Sub-cultures
Dominant Culture
 The dominant culture in a society refers to the
established language, religion, behaviour, values,
rituals, and social customs. These traits are often the
norm for the society as a whole.
 The dominant culture is usually but not always in the
majority and achieves its dominance by controlling
social institutions such as communication,
educational institutions, artistic expression, law,
political process, and business.
Values
 Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning
appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such,
values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what
“ought” to be.
 Values tend to influence attitudes and behaviour. For
example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to
work for an organization that treats its managers much
better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude
that the company is an unfair place to work.
Mainstream
 Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of
the majority
 As such, the mainstream includes all popular culture,
typically disseminated by mass media. The opposite of
the mainstream are subcultures, countercultures, cult
followings
Popular Culture (pop culture)
 Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the
totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other
phenomena that are deemed preferred within the
mainstream of a given culture
Sub-culture
 In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a
subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether
distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the
larger culture to which they belong.
 Eg EMO, Goth, surfers, bikies, bodybuilders
Counterculture
 Counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a
sociological term used to describe the values and norms
of behaviour of a cultural group, or subculture, that run
counter to those of the social mainstream of the day
Examples of sub-cultures
How are these groups defined?
 Values and attitudes
 Clothing and appearance
 Age
 Gender
 Music
 Hobbies/pastimes
 Hang-outs
 Other?