Youth Culture Research Articles

Representations of Swedish ‘gangster rap’ in contemporary media – Exploring dimensions of public pedagogy

ABSTRACT This article investigates Swedish ’gangster rap,“ a prominent topic in Swedish media since its emergence in late 2018. The aim of the article is twofold; i) to analyse the dominant narratives about Swedish gangster rap that emerge through a selection of media publications, and around which values they are centred, and ii) to explore how these narratives can be understood in terms of public pedagogy. The theoretical approach of this study draws from cultural studies, anchored in both Bourdieusian theory and perspectives derived from popular pedagogy. This framework guides the qualitative analysis of Swedish media portrayals of ”gangster rap“ as a cultural phenomenon. Our findings reveal that these publications predominantly emphasize values such as enigma, anxiety/caution, nostalgia, introspection, and positioning. To elucidate the connection between these values and different narrative strands, results are presented through three distinct themes: ”Gangster rap as a journalistic sub-cultural enigma,“ ”Gangster rap as a cautionary media narrative,“ and ”Gangster rap as a youth culture continuum.’ These themes are discussed in relation to the multifaceted ways in which Swedish gangster rap is represented and interpreted in the media landscape, shedding light both on its cultural significance and popular pedagogical implications.

Sociolinguistic Perspective on Digital Communication: Understanding Gen Alpha Language Use in Tiktok

This study explores the sociolinguistic characteristics of Generation Alpha's language use on TikTok, a platform blending creativity and social interaction. Examining code-switching, slang, and the influence of visual elements highlights how these features shape digital identities and cultural expression. The research uses qualitative methods like content analysis and user interviews to reveal how Gen Alpha adapts language to TikTok’s standards while challenging traditional linguistic norms. The findings demonstrate that digital communication significantly impacts the language of today’s youth, showcasing Generation Alpha’s sensitivity and inventiveness in coining new terms driven by rapid technological advancements. Social, cultural, and technical factors influence these communication patterns, with video and visual exchanges enhancing communication skills, shaping social identities, and fostering intergenerational connections. This research emphasizes the role of platform-specific language practices in shaping teenage culture and advancing sociolinguistics in social media contexts. It concludes that Generation Alpha employs a relaxed, creative, and trend-sensitive vocabulary, particularly on TikTok, reflecting contemporary digital communication trends. The study underscores the importance of understanding language dynamics in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

After visibility: Data as a factor of production in Douyin e-commerce

Since 2020, Douyin, an app known for its interactive entertainment and vibrant youth cultures, has risen to dominance in the retail sector. Douyin stands out by making paid traffic a significant revenue stream alongside commissions. This strategy, which restricts organic growth, compels sellers to make additional investments in traffic. Drawing from Douyin walkthroughs and the company's business development presentations, this article analyzes how audience attention and platform traffic are manufactured and integrated with retail in the context of China's recent national policy that positions data as a factor of production equal to labor, land, technology, and capital. In contrast to Instagram, traffic conversion into sales takes precedence over product visibility on Douyin. In this process, Douyin actively uses user data to manufacture high-traffic keywords with buying intent. This involves measurements employing surveillance technologies that span image and speech recognition, keywords, performance metrics, and pricing algorithms. The article argues that Douyin e-commerce cannot be fully explained by the current visibility research paradigm centered on metrics such as likes, shares, and comments, which are considered indications of interests and preferences. It is suggested that Douyin uses historical data to invoke momentary interests and produce desired user actions for conversion. Traffic investment alone cannot result in the conversion of momentary interests into sales; it needs to be combined with pricing that incorporates discounts, coupons, and reductions. The integration of traffic investment with pricing strategy has emerged as a dominant e-commerce practice that fosters retail growth.

Moroccan Youth Between Protest and Repression: Thematic Analysis of the Film “Raise Your Voice” by Nabil Ayouch

Hip-hop and rap music are frequently associated with youth culture. Nobody can deny that many people, particularly the youth, prefer Moroccan hip-hop and rap because they appeal to and represent their anger and dissatisfaction over their country. Nevertheless, some believe this music and culture genre lacks moral values as it uses street language (slang and vulgar terms) and sometimes addresses taboo subjects such as politics. Therefore, this article attempts to examine how hip-hop and rap genres of music are depicted as the outlet or a voice for the oppressed young generation living under severe and harsh socioeconomic situations via using a thematic film analysis of the Moroccan movie Raise Your Voice (2021) to recognise the dominant thematic patterns utilised to reveal the disappointment and the anger of Moroccan young generation over their country. The major interrelated themes generated by the film are gender inequality, religion, terrorism, and tyrannical society.

