Subcultural Theory: Traditions and Concepts
... Although there had been a relatively stable period from 1900 to 1930, there was a steady increase in delinquency from this period onwards (Wills, 2009). In 1892, the University of Chicago was renowned for introducing one of the first sociology departments in the United States (Williams, 2011). As the population for this town expanded from 10,000 inhabitants in 1860 ...
... deviance is explained and theorised from a cultural, community and wider social context, as opposed to seeing it as a pathological condition. Throughout the next two decades, theorists Frederic Thrasher, Paul Cressey and William Foote Whyte conducted detailed analyses on the study of urban subcultures (Williams, 2011). ...
... they are the criminal, conflict and retreat subcultures (Nwalozie, 2015). Bennett and Harris (2004) According to Williams (2011), scholars from the CCCS, schooled through the social sciences and humanity disciplines, adopted concepts such as structuralism, hegemony and semiotics, this establishing the foundations of their theoretical paradigms. Also, in contrast to American subculture inquiry, CCCS researchers incorporated a semiotic framework analysis, which attempted to deconstruct and make sense of the taken for granted meanings that defined and influenced the practices and behaviours of subculture participation. ...
This study reports the findings of a three-year investigation, which documented the learning experiences of former offenders. My research is informed by a concern about different perceptions of what counts as appropriate provision for Education, Training and Employment (ETE hereafter) offender initiatives that show a tendency to treat ex-offenders in an unhelpful and unproductive manner. Drawing on my own experiences as a former offender, and in later years as a practitioner, mentor and teacher working in numerous provisions since 2004, I contend that the current system of ETE initiatives are, in the main, failing to address the complex and non-conventional learning requirements of those who struggle to adapt to traditional modes of learning. My inspiration for this thesis was grounded in the belief that
for some offenders, including those with substance misuse problems, education can help support and foster a more contented and fulfilled way of living.
My aim was to explore with the men other ways of teaching, learning and service user engagement. I describe how my complicated life history became a valuable pedagogical resource, which enabled me to work in ways that were shown to enrich the life chances and perspectives of other former offenders. My research explores the educational benefits of working in a more caring, compassionate and trusting manner, freed from traditional time restraints. During the previous fourteen years, the people with whom I have worked have highlighted my capacity to connect through authentic communication, as perhaps the most fundamentally compelling aspect of my pedagogy. Rogers (1961) theorised that when positive
regards between persons is unconditional, the human condition is more likely to flourish, as is client growth and development through the quality of relationships. However, the magnitude of this change, if any, cannot be predicted; personal growth and achievement are unique to the person.
... Later studies expanded the research scope by exploring the lived experiences of punks (e.g. Furness, 2012;Leblanc, 1999;Williams, 2011), thereby addressing the problem of sparseness of empirical evidence that once existed in the CCCS approach to subcultural studies. Nevertheless, with punk being seen largely as representing a 'benchmark for rupture towards the existing social structure' in Western societies ( Guerra and Silva, 2015: 207) and as expressing a desire for social change ( Copes and Williams, 2007;Haenfler, 2004), little attention is paid to how this phenomenon has developed and challenged existing power relations in non-Western societies. ...
... Style is thus theorised to be a reaction. Nevertheless, this approach, which regards ideological conflict as a prerequisite for the formation of subcultural style, is problematic in its one-sidedness ( Williams, 2011). Moreover, while exploring the meaning of style is important for understanding cultural practices, a problem with Hebdige's work can be found in the absence of the lived experience of punks and their own interpretations of the meanings of their style. ...
... In fact, it is the form-the particular musical style that is characteristic of punk music performance rather than a concrete political opposition-that decreases the threatening power of this practice relative to the government. The mesolevel resistance, which particularly is expressed in the form of collective performances or organisations ( Williams, 2011), may reduce the distance between the punks and the dominant institution but is far from being effective power to influence the government. ...
While the biographical approach is widely employed in applied and theoretical social research, it is less fully developed in the specific field of (post-) subcultural studies. The article demonstrates the utility of the biographical method for (post) subcultural studies by presenting research on the punk phenomenon in an authoritarian social context within China. The discussion draws upon a qualitative study based on interviews with 34 Chinese punk musicians. Although the article focuses on one of these musicians in particular, the arguments are informed by broader research findings. Specifically, emphasis is placed on examining how the punk musician experiences the gradual process of deepening commitment to the punk scene and, through this, the multiple levels of power relations in his life. It is argued that the biographical approach can highlight the subjectivity of individual participants in their everyday practices and the wider social context in which they are actors. This article forms part of ‘On the Move’, a special issue marking the twentieth anniversary of the European Journal of Cultural Studies.
... A critique is further provided by Blackman (2014) who points out that post-subculture theory has ignored collective social formations within wider social, historical and political moments, and avoided critical engagement with issues of class, feminism and ethnicity by focusing on individual meaning in subcultural practice. Consistent with the ongoing critique of earlier subcultural models, particularly the Birmingham School subcultural theory, J. Patrick Williams (2011) has reintroduced the resistance paradigm through a threedimension account of subcultural resistance via which consumptive acts of youth resistance can be understood as meaningful micro-oriented resistance to class conflicts, in contrast to early accounts that dismissed punk as a mere gesture towards macro-oriented resistance. According to Williams (2011, p. 104), private subcultural spaces function as useful gathering spaces that while covert can nevertheless be understood as meaningful sites of resistance 'intended to foster social change'. ...
... The predominant preoccupation across the songs was with resistance to authority, by which, following Williams (2011), we refer to active (as opposed to passive) resistance, expressed via direct calls to resist authority. Such resistance, widely regarded as a hallmark of classical punk Dunn, 2016;Guerra, 2018;Xiao, 2018), is an obvious theme in UK punk songs such as The Clash's 'Clampdown' (1979) with its call for action and use anger as power or the Sex Pistols' pointed refrain to express the desire to be anarchist from 'Anarchy in the UK' (1976), or their invocation, in 'God Save the Queen ' (1977), to refuse social constraint. ...
