Deviant behaviour, therefore, resulted from chemically-based body changes in the transition from child to adulthood. This behaviour was pathological and was not, For example, confining children within the family or classroom therefore, the fault of the person involved. Young highlights behaviour as deviant people’s behaviour, in this sense, could be explained when it is really only a case of as a type of "disease" caused by chemical changes "growing-up" - a natural process in the body. In addition, Hall argued that social through which all humans conditions could aggravate this condition. supposedly pass. The above relates the concept of adolescence to psychological problems associated with a Without going into detail here, the basic transition from childhood to adulthood in idea is that modern societies have a complex division of labour. In basic terms, modern societies. This is mainly because non- people do a wide variety of jobs and they industrialised (pre-modern) societies do not have to learn the knowledge and skills need a transition period between childhood and required to perform them which requires a adulthood. In these types of society, the period of extended education (for example, individual passes directly from childhood to in our society, basic compulsory education now takes place up to the age of 16). This adulthood. creates a period “between childhood and adulthood” that we label “youth”. Hall argued that adolescence involved various emotional problems that were associated with such things as: The break from family life experienced by teenagers as they moved out of the confines of their family and into the wider, more impersonal, confines of education. The development of independent personalities that starts to conflict with parental socialisation. In this respect, Hall placed great emphasis A sociological term for this is anomie which, in upon adolescence being a time of this sense, means that the individual becomes emotional storm and stress as the confused about the norms of behaviour they individual was forced to try to come to are expected, by others, to display. In basic terms, adolescence represents a period of rapid terms with the differing demands placed social change for the individual where the upon them by parents, teachers, peers norms of childhood give way to the norms of and so forth. adulthood. The adolescent has to learn to replace childhood norms with adult norms and this takes time and can result in normative confusion (anomie) that expresses itself as “behavioural problems of adjustment”. © Chris.Livesey: www.sociology.org.uk Page 4 Media and Popular Culture Youth Cultures and Subcultures This general way of viewing the concept of adolescence has been Decision criticised by both psychologists and sociologists. We can look at some basic criticisms in the following terms: Firstly, modern psychology, physiology, and sociology views the "stresses" identified by Hall as social rather than physical. For example, we could explain "teenage behavioural problems" in A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction (prophecy) that eventually comes true because of terms of the concept of a self- the fact that a prediction has been made. fulfilling prophecy In effect, therefore, by predicting something will We can outline this idea in the happen you effectively act in
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