Review of Comparative Youth Culture: The Sociology of Youth Cultures and Youth Subcultures in America, Britain and Canada.

1986 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 719-719
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
Youth Culture ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Youth Subcultures

“Wild West,” “Gangster,” and “Desperado” Feelings: The Perception of the “West” in Youth Subcultures in Hungary in the 1960s

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 180-198
Author(s):  
Sándor Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The West ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractThe images of the “modern youth” and moral panics concerning the youth as a metaphor played an important part in the identity construction process throughout Cold War Europe. For Hungarian youth the West represented the land of promise and desires, albeit their knowledge of the Western other was highly limited and controlled by the socialist state. But how did the partly unknown West and its “folk devils” become the objects of desire in the East? For Western youngsters it seemed to be easier to realize their cultural preferences, however, youth cultures of the sixties were represented in the transnational discourses as manifestations of intra-generational, parent–adolescent conflicts not only in the Eastern Bloc, but also in Western democracies. The perception of the parent–child conflict became a cornerstone of the studies on the sixties, and the youth studies represented youth subcultures as “countercultures.” This paper addresses the role of the official discourse in the construction of “youth cultures” which lies at the heart of identity politics concerning youngsters. It looks at some of the youth subcultures which emerged in socialist Hungary and, in particular how “Eastern” youth perceived “the West,” and how their desires concerning the “Western cultures” were represented in the official discourse. It also seeks to show that borders created in the mind between “East” and “West” worked not only in the way that the “iron curtain” did, but it also became a cultural practice to create social identities following the patterns of Eastern and Western differentiation in the socialist countries.

scholarly journals Young people, online fandom and the perils of child pornography legislation in Australia

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-118
Author(s):  
Mark McLelland
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Child Pornography ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Western World ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Youth Cultures

In 1971 the editors of Oz magazine were prosecuted for obscenity in a London courtroom for their infamous ‘School Kids Issue’, almost the entire contents of which had been created by a team of young people. In today’s Web 2.0 environment, similar kinds of content to that featured in the magazine is created by young people and made ubiquitous on fan websites. In particular ‘manips’ (manipulated images) of all kinds of pop culture heroes from boy band members to characters from Harry Potter are inserted into pornographic contexts. Whereas in the 1970s it was obscenity legislation that was used to restrict this form of cultural commentary, today child pornography legislation can be used to capture this content. I argue that changes to child pornography laws across the western world in the last two decades have resulted in the capture of even fictional images that are or may only ‘appear to be’ a person under the age of 18, rendering some aspects of online youth culture problematic. The ‘juridicial discourse’ that increasingly collapses a complex range of cultural representations into the category of child pornography is a cause for concern for all academics working on online youth cultures and for the young people involved.

Fandom, youth and consumption in China

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Y.H. Fung
Keyword(s):  
Youth Culture ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Consumption ◽  
Socialist Market Economy ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Major Transformation ◽  
China Today

In the wake of globalization and the context of a socialist market economy, youth cultures in China have been undergoing a major transformation. While the youth culture in China has joined the global trend to become more commercialized as a result of emerging values, norms and values of consumption, along with (and going beyond) cultural consumption, liberalizing values have developed among young people which might impinge upon society and politics. Based on a framework of materialistic and non-material labour and an ethnographic study of fandom, this article attempts to investigate the problematic by examining the phenomenon of fandom in China with a case study of the fans of the most popular Chinese singer, Jay Chou, the interaction among which has reflected significant changes in youth culture and youth performativity in China today.

Are the kids alright? A critique and agenda for taking youth cultures seriously

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S Debies-Carl
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Rational Behavior ◽  
Youth Studies ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Youth Subcultures

Researchers have long been fascinated with youth subcultures. Decades of study have yielded several competing paradigms, which attempt to interpret these subcultures in diverse ways, with each succeeding paradigm criticizing, and attempting to improve on, those that came before it. Rather than offering criticism of a specific youth studies paradigm, this article provides a critique of this body of theory as a whole by delineating several theoretical assumptions that have persisted across these perspectives. These include: (1) the tendency to group all youth phenomena under a monolithic conceptual umbrella; (2) a preoccupation on the part of researchers with style and the consumption of goods; and (3) the assumed lack of rational behavior found in subcultures and an accompanying inability on the part of subcultures to achieve real goals or effect social change. It is argued that such assumptions trivialize subcultures, have led to a priori understandings of these without adequate empirical grounding, and must be addressed if subcultures are to be adequately understood and appreciated.

‘I’m an adolescent. And that’s how I’m going to stay’: Lessing and Youth Culture 1956–1962

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Bentley
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
New Left ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Youth Groups ◽  
Anthony Burgess ◽  
Muriel Spark ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
British Culture

The mid-to-late 1950s saw an explosion of youth subcultures in Britain – teenagers, Teddy Boys, jazz fans, hipsters, beatniks, mods and rockers. This range generated a series of moral panics and media fascination. The New Left in particularly were split on whether to see these new youth groups as indicative of a consumer-led Americanization of traditional working-class British culture or as potential sites for cultural (and political) rebellion. Lessing’s representation of youth is particularly interesting in this context, and it is a recurring theme in a number of works from this period including her plays Each to His Own Wilderness and Play With a Tiger, her documentary novel In Pursuit of the English, and her novels A Ripple From the Storm and The Golden Notebook. This chapter traces Lessing’s engagement with youth culture and argues that she articulates concerns within the New Left and British culture more broadly. Her work is read against contemporary cultural commentary from the New Left, especially in a series of articles in the Universities and Left Review, and against other fiction and commentary from the period, including works by Lynne Reid Banks, Anthony Burgess, Shelagh Delaney, Richard Hoggart, Colin MacInnes, Alan Sillitoe, and Muriel Spark.

Making Space for Youth Culture History: Berlin’sArchiv der Jugendkulturen

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-418
Author(s):  
Christine Feldman-Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Youth Culture ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Youth Studies ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Youth Cultures ◽  
Culture History ◽  
Physical Manifestation

Berlin’s Archiv der Jugendkulturen (Archive of Youth Cultures) was opened in 1998 to provide scholars, journalists, students, and other interested parties with a dedicated space to research youth culture topics. Founder and journalist Klaus Farin, frustrated with the often negative depictions of young people in the mainstream media, hoped the archive’s materials would act as a corrective to such stereotypes. However, the archive has come to mean much more. This article argues that this unique space not only provides invaluable and rare resources but is both a symbolic and physical manifestation of Germany’s youth culture history. As such, it is an innovative site for the nation’s social memory. Since the archive is located in Kreuzberg, the city’s historic heart of bohemian culture, special attention is paid to Berlin’s long-standing reputation as an “alternative city” popular with young people interested in underground culture. Furthermore, this essay stresses the importance of this history- and memory-oriented space in connection with a recent “historic turn” in youth studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document