Punk in China suffers from the stigma of inauthenticity and the dilemma of belatedness. That is, it comes ‘after’ the original punk moment in the West and is understood as derivative and therefore inauthentic. It does not follow, however, that in places that came ‘late’ to punk, such as China, punk is merely an echo of Western practice. Recent scholarship has embraced the concept of ‘global punk’, alongside projects to decolonize punk studies, to destabilize Western-centric understandings of punk authenticity. Consistent with this agenda, we undertake a comparative analysis of 60 seminal 1970s UK and US punk songs and 60 Chinese punk songs released since the founding of Chinese punk in the 1990s, to analyse the translocal durability of punk. Punk in China, we argue, mobilizes a durable ethic of do-it-yourself resistance to interrogate local political conditions and adds weight to the catch-cry that ‘punk is not dead’.
... A notable characteristic of the strip club subculture in Israel is the alleged attainment of control and high status. The centrality of this aspect stems from the powerlessness and inferiority of many of the strippers in the larger society (Williams, 2011) and the fact that their status in the strip clubs enables them, at least temporarily, to attain power (Gelder, 2005;Roberts, 2015). ...
... Power in this world is communicated by, for example, sitting in certain areas of the dressing room, being able to leave one's personal belongings unattended, and adopting personal dance styles and songs to be played during performances. The potential of every stripper to attain high status in this subculture is usually in direct contradiction to her ability to do so in general society (Williams, 2011). It is this that turns their professional world into a desirable microcosm. ...
This qualitative study analyzes the attitudes of 11 women who work as club strippers in an attempt to discern the characteristics of the subculture of Israeli strip clubs as viewed in real time. A thematic analysis of individual interviews indicated the existence of a women’s strip club subculture in Israel. This is typified by ongoing efforts to reduce mental and emotional stress, deceit, ambivalence, and power struggles, as articulated in the intense consumption of alcohol, relationships between strippers and their peers, and strippers’ sexual and non-sexual relations with club owners and clients. The study concludes that this subculture serves as a platform for generating and designing social systems and achieving various needs and desires unfulfilled in general society; however, it simultaneously weakens the woman stripper who lacks the necessary pragmatic instruments to preserve her fundamental human and occupational rights.
... To complement the theoretical inspirations of Deleuze and Guattari, and further pay homage to the political radicalism of their philosophical project (Munro & Thanem, 2017), we shall also draw selectively from a stream of research that offers a parallel set of conceptions with a non-compromising edge: the sociology of punk. This research tradition grew out of the sociological studies of subcultures of the Chicago School (Lohman, 2017;Williams, 2011), such as the work of Becker (1963) on outsiders. The sociology of punk focuses on a phenomenon that began as a radical departure from the mainstream music scene, but eventually extended to a rebellion against commercialism more generally. ...
... Punk always stood for something: a world yet to be imagined but experimented on, born out of a doit-yourself (DIY) attitude -a minor creating. The research tradition as a whole has also moved from shifting the study of subcultures away from firm insider-outsider categories towards how agencies are produced in discourse and practice (Lohman, 2017;Williams, 2011). Thus, punk too can be seen as a phenomenon of politically charged rebellion that achieves its agencies from experimental action and a desire for deterritorializing. ...
How can a desire for rebellion drive institutional agency, and how is such desire produced? In this paper, we develop a theory of minor rebellion as a form of institutional agency. Drawing from the work of Deleuze and Guattari as well as from notions of social inquiry and the sociology of punk, we qualify and illustrate minor rebellion as a lived-in field of desire and engagement that involves deterritorializing of practice in the institutional field. Three sets of processes are involved: (i) minor world-making, through establishing the aesthetics and relations of an outsider social network within a major field, including the enactment of cultural frames of revolt and radicalism; (ii) minor creating, through constructing and experimenting with terms, concepts, and technology that somehow challenge hegemony from within; and (iii) minor inquiring, through problematizing social purposes and the related experiential surfacing of the desirable new. Minor rebellion suggests a new solution to the paradox of embedded agency by describing institutional agency as shuttling between political contest and open-ended social inquiry, involving anti-sentiments, but also being for something. The paper also contributes to recasting institutional agency as a process resulting from emergent collective action rather than preceding it. To illustrate our theorizing, we describe the emergence of Robin Hood Asset Management, a Finnish activist hedge fund. At the end of the paper we discuss how minor rebellion raises new questions about the multiplicities and eventness of desiring in institutional agency.
... We use the concept of youth subcultures when conceptualizing our field studies on unauthorized graffiti and sticker art. This is done with respect to the debates that compound subcultural theory (Williams, 2011) and youth agency as creative, imaginative, and cultural 'solutions' (Blackman & Kempson, 2016) to social structures faced in the urban realm (Austin, 2002;Young, 2011). Sticker art and graffiti present creative and visually transformative activities altering the 'mainstream' urban sociopolitical order on city aesthetics and property relations (Ferrell, 1995). ...
This article explores the practice of a distinct ‘gaze’ present in creative urban youth subcultures. We focus on sticker artists in St. Petersburg and graffiti writers in Helsinki while exploring how this subcultural gaze is formed and enacted among subcultural youth in different socio-political contexts. The idea of this article emerged, when we noticed that we have through our case studies learned different subcultural ways of looking at ‘spots’ in urban space. Spots can be understood as distinct subcultural places in the city space, that reveal communication and control of unauthorised youth practices. We use examples from the respective ethnographic fieldworks and complement them with photographs taken from spots in the field. Drawing from our fieldwork in these two cities, we further illustrate how youth within these subcultures reinterpret and visualize urban spaces through their unique subcultural lens. Both recognition and control in the city space serve as dynamic forces shaping this gaze in a creative interplay in urban environments.