Negotiating boundaries through reality shows: a multimodal study of Big Brother Naija

The initial reaction to the introduction of Big Brother Naija (BBN) is a moral panic, which is symptomatic of the belief that the show challenges social, moral, religious, and cultural standards, thereby negotiating existing boundaries. Although there is a moral panic about the show, while some studies have established that the attitude towards it is justifiable, little is known about the strategies (deliberate or not) used in negotiating existing boundaries, and how the show influences youth culture in Nigeria. This study, therefore, examines the strategies and communicative modes participants employ to negotiate existing boundaries in BBN. The data for the study were harvested from selected videos of Big Brother Naija’s second and third editions, and we analysed the data using Sigrid Norris’ Multimodal Interaction Analysis (MIA). The study affirms the status of Big Brother Naija as a boundary breaker in Nigeria. Gender, social, and ethnic boundaries are deliberately stretched to the limits through different discursive strategies and communicative modes in the show. It is found out that the show has the potential to serve as a unifying forum for different ethnic groups in Nigeria, although not much is committed to that at present. The study recommends that the show producers should introduce tasks and activities that can help reduce ethnic tension and engender peaceful co-existence in the country.

Beyond conformity: King Pinn's counter-hegemonic rap in post-2000 ZANUfied Zimbabwe

The post-2000 period in Zimbabwe is known as the decade of the crisis because of rising poverty, hyperinflation, a collapsed economy, poor service delivery, political violence, and a myriad of problems that made the lives of the majority of Zimbabweans precarious. It was also the period of the land reform programme which the government embarked on to, among many other reasons, galvanise the ruling party’s waning political fortunes. The land reform programme was complemented by an ultra-nationalist imaginary which took the form of the 75% (later upgraded to 100%) local content policy for radio and television. The policy was meant to create cultural support for ZANU – PF’s land exercise by rejecting the cultural products of western countries. These western countries, in ZANU – PF parlance, were enemies of Zimbabwe because of their oppositional stance towards the land reform exercise. Thus, the 100% local content became a way of policing musical production to make it agree with this anti-western stance. The Urban Grooves movement of the post-2000 period emerged from this policy change and dominated Zimbabwe’s airwaves for a decade. This movement was not a musical genre per se but a mish-mash of genres comprising dancehall, soul, Afro-pop, house, hip-hop, among others. Using Zimbabwe’s hip-hop music, with special reference to the late King Pinn’s ‘I Salute You’, this paper explores how youth artists operated in post-2000 ZANUfied and Mugabeist Zimbabwe. Did their musical practices pander to the policing whims of the state? Did they, contrary to the state’s expectations, come up with alternative identities that sought to challenge the ZANUist political hegemony of their time? If youth cultures can act as conveyors of alternative phenomenological forms of social and political reality and as indicators of ideological resistance, how have Zimbabwean hip-hop artists acted as conveyors of ideological resistance?

“First Blood”: The 1960s Origins of the Australian Sharpie Youth Culture

ABSTRACT The sharpies were a uniquely Australian youth culture that lasted from the early 1960s into the 1980s and were a significant continuation of the trajectory of Australian, male-dominated, working-class, consumption-based, rowdy youth-cultural traditions, which include the bodgies and widgies of the 1950s and the larrikins of the 1860s to 1918. Sharpies are under-discussed in social narratives and academic texts. This article focuses on the life cycle of the original generation of sharpies. In addition to exploring the origins of sharpie culture, I explore why it provided an outlet for its bored suburban, working-class youths, present explanations for behavioural attitudes and offer some insight into its attraction. I also explore how the first generation of this youth culture came to its natural end, how it was picked up again by the next generation and why. In learning about the sharpies’ activities and behaviours, from the egregious to the mundane, we open ourselves to learning something not just about suburban, working-class Australian youths but about all young people who take part in group-based youth cultures.

