Subculture

Subculture
For the term in biology, see subculture (biology).
For the song by New Order, see Sub-culture (song).
For the computer game by Criterion Studios, see Sub Culture.
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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.

Contents

Definition

As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majority, "which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a 'subculture' which actively sought a minority style ... and interpreted it in accordance with subversive values".[1] In his 1979 book Subculture the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige argued that a subculture is a subversion to normalcy. He wrote that subcultures can be perceived as negative due to their nature of criticism to the dominant societal standard. Hebdige argued that subcultures bring together like-minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity.

In 1995, Sarah Thornton, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu, described "subcultural capital" as the cultural knowledge and commodities acquired by members of a subculture, raising their status and helping differentiate themselves from members of other groups.[2] In 2007, Ken Gelder proposed to distinguish subcultures from countercultures based on the level of immersion in society.[3] Gelder further proposed six key ways in which subcultures can be identified:

  1. through their often negative relations to work (as 'idle', 'parasitic', at play or at leisure, etc.);
  2. through their negative or ambivalent relation to class (since subcultures are not 'class-conscious' and don't conform to traditional class definitions);
  3. through their association with territory (the 'street', the 'hood', the club, etc.), rather than property;
  4. through their movement out of the home and into non-domestic forms of belonging (i.e. social groups other than the family);
  5. through their stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration (with some exceptions);
  6. through their refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and massification.[3]

Identifying subcultures

The study of subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of subcultures, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. According to Dick Hebdige, members of a subculture often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, mannerisms, and argot.[4]

Subcultures can exist at all levels of organizations, highlighting the fact that there are multiple cultures or value combinations usually evident in any one organization that can complement but also compete with the overall organisational culture.[5] In some cases, subcultures have been legislated against, and their activities regulated or curtailed.[6]

Subcultures' relationships with mainstream culture

It may be difficult to identify certain subcultures because their style (particularly clothing and music) may be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes. Businesses often seek to capitalize on the subversive allure of subcultures in search of Cool, which remains valuable in the selling of any product.[7] This process of cultural appropriation may often result in the death or evolution of the subculture, as its members adopt new styles that appear alien to mainstream society.[8]

Music-based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process, and so what may be considered a subculture at one stage in its history—such as jazz, goth, punk, hip hop and rave cultures—may represent mainstream taste within a short period of time.[9] Some subcultures reject or modify the importance of style, stressing membership through the adoption of an ideology which may be much more resistant to commercial exploitation.[10] The punk subculture's distinctive (and initially shocking) style of clothing was adopted by mass-market fashion companies once the subculture became a media interest. Dick Hebdige argues that the punk subculture shares the same "radical aesthetic practices" as Dada and surrealism:

Like Duchamp's 'ready mades' - manufactured objects which qualified as art because he chose to call them such, the most unremarkable and inappropriate items - a pin, a plastic clothes peg, a television component, a razor blade, a tampon - could be brought within the province of punk (un)fashion...Objects borrowed from the most sordid of contexts found a place in punks' ensembles; lavatory chains were draped in graceful arcs across chests in plastic bin liners. Safety pins were taken out of their domestic 'utility' context and worn as gruesome ornaments through the cheek, ear or lip...fragments of school uniform (white bri-nylon shirts, school ties) were symbolically defiled (the shirts covered in graffiti, or fake blood; the ties left undone) and juxtaposed against leather drains or shocking pink mohair tops.[11]

Urban tribes

In 1985, French sociologist Michel Maffesoli coined the term urban tribe. It gained widespread use after the publication of his Le temps des tribus: le déclin de l'individualisme dans les sociétés postmodernes (1988).[12] Eight years later, this book was published in the United Kingdom as The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society.[13]

According to Maffesoli, urban tribes are microgroups of people who share common interests in urban areas. The members of these relatively small groups tend to have similar worldviews, dress styles and behavioral patterns. Their social interactions are largely informal and emotionally laden, different from late capitalism's corporate-bourgeoisie cultures, based on dispassionate logic. Maffesoli claims that punks are a typical example of an "urban tribe".[14]

Five years after the first English translation of Le temps des tribus, writer Ethan Watters claims to have coined the same neologism in a New York Times Magazine article. This was later expanded upon the idea in his book Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment. According to Watters, urban tribes are groups of never-marrieds between the ages of 25 and 45 who gather in common-interest groups and enjoy an urban lifestyle, which offers an alternative to traditional family structures.[15]

Sexual subcultures

Further information: Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures

The sexual revolution of the 1960s led to a countercultural rejection of the established sexual and gender norms, particularly in the urban areas of Europe, North and South America, Australia, and white South Africa. A more permissive social environment in these areas led to a proliferation of sexual subcultures—cultural expressions of non-normative sexuality. As with other subcultures, sexual subcultures adopted certain styles of fashion and gestures to distinguish them from the mainstream.[16]