... Members of subcultures have shared beliefs, interests, norms, and behaviors (Williams & Schwarz, 2020), often having boundaries that separate them from other (sub) cultures, shared geographical spaces (online or offline), and require investment for subcultural membership (Wignall, 2022). While subcultures were initially understood through frameworks of deviancy and resistance to dominant cultures, more recent perspectives highlight subcultures as ways to generate distinction and foster unique social identities (Bennett & Kahn-Harris, 2020;Williams, 2011). ...
The twenty-first century has seen the proliferation of new sexual identity subcultures rooted in creative role-play dynamics, expanding our cultural and scientific understanding of diversity in sexuality and intimacy. In an international sample of 568 people who identified with the kink subculture of pup play, we analyzed responses to open-ended questions about the discovery of pup play and communities, definitions of pup play, and motivations for engagement. Four themes were identified: (1) social technologies as central to discovery of the subculture; (2) constructionist accounts of pup identity development emerging from relationships and exposure to other kink communities; (3) individual psychological benefits of subculture participation, including stress relief, relaxation, and pleasure; and (4) social psychological benefits in identity and community building. We situate these findings in relation to the expansion of diversity in sexual identity and intimacy in the twenty-first century, facilitated by the heightened visibility and opportunities for social and intimate creativity which have accompanied the growth of social media and exposure to new sexual stories.
... Relatively little research has been done on the symbolism of clothing in crime and deviance in the Ghanaian context (Waddell, 2016). Although fashion can be used to convey cultural pride, it can also be used to signify connections to criminal organizations or other deviant subcultures (Williams, 2011). This study revealed how deviant groups in Ghana might use fashion as a symbolic tool to control their behavior and interactions with society. ...
This study delves into the intricate interplay between fashion and deviance, focusing on Ghana, West Africa to address the gap in understanding how clothing choices can serve as symbolic conduits for deviant behavior in Ghana. We adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing ethnographic research design to explore the complex relationship between clothing, symbolism, and deviant behavior in the Ghanaian cultural context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with three categories of participants: 10 deviant or criminal individuals from Nsawam prisons and in the communities through non-participant observation, 8 community members, and 2 law enforcement officers. We employed purposive sampling method to ensure that participants had relevant expertise and firsthand knowledge related to clothing symbolism in deviant subcultures. The study findings mainly revealed that clothes convey identities and codes subtly and is a potent emblem of group connection. The intricate dynamics surrounding the stigmatisation and labelling of clothing symbolism have an impact on people's self-esteem and interaction with law enforcement. To develop guidelines and training programmes for law enforcement officers and community members on concrete methods of identifying and comprehending clothing symbolism within deviant and criminal subcultures, policy makers may form a collaborative task force consisting of law enforcement, community leaders, and cultural experts.
... The concept of subculture serves as an analytical tool that refers to particular subcultural styles and scenes (e.g., skinheads, football hooligans, hardbass) as well as an exclusive, shared experience of certain parts of society (in this context, far-right activists). Such an experience is crucial for the creation of a dominant cultural subgroup with an identity and mentality that differs from that of the rest of the society (Borgeson & Valeri, 2019;Hall, 1975;Hebdige, 1979;Muggleton, 2000;Williams, 2011). In general, we understand all three mentioned branches of the far right as political logics with different telos. ...
The chapter provides an outline of the development of the Czech far-right from the end of 1980s to the year 2020, a period during which the Czech grassroots far-right scene changed in terms of ideology, organizational structure, and repertoires of action. We will focus primarily on far-right social movements, but political parties and musical subcultures will be included as well, as they not only interacted but also substantially overlapped. To underline both internal differences in far-right movements and the milieus and external conditions for their development, we identify three far-right activism waves. We will analyze each of them from two points of view: (1) how did the structure of political opportunities (approach of political elite, media, police, civil society, and targeted populations) change during the period and (2) how did various far-right milieus transform internally in terms of their ideology, organizational structure, and form of activities. These two questions will be interconnected by our analysis of how the development of various far-right movements and their interaction with political opportunities created path-dependency.
... Subcultures are characterised as subgroups or countercultures with their distinct attitudes, values, and norms that often oppose society's prevailing norms. (Williams, 2011). In this regard, young people's union is the product of their adjustment to the current capitalist class society's social inequality. ...
Hacking or unauthorised access is criminalised in many jurisdictions, including Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and a few other countries. Hacking is the act of gaining access through the computer system or network without proper authority or exceeding the original authority given to him. Many commentators and researchers have reported on the conceptual and legal aspects of hacking. However, hacking's theoretical, conceptual, and legal aspects have remained under-researched. Therefore, this paper's primary objective is to outline the various theories, which could inform the criminalisation of hacking. The theories of routine activities, deterrence theory, social learning and self-control, general strain theory, and deviant subcultures are deliberated in this paper alongside illustrations within the context of hacking. This paper will shed light on the body of literature and contribute to a better understanding of hacking criminalisation from various theories discussed in this paper. Future research should be directed to provide empirical evidence of applying the theory to hacking criminalisation.
... Sociological theory about subcultures and academic advising studies suggests that various groups potentially hold differing views about articulation and transfer policies. Subcultural approaches point to the different values and beliefs of specific groups and how they result in behavioral patterns unique to a subculture (Williams, 2011). This perspective illustrates how faculty experience advising differently than professional advisors (Hart-Baldridge, 2020) and frames how community college and 4-year professionals fulfill different roles (Zambroski & Freeman, 2004). ...