Persian Street Rap: a study of the phenomenon of Persian rap within the framework of urban folk music genre in relation to popular music

ABSTRACT This research delves into the study of a musical trend known as Persian rap. The possibility of the emergence of rap as an urban folk genre and its alignment with the popular genre was investigated. The similarities and differences between them were discussed. Rap glocalization and its process in these genres were explained. We employed library research and a semi-structured interview method with rappers and their audiences to gather field information. Using the grounded theory method, we concluded that Persian rap had a glocalization process in Iran since the early 2000s. Glocalizing aligns with global youth culture. Following glocalization, Persian rap has gradually transformed into an urban folk tradition. Two categories of Persian rap are Street Rap and Mainstream Rap. Street Rap, sustained by the youth’s interest in their independent urban lifestyle apart from the Mainstream, continues its existence without financial income. The capital formed from the relationships among youth in the streets has created a subculture that strives to differentiate its identity from other members of society. This capital has led to the creation of a folk rap genre, the differences and commonalities of which with the Mainstream are discussed in the research. Rap as urban folk music has similarities with Zarbi and Bahr-e Tavil genres in the urban folk music of Iran. The emergence of rap in Iran is the re-creation of past musical forms to restart their function in expressing the emotions, protest and entertainment of the youth.

NOSTALGIC NEIGHBORHOODS OF TIKTOK: MAPPING A TOPOLOGY OF AFFECTIVE PUBLICS

Nostalgia is a culturally resonant, politically potent, and increasingly networked sensemaking resource that frames how people see the past and understand their place in the world. Despite nostalgia's locative meaning, there is a lack of research applying network analytic methods to study its structure and social-semiotic function in online networks which enable connective action based on discursive, affective, and mimetic bonds. While research indicates nostalgia’s dual-edge social function in group dynamics of solidarity and exclusion, these studies often take collective identity a priori, limiting understanding of how platform affordances structure the formation of affective publics around nostalgic discourse and sentiment. Through a semantic network analysis of the popular hashtag #nostalgia (>140B views) on TikTok, this study offers a first step toward understanding the meaning of nostalgia in networked processes of group identification by mapping a topology of “nostalgic neighborhoods” emerging from the co-linkages of hashtags on the platform. Based on the equivalence of these neighborhoods’ semantic structures and thematic meanings, I identify three types of affective publics – play-grounds, heart-lands, and reflecting pools – that emerged in relation to different linguistic and technical functions of the hashtag. I argue the different affective intensities and meanings of nostalgia within these publics reflected the platform’s dynamics of imitation and virality. As TikTok’s algorithmic affordances of visibility and association are less rooted in interpersonal social ties, this study contributes important insights into how the hashtag, as a semiotic technology (Zappavigna, 2018), structures nostalgic affective publics on popular site for nostalgia within youth cultures.

A Sociological Study about Effects of Global Media on Youth Culture in Dera Ghazi Khan

The study employs quantitative techniques to support the theory, using a structured approach to forecast causal relationships, measure variations and describe population characteristics. Conducted in Dera Ghazi Khan, the research targets 300 university students selected through a two-stage sampling process. In conclusion, the findings highlight the significant impact of global media on various aspects of culture, including food preferences, music, language, and dressing styles. The majority of respondents acknowledge that global media influences their culture with Chinese cuisine being most prominently promoted, and the widespread appeal of Pop & Rock music. Furthermore, global media's promotion of foreign cultural practices is seen as encouraging the adoption of such practices, especially among the youth. Additionally, there is a clear association between the promotion of global media dressing styles and the perception of cultural changes. The preference for fast food over home-cooked meals and the increasing use of English in academics, influenced by global media's promotion of certain accents, further emphasize the growing influence of global media on lifestyle choices. Recommendations for future research could explore strategies to balance global media influences with the preservation of cultural heritage, especially in educational and community settings.

Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Youth's Social Skills and Interpersonal Relationships

Social media platforms have become a central part of youth culture, profoundly influencing how young people communicate and build relationships. While social media offers opportunities for connection, it also raises concerns about its impact on youth’s social skills and the quality of their interpersonal relationships. This study explores the effects of social media use on the development of social skills, including communication, empathy, and conflict resolution, among youth aged 13-19. By employing a mixed-method approach that includes content analysis, experimental exposure, and surveys, this research examines how social media influences youth’s ability to interact in faceto-face settings and maintain healthy relationships. A sample of 600 participants from the U.S., U.K., and India provided data through structured surveys and interviews. Statistical tools, including regression analysis, ANOVA, and thematic analysis, were used to evaluate the impact of social media on social skills and interpersonal relationships. The findings reveal that high levels of social media use are associated with decreased face-to-face communication skills, increased social anxiety, and difficulties in forming and maintaining close relationships. This study highlights the need for balanced social media use and interventions that promote healthy communication skills among youth. Future research should focus on developing educational programs that encourage offline interactions and foster social skills development.