Homosexuals expressed themselves through the gay culture, considered the largest sexual subculture of the 20th century. With the ever increasing acceptance of homosexuality in the early 21st century, including its expressions in fashion, music, and design, the gay culture can no longer be considered a subculture in many parts of the world, although some aspects of gay culture like leathermen, bears, and feeders are considered subcultures within the gay movement itself.[16] The butch and femme identities or roles among some lesbians also engender their own subculture with stereotypical attire, for instance drag kings.[17] A late 1980s development, the queer movement can be considered a subculture broadly encompassing those that reject normativity in sexual behavior, and who celebrate visibility and activism. The wider movement coincided with growing academic interests in queer studies and queer theory. Aspects of sexual subcultures can vary along other cultural lines. For instance, in the United States, the term down-low is used to refer to African-American men who do not identify themselves with the gay or queer cultures, but who practice gay cruising, and adopt a specific hip-hop attire during this activity.[17]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Middleton 1990
  2. ^ Thornton 1995
  3. ^ a b Gelder 2007
  4. ^ Hebdige 1981
  5. ^ Anheier, Helmut K., Stefan Toepler and Regina List (eds) (2010). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society, Springer
  6. ^ Hall, Stuart, Tony Jefferson (1993). Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. Routledge, 1993
  7. ^ Howes, David. Cross-cultural consumption: global markets, local realities. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.
  8. ^ Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. "Producers of 'Japan' in Israel: Cultural appropriation in a non-colonial context." Ethnos:Journal of Anthropology 68.3 (2003): 365. Print.
  9. ^ Blair, M. Elizabeth. "Commercialization of Rap Music Youth Subculture." Journal of Popular Culture 27.3 (1993): 21-33. Print.
  10. ^ Lewin, Phillip, J. Patrick Williams. "Reconceptualizing Punk through Ideology and Authenticity". Conference Papers--American Sociological Association. 2007 Annual Meeting, 2007.
  11. ^ Dick Hebdige p.106-12
  12. ^ Frehse, Fraya (2006). "As realidades que as "tribos urbanas" criam". Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-69092006000100012&lng=en&nrm=iso. Retrieved 2008-02-08.  Arquived at SciELO - Scientific electronic library online
  13. ^ Maffesoli, Michel. "The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society". Amazon.co.uk. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/080398474X. Retrieved 2008-02-08. 
  14. ^ Maffesoli 1996
  15. ^ Watters 2003
  16. ^ a b Jaime Hovey, Sexual subcultures entry in F. Malti-Douglas, Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, Vol. 4, Gale, 2007, pp. 1372-1373
  17. ^ a b Jaime Hovey, Sexual subcultures entry in F. Malti-Douglas, Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, Vol. 4, Gale, 2007, pp. 1374

References

  • Cante, Richard C. (March 2009). Gay Men and the Forms of Contemporary US Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0 7546 7230 1. 
  • Gelder, Ken (2007). Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practice (Routledge, March 2007; softcover ISBN 0-415-37952-0)
  • Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Routledge, March 10, 1981; softcover ISBN 0-415-03949-5). Cited in Negus, Keith (1996). Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6310-2.
  • Huq, Rupa (2006) 'Beyond subculture' (Routledge, 2006; softcover ISBN 0-415-27815-5. Hardcover ISBN 0-415-27814-7)
  • Maffesoli, Michel (1996). The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society. (London: Sage Publications. ISBN 080398474X)
  • McKay, George (1996) Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties. (London: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-028-0.)
  • McKay, George (2005) Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. Durham NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3573-5.
  • Riesman, David (1950). "Listening to popular music", American Quarterly, 2, p. 359-71. Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music, p. 155. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
  • Thornton, Sarah (1995). Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cited in Negus, Keith (1996). Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0-8195-6310-2.
  • Watters, Ethan (2003). Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family, and Commitment. ISBN 1-58234-264-4.
  • Hall, Stuart, Tony Jefferson (1993). Resistance Through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-War Britain. Routledge, 1993.
  • Blair, M. Elizabeth. "Commercialization of Rap Music Youth Subculture." Journal of Popular Culture 27.3 (1993): 21-33. Print.
  • Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. "Producers of 'Japan' in Israel: Cultural appropriation in a non-colonial context." Ethnos:Journal of Anthropology 68.3 (2003): 365. Print.
  • Lewin, Phillip, J. Patrick Williams. "Reconceptualizing Punk through Ideology and Authenticity". Conference Papers—American Sociological Association. 2007 Conference Papers, 2007.
  • Howes, David. Cross-cultural consumption: global markets, local realities. New York: Routledge, 1996. Print.

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  • subculture — ● subculture nom féminin Culture particulière à un groupe et singulière par rapport à celle des autres groupes, tout à la fois aux yeux de ces derniers et à ses propres yeux. subculture [sybkyltyʀ] n. f. ÉTYM. 1966, la Croix; de sub , et culture …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • subculture — subculture. См. субкультура. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • subculture — (n.) 1886, in reference to bacterial cultures, from SUB (Cf. sub ) + CULTURE (Cf. culture) (n.). From 1936 in reference to human cultures …   Etymology dictionary

  • subculture — ► NOUN ▪ a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. DERIVATIVES subcultural adjective …   English terms dictionary

  • subculture — [sub′kul΄chər] n. 1. a) a group (within a society) of persons of the same age, social or economic status, ethnic background, etc. and having its own interests, goals, etc. b) the distinct cultural patterns of such a group 2. a culture, as of… …   English World dictionary

  • Subculture — Terme traduit de l anglo saxon subculture, en français sous culture est la plupart du temps utilisé dans ce sens. Néanmoins, cette traduction littérale n a pas les mêmes connotations en français et en anglais, ce qui pose problème de traduction… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • subculture — Widely and broadly used, the core idea of subcultural theory is of the formation of subcultures as a collective solution to, or resolution of, problems arising from the blocked aspirations of members, or their ambiguous position in the wider… …   Dictionary of sociology

  • subculture — noun Date: 1886 1. a. a culture (as of bacteria) derived from another culture b. an act or instance of producing a subculture 2. an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • subculture — [[t]sʌ̱bkʌltʃə(r)[/t]] subcultures also sub culture N COUNT: usu with supp A subculture is the ideas, art, and way of life of a group of people within a society, which are different from the ideas, art, and way of life of the rest of the society …   English dictionary

  • subculture — UK [ˈsʌbˌkʌltʃə(r)] / US [ˈsʌbˌkʌltʃər] noun [countable] Word forms subculture : singular subculture plural subcultures a group of people whose beliefs and ways of behaving make them different from the rest of society Pop music is an important… …   English dictionary

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