In this study, cybersecurity faculty and academic advisors from community colleges and 4-year universities in the southeast region of the United States completed a survey assessing attitudes about and support for articulation agreements and related transfer policies. Hypothesizing that professional structures shape attitudes and experiences, the researchers conducted an exploratory quantitative study with primarily descriptive analyses. The results reveal differences in attitudes between community college and 4-year stakeholders and between faculty and academic advisors. The results of this study are discussed in relation to faculty and advisor training and communication.
... This point relates to, and is substantiated by, the findings of other researchers of similar "masculine subcultures," such as the police (cf. Newburn and Stanko 1994, Gutmann 1997, Williams 2011. What these studies have shown is that various forms of mean yet meaningless talk are a recurrent part of these subcultures' everyday interactions. ...
The police say brutal things. Research has documented how officers, when amongst themselves, talk about people in derogatory ways or openly fantasize about the use of excessive violence. In the literature, such backstage talk is in general analyzed in two ways: It is understood as proof of how the police really think – as evidencing police (im)morality or misconduct. Alternatively, scholars argue that police officers’ transgressive talk is a warped yet nevertheless meaning-generating way for them to deal with their, at times, harsh profession. Certainly, perspectives resonate with the empirical material of this article – an empirical material stemming from an ethnographic study of two Danish detective units. Yet, as this article argues, simply applying this analytical twofold would risk misrepresenting or, perhaps rather, overinterpreting the indeed brutal things the Danish detectives said. While some of the detectives’ language could/should be understood as representing police immorality or reflecting their troublesome profession, this article proposes a counterintuitive reading, namely that their vicious words were, paradoxically, often analytically ordinary. They were examples of “bullshitting” (Frankfurt 2009) – a genre of offensive talk yet, nevertheless, a genre with no specific internal nor intended meaning to it. Therefore, although (police and others’) bullshit is extremely evocative, and thus includes the risk of drawing the ethnographer in, one should be cautious about taking it too seriously. At least when it came to these Danish detectives, their vicious words habitually had little purchase on their general perceptions or practices. Their words were certainly distasteful but, really, just bullshit.
... Despite the relevance of the discussion about the distinctiveness of the concepts, we can note that all concepts feature a specific attitude towards the world and tourism, often consubstantiating a concrete reaction/disposition against mass tourism, which can be regarded as an alternative cultural mode or subculture (Williams, 2011) or an innovative minority (Joaquim, 2015: 2). ...
With roots in the slow movement, slow travel is an emerging trend. In slow travel, the use of clean transportation is identified by some authors as a distinguishing characteristic of the concept; however, diversity of choices and profiles seems to contradict this assessment. To date, typologies of slow travellers are still scarce and any connections with mobility and time remain to be investigated, particularly concerning slow travel literature. In this article, using a qualitative approach, we analysed the discourse of a set of slow travellers who author a travel blog to understand their experiences, the interconnection between (slow) travel and blogging and how they represent time and mobility. The results indicate that slow travel blogs are not only a robust source of information concerning the emergence of this travel mode but also a product and producer of it, in a dialectic process. The subjective perceptions and representations of slowness are a central element of the discourse framing the travel experience. Contradictions between the slowness of the travel mode and the instantaneity of the blog emerged, and an interpretation is proposed, based on the voices of the travellers/bloggers.
... 43 For J. Patrick Williams, 'the boundaries created and maintained om inside operate as a form of resistance and that is intentional' . 44 One of the main criticisms made by post-subcultural scholars towards the CCCS is that youth cultural style is constantly changing; it cannot be xed in relation to a particular group. Indeed, stylistic elements in German punk and skinhead subcultures are in constant uctuation. ...
... For instance, in Dick Hebdige's Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), the cultural meanings of the punk phenomenon have famously been discussed, and that discussion then contributed to the subcultural studies carried out at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS). Later studies expanded the research scope by exploring the lived experiences of punks (e.g., Furness 2012;Leblanc 1999;Williams 2011), thereby addressing the problem of sparseness of empirical evidence that once existed in the CCCS approach to subcultural studies. ...
This book explores punk lives in contemporary China. Discussion about punk is currently thriving in academia, and focusing on Chinese punk can be regarded as in line with this trend. That said, the general lack of discussion about punk phenomena in Asian contexts demands attention since local distinctiveness could provide a possible avenue for new interpretation. With this book, we seek to address this gap somewhat, primarily by presenting biographies of Chinese punk musicians, the specific society in which they are situated, and how the use of technology contributes to the development of the punk phenomenon in China. The scope of the research also extends further, to examination of the Chinese punk phenomenon in a global context and comparison with other non-Anglo-American societies where the phenomena are mostly neglected.
... Similarly, 'doing' or 'showing' is contextually dependent: certain forms of 'doing' depends on seclusion or even isolation whereas others depend on audiences in various ways, and 'showing' holds a complex relation to what it is that is being shown and under which conditions it works to be shown. Arguably, a productive coexistence and development of subcultures depend on a varied and distributed set of affordances (Williams, 2011), and whether they become isolated or integrated in the sense of sometimes meeting in public is in large part affected by architectural configurations of space. ...
This paper addresses how 'culture' is or can be present in a city, where culture is understood in a wide sense as cultural activities and output of creative activity as well as partaking in or making use of the same. The main line of argument is that this requires consideration of how to work with configurational analysis, which has implications for a wider set of issues but made apparent in the specific focus.
While this is anchored in empirical analysis, the main point is a theoretical-methodological discussion. In short, the paper proposes a model where culture needs to be understood from four perspectives—to witness, to engage with, to show, and to do—since these are differently related to the built environment in the conditions for how they appear, what effects they might have, and in what ways they are affected by and affect urban environments.
Specifically, the empirical analyses point to how inequalities between areas can be understood. The conditions for making sculptures and how this affects and is affected by its surrounding, simply put, is different from the effects and conditions for the placing of public sculptures, as are their effects on public and private life.