Socius improvisus: young musicians, DIY careers and uncertainty in Indonesia

ABSTRACT This paper uses a study of young musicians in Indonesia building ‘DIY’ (do-it-yourself) music careers to propose a new conceptualisation of biographical action, which we argue better reflects the realities of young lives in the Majority World (or Global South). We emphasise a form of embedded improvision that parallels but differs from the type of individual flexibility and entrepreneurial culture emphasised in influential work in youth studies on the intersection of youth cultures and employment transitions. We propose the concept of ‘socius improvisus’ to bring into focus the way the participants’ work to establish a DIY career is undertaken alongside others and taking others into account. Networks are pivotal to how our participants’ careers evolved. These networks are shaped by the shared valuing of mobility and movement while also attending to and valuing types of embeddedness in different communities. Continual improvisation alongside and taking into account others is necessary as the young musicians struggle to build, develop, and maintain their DIY careers in music and the values ‘DIY’ entails, while currently juggling other commitments in life. This might be heightened or reshaped for contemporary young people in Indonesia and also plausibly more widely than this.

Specular Modernity in Motion: The Design of the Osa Scooter, Leisure, and Consumption in the Long Sixties

In recent history scholarship, the concept of the long Sixties characterized by cultural and social transformation expanded beyond the West to include, among other parts of the globe, the socialist world. In the West, one of the defining features of the long Sixties was the rise in leisure and the abundance of consumer goods. In the planned economies of socialist countries, consumer goods became a major consideration. In Poland, one of the premises of de-Stalinization in 1956 was the provision of objects for everyday life as the Stalinist Party had failed to meet the expectation of material abundance. And design was cast in the role of creating desirable objects under socialism in a similar way as in the West. Taking the Osa scooter as a case study, this essay examines the role that design played in consumption under socialism in Poland. To do so, the essay engages with the Production – Consumption – Mediation Paradigm, developed in design history by Grace Lees-Maffei. This model acknowledges consumption and mediation in the analysis of design objects. Following this, the essay considers how the Osa scooter appeared on the pages of Motor, a magazine aimed at motorists, and examines how the Osa was consumed. Designed to reflect the functions of the scooter, the body of the Osa represented modernity, and, on the pages of Motor, the Osa facilitated leisure and was promoted toward a male owner. In consumption, the Osa became a luxury item that while imbedded into youth culture was representative of the inequities of individual motorization. Keywords: socmodernism, motorization, consumerism, Osa scooter, Poland

Media and generational conflict: from ethnography of deviance to cybernetics

The media have played a central role not only in defining identities but also in managing the conflicts they trigger. This is particularly evident in the 1960s, when the generational conflict supported by the modernization of society and consumption was clearly delineated, but it persists today in a completely different era. Not only because of the considerable transition from a vertical to a horizontal society, from the centrality of institutions and of the “father” to an inclusive and in its own way problematic democratization. Our era is also crossed by a general feeling defined as retromania (Reynolds, 2011), capable of pervading every area of daily life, communication, consumption and fashion. For this reason it may make sense to “unfreeze” from the past a book that aimed to take stock of the issue of youth subcultures, beyond the brakes and inhibitions of a more institutional sociology. Herein lies the value of a reflection that manages to avoid in- volvement in the same panic that it studies, such as the excessive enthusiasm of some exponents of Cultural Studies for youth cultures. This study deals with the new youth formations of the Sixties, namely the epic of the Mods and the Rockers, whose epic clash on the English beaches is explained for the first time within a more general framework. Against the banal description of media as “mirrors” or “shapers” (Hodkinson, 2016) of social phenomena, a more complex interpretation suggests that they are circular and adductive means where a specific social identity can be manufactured according to social trends.

STUDIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON YOUTH: EXPLORING REAL-WORLD CONSEQUENCES

Social media has permeated every aspect of youth culture globally in the modern digital age, impacting their attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the complex effects of social media on young people, with a particular emphasis on how it affects academic performance, mental health, interpersonal relationships, and societal engagement. This study investigates the advantages and disadvantages of youth social media usage through an extensive literature review and empirical research. It looks at how social media platforms affect people's sense of self, how they form their identities, how they manage their emotions, and how they help people connect with others and build social support systems. The study also looks into the possible dangers of using social media excessively, including addiction, privacy issues, and cyberbullying. This research aims to educate parents, educators, and legislators about responsible and healthy online behavior promotion tactics for the younger generation by analyzing the dynamics of youth social media use.

