Functionalist Explanations of Youth Subcultures
- Created by: nelliott
- Created on: 15-06-21 14:07
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- Functionalist Explanations of Youth Subcultures
- Cohen
- Recognised that within a subculture, the deviant means to achieve society’s goals often become the accepted norm.
- Says teenage boys desire status, which means respect in the eyes of peers.
- Claims that working-class boys are aware of mainstream values, such as success at school, knowing that you can get good status through these things.
- However, a working-class boy who clings to these values will see himself as inferior compared to middle-class boys who are academically successful., creating 'status frustration'
- A subculture may then see values such as being good in a fight or aggression as a way to gain status.
- Explains why more working class boys get involved in crime and deviance.
- Merton
- Individuals may experience a strain between what is said to be the goals/values of a society and what they can actually achieve.
- This may lead to people going out and trying to get these things illegitimate
- He did not consider this as a shared response that everyone will do, or apply it specifically to youth, but it can explain some deviant behaviour.
- Cloward and Ohlin
- Saw deviance as a reaction to problems in achieving the values in mainstream culture.
- They outlined three deviant subcultures
- Criminal subcultures- develop in slum areas where there is a hierarchy of criminal opportunity.
- Conflict subcultures- formed in unstable areas where people moving in and out is high. Youth turn to violence and form gangs to defend their areas.
- Retreatist subcultures- formed by youths who fail to achieve in legitimate or illegitimate terms. They will retreat from society’s values, often turning to addiction or petty crime.
- Just as some people experience ‘blocked opportunities’ to get goals through legal means, not everyone can achieve things through illegal means.
- Millet
- Says that working-class boys do not even try to gain academic success- as that is a middle-class value.
- Working-class values are different and Millet calls these ‘focal concerns’.
- e.g. Being tough and macho and being streetwise
- Criticisms
- Not all working class youths are the same, many conform to society’s norms and values
- Cohen- WC are reacting to their failure to achieve mainstream values. Millet- it is just to achieve their own values.- contradicts!
- Focus too much on working class boys, what about girls?
- Subcultures form due to inequalities in society and certain groups being deprived
- Cohen
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