By use of specific and particular examples of activities or outputs, the article will also highlight qualitative aspects that need to be considered in relation to more precisely what kind of 'culture' that is intended to be supported, and how this relates to questions of democratic development and social equality.
... Who avoids whom, on what grounds, and for which reasons? However, avoidance is also an important process in the emergence of subcultures (Williams, 2011) and resistance movements (Rose, 2002; Bonnevier, 2007), and thereby, arguably, in the 12 Hanson (1998) ongoing processes signifying democratic societal negotiations and practices of freedom. ...
Various forms of material, empirical, or observation-based research has grown in importance over the last decade in both architec- ture and urban design research, in parallel to an increasingly data-driven research utilising an increasing amount and availability of GIS data, tracking technologies, GPS records, and ICT tools. Assemblage theory and Actor-Network Theory have grown strong in several elds, sometimes linked to ‘ at ontology’, as have empirically based elds such as space syntax and geoinformatics. While it is somewhat dubious to bundle these theories together, there are tendencies in contemporary research in which they can be linked, with more or less explicit intents to cut past perceptions and conventions to look at the world ‘as it is’ and generate understanding from observed behaviours, actions, and the myriads of interactions going on. This has produced a rich body of research and signi cant advances in knowledge. However, there is also need for pause and re ection, to avoid risks of repeating the mistakes aimed to oust. This article offers a set of such re ections that will come about through a set of examples, leading onwards into a discussion of the role of memory, projection and imagination, as well as the need to consider how to integrate norms and structures into research that often intentionally leaves such concepts out.
Journal website: http://contour.epfl.ch/en/
... This growing research literature is notably different from the, 20th-century literature on Southeast Asian youth, which carried with it sets of either implicit or explicit concerns. Since the mid-20th century, youth culture and later youth subcultures have been seen globally as transitional and problematic cultural formations in their own right, or else as implicit representations of larger cultural struggles in society ( Williams, 2011). Much 20th-century theory and research was built upon assumptions that young people often do things in ways that are either naïve, problematic, or downright wrong. ...
While research on youth cultures in Southeast Asia has traditionally focused on crime, class, and delinquency among adolescent and young-adult males, the 21st century has seen an increase in research on the intersections between youth, religion, popular culture, media, identity, and consumption. As part of this trend, we report on an exploration of the terms hijabista and hijabster, which refer to female Muslim cultural identities centered on the nontraditional use of the hijab or Muslim headscarf. After situating the phenomena within the larger context of conservative regional politics and religion, we consider their cultural meanings in terms of mass and social media, suggesting that hijabista and hijabster cultures and identities are simultaneously hybrid and negotiated as young Muslim women, culture industries, and political and religious agents all employ a variety of strategies to shape emerging definitions. Finally, we reflexively discuss the implications of our own theoretical interests on interpretations of what it means to be a hijabista or hijabster.
This study focuses on multilingualism, and criminality, from the perspective of symbolic interactionism theory. The researchers adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing ethnographic research design, to, thus, explore the complex relationship between such communication symbolism and deviant behavior in the Ghanaian cultural context. Here, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with three categories of participants: 10 deviant individuals, or criminals, from Ankaful prisons, and in the communities, through non-participant observation, 8 community members, and 4 law enforcement officers. Actually, the researchers employed purposive sampling method to ensure that participants have relevant expertise in, and/or firsthand knowledge related to, communication symbolism in deviant subcultures. The findings of the study, primarily, showed that communication, through multilingualism, conveys identities and codes thinly, and it is an effective symbol of group connection. Interestingly, the complicated dynamics surrounding the stigmatization, and labelling, of communication symbolism of language is observed to have an impact on deviant people's self-esteem, and their interaction with law enforcement. Therefore, as a concrete method of identifying, and comprehending, such communication symbolism within deviant, and criminal, subcultures, policymakers, according to this study, may form a collaborative task force consisting of law enforcement officers, community leaders and cultural experts.
Background: Amphetamine injection is expanding in North America and has been associated with male homosexuality among people who inject drugs (PWID). Applying subcultural evolution theory, we examined overall and gender-stratified trends in amphetamine injection and assessed sexual orientation as a gender-specific predictor of initiation among PWID in Montreal, Canada.
Methods: Data were from HEPCO, an open prospective cohort of PWID. Gender and sexual orientation were self-identified at enrolment. Interviewer-administered questionnaires at three-monthly (HCV RNA-negative participants) or yearly (RNA-positive) intervals captured past three-month amphetamine injection and covariates. Annual prevalence and linear trends in amphetamine injection were estimated using GEE. Incidence was computed among naïve individuals and hazard ratios for initiation estimated using gender-stratified, time-varying Cox regression models.
Results: 803 participants contributed 8096 observations between March 2011 and December 2019. Annual prevalence of amphetamine injecting increased from 3.25% [95%CI: 2.06–4.43%] to 12.7% [9.50–16.0] (trend p<0.001). Bivariate Cox regression models suggested similar and divergent predictors of initiation by gender. Incidence was 3.27 per 100 person-years [95%CI: 2.51-4.18] among heterosexual men, 7.18 [3.50-13.2] among gay/bisexual men, 1.93 [0.78-4.02] among heterosexual women and 5.30 [1.69-12.8] among gay/bisexual women. Among men, gay/bisexual identity doubled risk of initiation after adjusting for age, ethnicity, calendar year (aHR 2.16 [1.07-4.36]) and additional covariates (2.56 [1.24-5.30]). Among women, evidence for an association with gay/bisexual identity was inconclusive (aHR 2.63 [0.62-11.2]) and sample size precluded further adjustment.
Conclusions: Prevalence of amphetamine injection among PWID increased four-fold from 2011 to 2019, with elevated risk of initiation in gay and bisexual men.