Oppimisen moninaiset kontekstit: Yhdeksäsluokkalaisten kokemuksia englannin kielen oppimisesta koulun ulkopuolella

This article examines Finnish ninth graders’ views on their acquisition and use of English outside school. Out-of-school learning and use of English is a growing phenomenon, and we aim to shed light on how Finnish pupils describe their learning experiences and the meanings they attach to them. The data consist of written tasks completed as a part of the national assessment of learning outcomes in A syllabus of English in basic education conducted by the Finnish Education Evaluation Centre in spring 2021. The written tasks are first analyzed with corpus methods (frequencies, key words) and then qualitatively. The results show that there are some differences between girls and boys in the out-of-school learning environments they describe. Out-of-school learning is also described as common and important by pupils of different proficiency levels. Overall, Finnish teenagers associate English with opportunities to participate in global youth cultures and engage in meaningful freetime activities.

Children of the Juche Revolution: Picturing North Korean Youth Culture at the Thirteenth World Festival of Youth and Students

Abstract: In this article, I analyze three dimensions of the Thirteenth World Festival of Youth and Students, which was held in Pyongyang in 1989. I focus on the discourse that unfolded in the lead-up to the event as North Korean leaders met with international representatives; encounters between North Koreans and international delegates on the ground during the festival; and North Korean artworks produced for and exhibited during the festival. Mobilizing Giorgio Agamben’s theoretical frame of contemporaneity, I unfurl the competing ways in which the North Korean state and the festival’s backing constituencies representing the global youth sought to establish their relevance in a shifting global order—one in which North Korea increasingly appeared an anachronistic holdover from the Cold War era. The tension that runs through each of the dimensions of the festival explored here provides useful insight into the Cold War ideological forces that subsisted during the frenzied political juncture of 1989 even as many sought to define this moment as marking the end of the Cold War and the arrival of a global community.

The Influence of Social Media on Learning Behaviors: A Social Science Perspective

Social media has become an integral part of the lives of 21st-century youth, reshaping the way they communicate, socialize, and consume information. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) offer instant access to global networks, influencing youth culture, trends, and personal identity. Due to the increased use of social media in society, people have raised some concerns about how it affects certain activities such as learning practices among students in higher learning institutions. This paper aims to examine the effects of social media usage on learning behaviors from a social science perspective. In the study, the quantitative surveys are complemented by qualitative interviews to evaluate the correlation between social media use and academic achievement, study habits, and collaborative learning. The study shows that social media can be used to support collaborative learning and access to learning resources but can also be a source of distraction and poor academic performance if overused. The study also reveals that social media can be a friend and a foe in learning and that it is only when it is used purposefully and when students are taught how to use it appropriately. It can be a powerful tool in learning environments. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for students to be aware of the educational benefits of social media while at the same time avoiding the negative impacts of social media.

Leisure in Space: Adaptation and Challenge Among Youth and Youth Cultures

Leisure in Space: Adaptation and Challenge Among Youth and Youth Cultures

ПРАВОВИЙ НІГІЛІЗМ У ПРОЦЕСАХ ЇХ СОЦІАЛІЗАЦІЇ В УКРАЇНІ У 1920-ті рр.

The article reveals the issues of adolescents’ legal nihilism and socialization in Ukraine during the 1920s. The reasons for the formation of adolescents’ legal nihilism during the period under study are described. They are political changes in the country, changes in the traditional system of social organization, introduction of anti-religious policy, economic crisis caused by war, revolution and famine, unemployment, low earnings of the population and violations of labour protection conditions, including among teenagers, a class approach to education, increasing crime, homelessness and other socio-economic problems. The main driving mechanisms of the formation of the younger generation’s legal values are determined in terms of the role of the Bolshevik government and non-conformist organizations in Ukraine during the 1920s. The main fundamental nihilistic conflicts and contradictions among adolescents are determined. The types of children’s institutions that fought against child homelessness and nihilism are revealed. They are orphanages, schools-communes, institutions for defective children, shelters, children’s distribution centres, institutions of forced education, children’s legal consultations, commissions for juvenile affairs, children’s inspections, etc. The specific features of the prevention of legal nihilism on the way to adolescents’ socialization during the studied period are characterized. They are: the development of school education; establishment of a network of children’s institutions; creation of youth and adolescent culture in antisocial groups (groups of deviant teenagers) and prosocial groups (school, pioneer and Komsomol organizations). The significance of A. S. Makarenko’s ideas regarding the fight against child homelessness and delinquency is revealed. These ideas include adolescents’ education at labour faculties, labour education, aesthetic education, the formation of mutual responsibility and trust between adolescents, their return to a quality life, etc.). Key words: adolescents, legal nihilism, prevention, socialization, children’s institutions.