Charting Subcultures at a Frontier of Knowledge

Abstract

This article emphasizes the importance of subcultural networks for understanding adolescence and delinquency. It presents sociometric graphs of 'general structures' of informal peer relations formed by groups of socialite, surfer, streetcorner and intellectual youth. Since these graphs are used for charting networks researched by the authors in the 1960s, they represent unique historic markers of subcultural developments in the USA. Scrutiny of the graphs indicates their usefulness for discovering unexpected relationships as well as confirming expectations. A discussion of ontological priorities and research programs proposes that the heuristic potential of these kinds of graphs can be fulfilled by micro and macrosociologically oriented research programs rather than reductionist programs that attribute social facts to genetic defects, pathological characteristics and frustrated dispositions of individuals. To encourage rapid advances in the study of adolescent subcultures and delinquency, this discussion urges the adoption of integrated research strategies, utilizing ethnographic observations, small-group experiments and methods for graphing networks of informed groups