Аргументовано, що процеси глобалізації культури є важливим стимулом розвитку наукових досліджень сучасної культури, її функціональ- ної та технологічної специфіки. Підкреслено, що культурний розвиток люд- ської цивілізації завжди реально обумовлювався впливом різних субкультур. Саме тому особливе значення набувають спеціалізовані наукові дослідження, спрямовані на обґрунтування архетипного статусу культури та субкультури як детермінант соціальних дій та соціального управління. Надано докази ак- тивного використання вченими таких понять, як “глобальна культура”, “муль- тикультуралізм”, “транскультуралізм”, “міжкультурна комунікація” “культурний капітал”, “субкультурний капітал”, “субкультурний життєвий стиль” є позитивним чинником розробки інноваційних наукових програм аналізу он- тологічної специфіки архетипів культури та субкультури в контексті тенден- цій глобалізації, віртуалізації та індивідуалізації суспільного життя. Визна- чено суперечності конфліктологічної інтерпретації субкультури як “культури соціальної меншості”, поява якої спричинена такими соціальними явищами як соціальне відчуження, маргіналізація та бідність. Автор визначає архетип субкультури як поліфункціональне соціальне явище, що виникає та відтво- рюється в суспільстві як атрибутивний наслідок культурної диференціації. Аргументовано, що важливою інноваційною проблемою соціального менедж- менту є розробка технологій ефективного соціального контролю різних форм активності субкультурних груп, приймаючи до уваги ту обставину, що ця ак- тивність демонструє як критичне ставлення людей до існуючого соціального порядку, так і є виразом креативних цінностей соціального конструктивізму.
Since the revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has imprisoned musicians, especially punk, hip-hop, and hard rock bands, as well as those playing heavy metal subgenres. Extreme heavy metal artists and fans emerged in the 1990s. The government soon targeted them as Satanists and began a systematic crackdown on metalheads. The metalcore band Confess is the most well-known case. The band was arrested in 2015 on counts of blasphemy, disturbing public opinion through the production of music, participating in interviews with the opposition media and propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, among other charges. The majority of secular countries today do not consider extreme heavy metal to be transgressive. This is not the case in contexts where religious traditions have a significant influence on society. By analysing the narrative of the band Confess, the purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of how Iranian extreme metal musicians resist religious oppression, challenge their government, religious precepts, and social values through their music.
The reappearance of VHS skateboarding movies produced during the 1990s on YouTube presents a timely opportunity to examine how the subcultural identities of former skateboarders are reassessed in later life. Drawing on subcultural studies and theories of mediated memory, this article analyses comments made by viewers of YouTube re-postings of 411 Video Magazine, an era-defining skateboard movie series of the 1990s. The analysis suggests that re-viewing content of once cherished VHS tapes affords former skaters a nostalgic moment of reconnection with their youth involving a combination of three forms of nostalgia: subcultural nostalgia, biographical nostalgia, and format nostalgia. For many viewers, re-viewing skate videos retrospectively recognizes the formative role skateboarding played in shaping their identity and also allows an appraisal of both the past subcultural formation and the media format through which its values were expressed and communicated.
This chapter describes the cognitive orientation of travelling football supporters, and in doing so, provides the spadework for the more elaborate theoretical discussion which follows later in the book. The chapter begins by discussing the specific character of cognitive spacing, which seeks to control social space through the demarcation of identity boundaries. From here, and drawing on the ideas of Agnes Heller, the discussion focuses on travelling football supporters’ quest for ‘home’, their operations at the borders of Hegel’s ‘absolute spirit’, and the cognitive competence upon which ‘belonging’ depends. Having described these supporters’ hermeneutic character and their associated nostalgic tendencies, the chapter argues that these supporters’ rewards for taking the trip down memory lane are cognitive. The common stocks of knowledge which help these supporters to interpret and decode their communities also provide a source of discussion, as does the modernisation of English football which has decreased the functionality of their tacit understandings. The chapter concludes by discussing these supporters’ hostility towards a liquid modern lifestyle and their embrace of more durable forms of identity.
This chapter presents an overview of the struggles for cultural space and territory (Hall in Football hooliganism: The wider context. Inter-Action Inprint, p. 31, 1979), which have accompanied football (soccer) since its inception. The chapter begins by chronicling the historical trajectory of the game before focusing more exclusively on the internal and external changes which have undermined the role of the ‘traditional’ football supporter. From here, the focus of the discussion switches to the book’s underpinning theoretical framework, which is taken from Bauman’s (Postmodern ethics. Blackwell Publishing, 1993) model of social spacing. Attention is then directed towards the city of Sheffield, and more specifically, the supporters of Sheffield Wednesday football club, who provided the primary data for this book. The chapter concludes by outlining the overall structure of the book and its contents.
This chapter focuses on the moral perspectives of travelling football supporters. Having outlined the historical backdrop to these supporters’ acts, principally, the abandonment of a search for a universal ethics, and a breakdown in traditional practices, the chapter recounts Bauman’s (Postmodern Ethics. Blackwell, 1993) belief that individuals must now forge their own moral path in today’s world. From here, attention is directed towards Bauman’s specific conceptualisation of morality, the challenges presented by an ambiguous moral climate, and the seductive character of ‘native’ community directives. Against this theoretical backdrop, the chapter proceeds by discussing supporters’ attitudes towards, women, swearing, children, violence, family, and racism. In keeping with the notion of moral autonomy, the chapter concludes that supporters commonly adopt a situationist outlook, to negotiate competing moral, aesthetic, and cognitive demands.
Investigates the approaches to conceptualising youth cultural studies within the postsubcultural theory. The author argues that the core idea of postsubcultural paradigm is the doubt in the metanarrative of “subculture.” In this situation, the heuristic potential of the new categorical apparatus designed to replace the traditional concept of “subculture” becomes a research subject.
