theories of youth subcultres
- Created by: gbolton01
- Created on: 02-03-18 11:19
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- Theories of youth culture
- Functionalist
- Key functionalist idea:
- everything in society good or bad has a function
- society based on consensus
- everyone has to be in social solidarity with each other to crate a value consensus of norms and values for society
- functionalist sociologists
- PARSONS
- sees youth as the transitional period between childhood and adulthood
- called it a rite of passage
- seen as a rite of passage as he believes that youths have to transition from the security of the family to the independence and responsibility of adulthood.
- called it a rite of passage
- argued that youth emerged due to the family being associated with developmental capitalism
- where family had to go out and work rather than socialise children. so education filled this gap
- sees youth as the transitional period between childhood and adulthood
- EISENSTADT
- a way of bringing young people into society
- suggests that youth culture is very important as it provides an outlet for stress and isolation between child and adulthood
- this helps with as it creates a sense of belonging as peers will be going through the same stage of rebellion and isolation
- ROSAK
- developed a functionalist argument on generation gaps
- said there was a generation gap emerging due to the differences between adultescents and adults
- this was in relation to norms, values and fashion
- this why he believed that youth subcultures existed as youths now share common traits that adults don't
- this links to parsons and Eisenstadt on youths growing apart from parents
- this why he believed that youth subcultures existed as youths now share common traits that adults don't
- this was in relation to norms, values and fashion
- PARSONS
- Evaluation of functionalist explanations
- ignores differences between different subcultures. just generalises youth as a whole.
- ethnocentric
- all evidence is conducted by white, middle class, males. its questionable whether functionalist research (transitioning problems) can be generalised over all western cultures
- ignores gender, class and racial differences
- Key functionalist idea:
- Marxist
- key marxist ideas
- based on conflict
- main points on capitalism
- NEO-MARXISTS
- CCCS- Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
- ideas were influenced by marx ideas
- main focus was 'Hegemony'- which is the ideological dominance or social authority that the ruling class has over subordinate classes
- these sociologists focused on the economic situations faced by young people in certain classes
- main focus was 'Hegemony'- which is the ideological dominance or social authority that the ruling class has over subordinate classes
- ideas were influenced by marx ideas
- CCCS- Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
- key thinkers
- NEO-MARXISTS
- CCCS- Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
- ideas were influenced by marx ideas
- main focus was 'Hegemony'- which is the ideological dominance or social authority that the ruling class has over subordinate classes
- these sociologists focused on the economic situations faced by young people in certain classes
- main focus was 'Hegemony'- which is the ideological dominance or social authority that the ruling class has over subordinate classes
- ideas were influenced by marx ideas
- CCCS- Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
- HALL & JEFFERSON
- resistance
- resisted the dominant hegemonic capitalist culture by adopting youth subcultures
- easier for youth to resist hegemonic society as they are likely to be unemployed
- example: Punks- made bold anti- capitalist political statements by having a stand out style. by using BRICOLAGE. using house hold items as part of an outfit and adapting new meaning to words (slang)
- this was a form of expression to resist societies ruling class
- example: Punks- made bold anti- capitalist political statements by having a stand out style. by using BRICOLAGE. using house hold items as part of an outfit and adapting new meaning to words (slang)
- easier for youth to resist hegemonic society as they are likely to be unemployed
- resisted the dominant hegemonic capitalist culture by adopting youth subcultures
- resistance
- BRAKE
- Magical solutions
- Brake suggests that subcultures created magical solutions to the lives of its members
- membership creates safety from facing social and economic problems experienced by working class youths
- also a way to express freedom and experience ideas
- Example: it allows hippies to convince themselves that their generation will be different from their parents, which they are trying to resist from
- also a way to express freedom and experience ideas
- membership creates safety from facing social and economic problems experienced by working class youths
- Brake suggests that subcultures created magical solutions to the lives of its members
- Magical solutions
- CLARKE
- Exaggeration
- woking class values are exaggerated by youth culture to exaggerate the behaviour that defies them in order to oppose capitalist control
- Example: skinheads- exaggerated masculinity.manual labour style,violence and very territorial
- woking class values are exaggerated by youth culture to exaggerate the behaviour that defies them in order to oppose capitalist control
- Exaggeration
- NEO-MARXISTS
- Evaluation
- findings didn't actually exist. because they were looking for examples of class, they just interpreted it in this way
- outdated finings (50's-60's)
- middle class largely ignored by CCCS. hippies largely ignored and only used to fit analysis. Saw subcultures as woking class
- key marxist ideas
- Functionalist
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