SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF THE ROLE OF YOUTH CULTURE/
SUBCULTURES IN SOCIETY. Task sheet 4
NEO-MARXISM
MARXISM is a STRUCTURALIST, CONFLICT approach which sees society as
being based on the exploitation of the working class by Capitalists. The working
class are controlled by HEGEMONY (their values are dominated via the media
and education) and YOUTH SUBCULTURES are a reaction to this conflict.
The role of youth subcultures can be explained as follows:
 THEY ARE A FORM OF RESISTANCE AGAINST CAPITALISM. Hall
and Jefferson (1976) were part of a group of sociologists from the
CCCS (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham).They
argued that Working class young people (particularly those who had not
done well in school) formed the weakest point in the ruling class control
of society, as unlike adults they are not tied down by jobs and family
commitments. YOUTH CULTURE is a form of resistance against
capitalism; it is an inarticulate way of resolving the problems faced by
each generation of working class youth. The very fact that each
generation faces a different set of conflicts can explain why different
kinds of youth subcultures emerge. The CCCS used the term
SPECTACULAR SUBCULTURES to describe the various youth
subcultures between the 1950s to the 1970s, and examples of their often
flamboyant attempts to defy society are below (include reasons for their
emergence too!).

THEY ARE AN EXAGGERATION OF WORKING CLASS VALUES. As a
reaction to the Capitalists attempt to control the working class, youth
subculture EXAGGERATE the behaviours that define them in order to
oppose this capitalist control. Clarke (1976) studied the skinhead youth
culture and found that they were an exaggerated version of working class
masculinity. They dressed in a distinct style of manual workers clothing,
they stressed violence and they were very territorial. Clarke argued that
skinheads used their style to recreate the ‘traditional’ working class
community and to ‘magically’ recover it from extinction.

THEY ARE A MAGICAL SOLUTION. Brake (1984) suggests that youth
subcultures provide ‘MAGICAL SOLUTIONS’ to the lives of their
members. Young people can in reality do nothing to alter the power
differences in society, but joining a subculture allows them the
opportunity to convince themselves that their generation will be
different to their parents. It is ‘magical’ because it is simply an illusion- a
trick that will not be sustained in reality.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, most sociological attention was paid to
the concept of deviant youth 'subcultures'- the idea that some young
people belonged to groups with their own norms, values, rituals, sanctions
and dress codes that were antagonistic to mainstream culture, e.g. mods,
rockers, etc.

In the 1970s, the question of class divisions within youth cultures was
examined by Marxist writers especially those associated with the Centre
for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS). Marxists see working-class
youth cultures as linked to the decline of working-class inner-city
communities.

These cultures are seen as an attempt to symbolically or 'magically'
re-create traditional notions of working-class community through dress,
style and behaviour. Moreover, such styles allegedly represent a form of
working-class ideological or cultural resistance to ruling-class hegemony
(i.e. cultural dominance).
Example 1: Teddy Boys
•
•
•
Hall and Jefferson argued that the rise of the Teddy Boy in the early 1950s coincided with the
expansion of employment and a general rise in affluence.
However, Teddy Boys were mainly those youths who had been excluded from this.
Their clothing style of the middle class Edwardian ‘Dandy’ jacket was an attempt to show
their contempt for the class system by copying the style of their so-called ‘superiors’.
Example 2: Skinheads

Cohen and Clarke argued that skinhead gangs in the early 1970s were an exaggerated
attempt to re-create traditional notions of working-class community which were in decline
because of recession in traditional working-class industries and slum clearance.

The response of skinhead youth was to stress traditional elements of working class culture
through their value system, dress and behaviour and to organise themselves collectively in
gangs which emphasised loyalty, toughness, masculinity and aggressive defence of territory.

Aspects of skinhead style were borrowed from manual work (e.g. the Doc Marten industrial
boots, braces, the haircut, etc.) and symbolised an aggressive resistance to those elements
seen as threatening the working-class community, such as immigrants and property
developers. As such, skinhead subculture could be seen as an attempt to preserve a working
class identity which was felt to be under threat.
Example 3: Punk rock

Hebdige argued that punk was a form of resistance to a society that was interpreted by
youth as being in social, moral and economic decline and conformist and lacking in
imagination.

Hebdige argues that punk style took conventional items such as safety pins, razor blades, etc.
and deliberately used them to shock mainstream society by wearing them as fashion
accessories.

Punk subculture was short-lived because commodity incorporation commercialised
aspects of punk style into commodities to be bought and sold as mainstream fashion and
ideological incorporation trivialised punk style through media articles suggesting punks
were merely confused youngsters going through a phase.
Middle class youth and resistance

(i)
(ii)
Middle class youth do participate in some of the spectacular youth subcultures and there are
some spectacular youth subcultures that are largely middle class. They tend to agree about
the importance of the ‘self’. Self-development, individualism and could either involve
active political opposition such as the young CNDers in the 1960s or the students in
1968 and later in the mid 1970s and more recently the school students against the
war or
withdrawal from society such as the beats and later the hippies.

The latter share some similarities with the young who join New Religious Movements.
All of these subcultures have a counter cultural tendency, they have a system of values that
are in opposition to the dominant ideology and value system of the time.

Brake (1977) Hippies and Skinheads Studied hippies and found they were a relatively wellorganised subculture comprising largely of students and ex-students. They lived on benefits
or student grants. They were full of contradictions according to Brake for example they
(a)
(b)
(c)
were disdainful of technology (the hippy trail to India) but yet listened to music on big
sound systems or stereos.
Rejected impure foods but took synthesised street drugs
Rejected materialism but needed benefits
EVALUATION
Muggleton (2000) has argued that much of the CCCS work assumed that
youth subcultures of the 1960s and 70s were from the working class.
Hippies for example were seen as a middle class subculture, and there is
little explanation why these young people who were not necessarily so
disconnected from society may have joined.
Marxists have been accused of ignoring the importance of ETHNICITY
in their study of youth subculture. Class is not the only form of inequality
in society, and certain ethnic groups have formed youth subcultures as a
reaction to inequalities that they perceive to be unique to them. For
example, Rastafarianism gave political expression to the feelings of
oppression felt by many Afro Caribbean migrants and their children; the
racism they experiences in the 1970s was clearly not experienced by all
disadvantaged groups.
McRobbie (1991) has argued that critical sociologists have largely
ignored the role of girls in subcultures. MALESTREAM sociologists have
failed to notice that girls do not ‘fit in’ with their description of the role
of subcultures despite the fact that they too are a member of the
working class.
FUNCTIONALISTS would argue that Marxists exaggerate the concept
of RESISTANCE. They would agree that young people join subcultures
for a purpose, but according to Eisenstadt (1956) this is simply an
attempt to carve out an identity for themselves rather than relying on
the ascribed identity of being the child of a particular adult.
POSTMODERNISTS see the Marxist explanation as outdated. Today’s
youth subcultures no longer have a clear purpose. Maffesoliuses the term
NEO TRIBES to explain that young people’s ‘groupings’ today are for the
sole purpose of shared friendship and they do not have a ‘collective
purpose’ at all.
Describe the studies below
Jefferson’s study of Teddy Boys:
Clarke and Cohen’s study of Skinheads:
Hebdige’s study of punks
Questions:
1. Describe two reasons why youth cultures emerge according to Marxists
2. Explain some evidence that supports this view
3. What other explanations could there be?
4. Why does Brake describe youth cultures as ‘magical solutions’?
5. What is meant by counter-cultural tendencies?
6. Why were the hippies full of contradictions?
7. Why do you think youth cultures are perceived as deviant?