Despite drawing on a large body of different paradigms, subcultural studies have been conceptualizing subcultures rather uniformly as a world in itself, a reaction to dominant society or a combination of both. In our paper, we argue for more encompassing theoretical view, we call the relational perspective. Inspired by symbolic interactionism and studies on identity and alterity, while building on concepts devised in post-subcultural studies, we claim that particular subcultures are delineated in respect to many different actors. These can be roughly classified into categories of mainstream, other subcultures and enactments of one’s own subculture. Grounded in empirical research of punk and emo subcultures and employing the concepts of in/authenticity (based on subcultural capital formed by subcultural style, ideology and practice), we will show the possibility of application of this perspective in studying contemporary subcultural formations both diachronically and synchronically. © 2019 The Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, v.v.i. All rights reserved.
This chapter offers a comparison between quite different socio-historical realities, of Portugal and China. Through analysis of facets such as style, performances, and professional careers, the similarities and differences between them will be explored.
With this book, we set out to provide an understanding of punk culture in China. With the aid of the biographical approach, a collective portrait of Chinese punks has been painted, with discussion of their life experiences within and outside the punk scene, relationships (with peers, neighbours, and authority figures in day-to-day life), political aspirations, and hopes and beliefs. This conclusion presents a summary and overall assessment of the ethnographic findings detailed in the previous chapters. It also provides a general response to the research questions raised in Chap. 1.
This chapter provides a discussion of individual-level punk practices in China through examination of the biography of punk musician Mr. Li, an important figure as well as my key informant in the Chinese punk scene. It highlights his gradual process of deepening commitment to the punk scene. Through analysis of the intertwining of this punk musician’s individual biography and his surrounding society, I attempt to achieve an understanding of how individual punk practices can be regarded as different forms of resistance in China.
This chapter focuses on discussing the collective practices of punk musicians, particularly in two forms—performance and hangouts. The core practice of punk performance is a form of entertainment for both musicians and audience members, but it can also be read as an exercise of collective power, intervening in the established power relationships of government-sponsored events. Punks use these practices, along with hangouts, to construct spaces for alternative expressions and norms that are challenging to the mainstream, and accordingly lead to conflicts, especially when they take place in settings outside the punk-only environment.
Graffiti artists must establish a second, anonymous identity that is managed alongside each writer’s “real” self. This study explores the negotiation of these dual identities—one actual, the other virtual—by investigating the management of these identities through retirement. Results reveal that identity making is a collective practice, even for anonymous artists. Participants described a hierarchical graffiti world where invisible social relations are used to establish understanding of the self as a writer. Stealth graffiti artists breach one set of rules but strictly adhere to another set. Even anonymous identities are socially embedded and reflect a politics of belonging. Writer identities can be retired by either integrating them into a public self or transcended through complete role exit.
This article underlines the importance of terrorist jihadist online communication. The visual expressions of sociocultural identity are a trademark of jihadist terrorist groups. This paper also shows that subcultural perspective constitutes a privileged point of view for the analysis of the phenomenon of Western-born jihadist terrorism. In scientific literature there is a lack of empirical research on the visual dimension of jihadist terrorism in a subcultural perspective. In this perspective, the article analyses the subcultural identity of a Western-born jihadist terrorist, the former rapper Deso Dogg, also known as Abu-Maleeq. This paper proposes an original analysis of terrorist group membership, analysing through visual sociology the YouTube videos of Deso Dogg – Abu-Maleeq. The visual jihadist representation is based on the repetition of semantic elements. This result confirms the importance of the semantic coherence of communication, namely the Hebdigian homology. Furthermore, terrorist communication assigns new meanings to traditional cultural elements. This result confirms the relevance of the subcultural practice of bricolage. In conclusion, the article allows an original perspective for the study of terrorist communication and underlines the importance of Hebdigian perspective for the understanding of what processes turned troubled Western youth into terrorists.
This introductory chapter establishes the aims of the book, to map the Dutch punk scene historically and geographically, to develop understandings of ‘punk’ and ‘subculture’, and to develop theoretical work in (sub)cultural flow in the context of globalisation, and in politics in the context of individualisation. It provides a brief introduction ,to the Dutch punk scene as well as an overview of the research project from which the book is drawn, including an outline of its methodology. This introduction also contains a guide to the other chapters in the book.
This chapter unpicks the complexities faced by both academics and participants in attempting to define punk. It destabilises fixed definitions of punk by drawing upon multiple, sometimes conflicting definitions of punk discussed by research participants. Punk is discussed variously as an artistic form, an ideology, an identity and as a set of practices that could be social or individual. This chapter argues that there is space for all of these definitions to coexist, and that recognising this is crucial to developing an academic understanding of ‘punk’. Punk is necessarily a contested label.
This chapter sets out the theoretical framework for the book. It traces the emergence of the fields of subcultural studies and its evolution over the last few decades. It focuses in particular on the related developments in academic understandings of punk. It places these two debates within wider sociological developments. It goes on to argue for a need to ‘reground’ theory by recognising the embedded, connected, whole lives of those engaging in ‘subcultural’ activities and the intersubjective creation of meaning in their practices.
This chapter further develops the theme of contextualising punk as part of individuals’ lives as first explored in the context of ageing in Chap. 3. It focuses on punks’ further political engagement beyond standard subcultural punk practices. It argues that the influences of punk ideology can be felt through the activities of punks themselves, beyond punk music, events and subcultural practices. It proposes a broad conceptualisation of political activism: beyond traditional notions of, for example, trade union agitation or party political activity, to the political importance of ‘educative practices’. Punks who write zines, who educate themselves and who set up anarchist reading groups or distros, are placed within historical practices of education as a means of spreading influence and potential mobilisation.
Sammendrag
Med afsæt i teoretiske begreber om tilhør, social læring, sted,
heterotopia og modstand viser artiklen, hvordan en lille gruppe
unge mænd fortæller om deres liv henholdsvis inden for og uden for
en skolekontekst. Formålet med artiklen er at vise, hvordan unges
aktiviteter og erfaringer uden for skolen (relateret til biler)
kan være med til at understøtte faglige, maskuline, voksenidentitetsudviklinger,
der bygger bro mellem hverdagsliv og uddannelse. De unge mænd er
alle placeret i uddannelsesforløb som smed eller automekaniker i
et praktikcenter på en erhvervsskole. Det metodiske greb, artiklen
bygger på, har etableret en kollektiv ramme, hvor de unge mænd forholder
sig til og bearbejder fælles sociale vilkår og muligheder i relation
til uddannelse og ungdomsliv.
This paper demonstrates that subcultural theory continues to provide a relevant and useful analysis of youth leisure practices and their political significance in contemporary society. It achieves this by analysing the theoretical antecedents to both subcultural theory and the post-subcultural theory that followed it. It is argued that the post-subcultural turn to studying affects and everyday lives resonates deeply with the Gramscian perspective informing subcultural theory. It is thus possible to interpret post-subculturalism as augmenting rather than negating its predecessor. Deploying an analysis that combines these perspectives allows for an account of contemporary youth leisure practices that demonstrates a number of different forms of politics explicated within the paper: a politics of identity and becoming; a politics of defiance; a politics of affective solidarity and a politics of different experience. Whilst not articulated or necessarily conscious, there is a proto-politics to youth leisure that precludes it from being dismissed as entirely empty, hedonistic and consumerist. This paper demonstrates how the lens of post-subculturalism focuses on the affective spaces where this politics is most apparent and provides a means of updating subcultural theory to understand contemporary youth practices.
This article investigates contemporary representations of androgyny and the strategic possibilities of punk-androgyny within a postfeminist imaginary. In looking at the characters Lisbeth in the Swedish film trilogy The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo and Kino in the Japanese anime series Kino's Journey, I am interested in connecting the metonymy of punk dress to representations of transgressions of gender norms. My investigation looks at the concept that gender is “unread” through androgyny which manifests as visual signifiers that make up the punk metonymy. The subjects (characters Lisbeth and Kino) erase the signifier of gender, through punk-androgyny, in order to reclaim power and identity within a (masculinized) subculture and mainstream society. Androgyny is not the desire to be the opposite sex as in a transgender subjectivity. Instead, androgyny is a strategy of aesthetics that transgresses the normative structure of language and signifiers that refer girls and women as less than or as Other through the normative codes of feminizing. In addition to arguing that punk metonymy erases explicit or readable/normative gender signs, I analyze how the motorcycle is situated as an extension of the body. The use of motorcycling propels the literal and figurative androgynous bodies through space in overt transgressive actions against the establishment; it provides agency, motility and ultimately new subject positions for the female protagonists. Through a critical analysis drawing from cultural and post-feminist theory and through the examination of specific scenes, this article aims to investigate punk aesthetic as a post-feminist strategy.
This article explores some of the methodological and ethical issues intrinsic to the processes of carrying out ethnographic research in a very small country, when most participating individuals can be readily identified. The inherent conflicts will be applicable to research in any community where individual participants may be recognised. Internal confidentiality has the potential to place limits on ethical assurances. However, these limitations were more of a concern for outputs generated for an academic audience, than when the primary research output for a commercial book. We examine this paradox. The book we co-wrote is about a modest, familiar feature of everyday life in New Zealand: roadside pie carts, which have been selling cheap street food since the 1930s. While their menus have changed – most no longer sell pies, even though they are still called pie carts – the surviving food vendors are still important night-time food providers in many cities and small towns. We investigated their persistence in the face of social change and competition from the global fast-food giants. In collecting their stories, and addressing the place of nostalgia, narratives and memories in restating local vernacular culture, various methodological and ethics issues arose.
As a consequence of their size and fragility, small groups depend on cohesion. Central to group continuation are occasions of collective hedonic satisfaction that encourage attachment. These times are popularly labeled fun. While groupness can be the cause of fun, we emphasize the effects of fun, as understood by participants. Shared enjoyment, located in temporal and spatial affordances, creates conditions for communal identification. Such moments serve as commitment devices, building affiliation, modeling positive relations, and moderating interpersonal tension. Further, they encourage retrospective narration, providing an appealing past, an assumed future, and a sense of groupness. The rhetoric of fun supports interactional smoothness in the face of potential ruptures. Building on the authors’ field observations and other ethnographies, we argue that both the experience and recall of fun bolster group stability. We conclude by suggesting that additional research must address the role of power and boundary building in the fun moment.
For the last twenty years children with disabilities have been routinely integrated into mainstream educational settings. My childhood, spanning the 1980s and early 1990s, was by contrast spent in a special school. I felt isolated and as a result of this was left with a profound sense of having missed out on something. I have spent many years advocating integration and was firmly of the belief that this was the way forward however, I am increasingly aware when talking to other young people with disabilities that providing a stimulating, challenging and inclusive educational setting (that in theory allows these learners to access the same opportunities as their non-disabled contemporaries) can mean that they miss out on other equally valuable social experiences that can come from being around people with a similar diagnosis and who are facing some of the same life challenges.
What is the way forward?
Over the past 40 years, Australian comic book production has been comprised of individuals who form social networks of production and consumption, with an emphasis on creating product as authentic artistic expression. Economically, Australian comics production could be considered a small creative industry, and culturally, it could be considered a scene. In order to understand more about the creative identity and the thought processes behind comics production, I interviewed creators from scenes across Australia. Using primary data from artists in order to understand their ethos is a method frequently utilized within creative identity studies (Hackley and Kover 2007; Wang and Cheng 2010; Taylor and Littleton 2008).
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.