Youth Subcultures Research Articles

Social Portrait of a Modern Student

Introduction. Sociological studies of the social portrait of students are an urgent problem of science, which has recently acquired special significance in Russian conditions. This is due to those circumstances, which, on the one hand, follow from the special characteristics of students as a specific social group, for which the problems of successful socialization are especially relevant, and on the other, they are dictated by the significant dependence of students on those factors that are formed in the political, economic and the legal space of different regions. In conditions of social transformations and turbulence, almost always young students find themselves in a more difficult situation than older generations. In particular, a number of problems arise on the basis of the divergences and nuances of the social perception of reality, which are formed among students who, to varying degrees, are adapted to the local conditions of the university.Methodology and sources. The theoretical foundation of the study is the concept of youth as a cultural group, the methodology of sociological research of risk and social uncertainty, the works of foreign and national researchers of student youth, which reflect various aspects of students' social life, in particular, the results of a study of the effects of social factors in the information space, new phenomena of youth subcultures, etc., which involve the development of new strategies for a sociological study of the social portrait of young students.Results and discussion. Particular problems of students' socialization arise in those regions of the country where new legal and political realities are forming. Compared with other social groups, in such social spaces, it is more difficult for young people to integrate and join in a new reality, because the usual mechanisms of socialization, formed earlier, are not actual now, and how to achieve full potential in the new social space is not yet clear to everyone. In particular, such contradictions are clearly visible in the Crimean realities, in the university community of Sevastopol. The purpose of the sociological research conducted by the Centre for Sociological Research of Sevastopol State University was to study the characteristics of the social portrait of student youth in Sevastopol, including those representing various groups of students according the period of their residence on the peninsula. For this purpose, two groups of young people were distinguished in the analysis, differing by the period of their residence in Sevastopol: an “indigenous” one – those who live in Sevastopol from birth or moved here at an early age, and a “new” one – those who moved to Sevastopol after 2014. The results of the study made it possible to determine the strategic life goals of university students, which can be described as ambitious: starting a business, acquiring a car and housing, providing material wealth, pursuing career success and self-realization.Conclusion. Most of the “indigenous” youth and “new” residents of the southern capital of Russia have shown their attitude to Sevastopol as a city that they want to develop together. This fact was assessed as a phenomenon of social gratitude: the young generation, who found in Sevastopol the opportunity to live peacefully and fulfill itself, binds itself to the city, but wants to make it better. The study also confirms the relevance of highlighting among students social and demographic groups that differ in the perception of social reality, due to the time spent in this social environment. In particular, this is noted in a higher degree of readiness of “old-timers” for practical participation in changes in social reality – participation in public life, volunteering, etc.

Urban masculinity, contested spaces, and classed subcultures: young homeless men navigating downtown Ottawa, Canada

This article seeks to address the lacuna in many academic and non-academic accounts of male homeless youth, which consistently overlook and thus fail to theorize the degree to which young homeless men’s experiences are shaped by gendered and classed youth subcultures. The theoretical contribution that this article seeks to make is to bring together culturally-infused analyses with a geographic focus on space and masculinity, in order to expand the repertoire of conceptual tools with which to understand young men’s experiences of homelessness in urban spaces. It does so through an empirical investigation of urban spatial navigations of young homeless and precariously housed men in Ottawa, Canada. Mobilizing the concept of territoriality, as developed by Phil Cohen of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, alongside the Bourdieusian concept of classification struggles, the article ultimately seeks to demonstrate that there is an internal logic of practice to young men’s navigations of urban space under conditions of extreme inequality, one that seeks to reconcile the deep contradictions of neoliberalism. Simultaneously, such logics may also serve to reinscribe and reinforce their marginal positions in the city, by exposing them to extreme violence by rival urban groups, and leaving them more vulnerable to expanded criminalization by the state.

Emerging ethnic minority sub-cultures: young Tamils in the post-war context in the Tamil-dominated areas in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACTSignificant socio-cultural and political changes have taken place in Sri Lanka since the end of the most recent war in 2009. There is, however, a lack of research on minority youth sub-cultures in Sri Lanka. This paper seeks to fill the gap, describing different elements of Tamil youth sub-cultures and identifying factors which can be used to distinguish them. The research aimed to explore emerging youth sub-cultures, considering Somasundaram’s idea of collective trauma and Hall’s concept of resistance: which are combined with other broad theoretical conceptualizations and synthesized as resistance, intersectionality and identity, as a lens to understand the sub-cultures among Jaffna post-war youth. Ethnographic approaches are used to understand Tamil youth phenomena, with interviews and focus group discussions among youths and professionals. Seven youth sub-cultures in which war trauma is a predominant factor are identified. The results suggest that in-depth studies of all youth sub-cultures are needed.

Between Pleasure and Resistance: The Role of Substance Consumption in an Italian Working-Class Subculture

In this article I discuss how illegal substance consumption can act as a tool of resistance and as an identity signifier for young people through a covert ethnographic case study of a working-class subculture in Genoa, North-Western Italy. I develop my argument through a coupled reading of the work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and more recent post-structural developments in the fields of youth studies and cultural critical criminology. I discuss how these apparently contrasting lines of inquiry, when jointly used, shed light on different aspects of the cultural practices of specific subcultures contributing to reflect on the study of youth cultures and subcultures in today’s society and overcoming some of the ‘dead ends’ of the opposition between the scholarly categories of subculture and post-subculture. In fact, through an analysis of the sites, socialization processes, and hedonistic ethos of the subculture, I show how within a single subculture there could be a coexistence of: resistance practices and subversive styles of expression as the CCCS research program posits; and signs of fragmentary and partial aesthetic engagements devoid of political contents and instead primarily oriented towards the affirmation of the individual, as argued by the adherents of the post-subcultural position.

СОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ ПРАКТИКИ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ РОССИЙСКОЙ МОЛОДЕЖИ

В статье рассматривается актуальная проблема современного российского общества – новые социокультурные практики молодежи, её эстетические и ценностные ориентации, важные формы проявления поиска личностной и культурной идентичности. Новизна работы заключается в том, что на примере конкретных новых социокультурных практик российской молодежи определены особенности их функционирования и зависимости от социальных и культурных факторов, условий и обстоятельств, способствующих возникновению новых форм и проявлений молодежных субкультур. Связано это с тем, что молодежные социокультурные практики стали значимым средством эволюционного обновления общества и трансформации его устойчивой в прошлом социокультурной доминанты. Современные социальные технологии, являясь компонентом механизма культурных и социальных новаций, радикально трансформируют природу сознания человека, его ценностные ориентиры. Особенно остро груз социальных обязательств чувствует молодежь, как в силу своего эмоционального, психического, так и душевного состояния. Автор подчеркивает, что знание реалий молодежных практик может послужить специалистам, разрабатывающим молодежную политику в сфере духовного и культурного развития современной российской молодежи.

Researching Transgression: Ana as a Youth Subculture in the Age of Digital Ethnography

In this paper, we explore the contribution of material and digital ethnography to providing a deeper understanding of youth subcultures. We provide the context by reviewing some of the research carried out by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) to provide a historical overview of cultural studies and critically appraise how they have drawn on ethnography as a way of deepening our understanding of young people’s subculture. We then draw on digital ethnographic data to explore the lived experiences of Ana girls, that is, young women who advocate anorexic and bulimic behaviours as legitimate lifestyle choices, as they explore and negotiate their identity through online social media platforms with like-minded people. The aim is to demonstrate the potential of longitudinal digital ethnography to provide insights into these girls’ transgressive voices played out through online spaces. In narrating the Ana girls through digital storytelling, we argue that digital ethnography is the only way to access and understand their experiences and as such, has a unique role to play in advancing sociological understanding of their complex lived experiences. Thus, we suggest that digital ethnography provides a unique way of capturing longitudinal data and that this knowledge is important to bring about greater understanding of the challenges facing these girls as they grapple with complex problems. This greater understanding could inform changes to practice needed to better support Ana girls in online spaces.

Diglossic youth identity: The semiotic negotiations of fandom in North India

This article looks at the activities of a fan club dedicated to Shah Rukh Khan for the purpose of discerning how young men and women negotiate their identities vis-à-vis a mainstream culture that perpetuates negative stereotypes about fans. The members of the club are upper middle class from New Delhi. The study of fan culture in India is primarily organized around the assumptions that its membership comes from the urban poor youth (men) and that it is a phenomenon restricted to South India. In other words, there is a sense that fan cultures like youth subcultures develop in direct opposition to the mainstream. My contention is that youth culture in neoliberal India exhibits a more complex form of negotiation with the mainstream marked by notions of ‘timepass’ (leisure time as ‘wasteful’), compromise and ‘diglossia’ (language meant to negotiate opposed cultural perceptions and expectations to gain an entry into symbolic capital). This becomes necessary because mainstream culture maintains a consistent approach of being opposed to fan culture.

Graffiti as a Youth Subculture

This paper intends to study the implication of graffiti as a weapon of subculture in Bangladesh vis-a-vis its emergence as a new art form that symbolizes rebellion and a call for liberty, equity, and freedom. By dint of graffiti, the young generation of Bangladesh can express their desire to set themselves five from all the obstacles and let their inner voices be heard by others, which makes it the representative of the youth. This paper analyzes the multilayered and multifaceted terrains that graffiti behold and the way it contributes to the upheavals of youth breaking the shackles of oppression and taking an active part in the meaning-making process of the country. Lately, a surge of street art has been widespread, and through this, hopefully, the ruled class people, especially the youngsters, can voice their distress and address the authority. This paper will attempt to address and analyze all these issues in the light of the essay 'Subculture: The Meaning of Style' by Dick Hebdige

SUBCULTURES OF PROVINCE: A TRIBUTE TO THE CAPITAL'S FASHION OR A REQUEST FROM THE YOUTH SPHERE? (ON MATERIALS OF THE HIP-HOP SUBCULTURE)

The article discusses the causes that led to the spread of hip-hop subculture in regional cities of Russia. We decompose the time period covering the end of the 1990s - the beginning of 2000s. Material for the study are semistructured interviews taken from representatives of this subculture during this period. Fashion for this subculture from Moscow is not the only reason for the spread of hip-hop in Samara. The study showed that the spread of hip-hop in Samara was strongly influenced by the social situation in which young people lived in the first decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Young people felt a deep social and spiritual crisis in the country. There were several youth subcultures in the city in this background: skinheads, rastamans, rockers, hip-hop. The materials of the interviews allow us to say that a choice of young people among these subcultures bases on their priorities and values. The representatives of hip-hop have two key priorities: a healthy lifestyle and creative selfrealization. Subculture of hip-hop has become for teenager’s special cultural space that is different from the dominant cultural which had strong value uncertainty. We believe that the spread of the hip-hop subculture in regional cities was not only a tribute to the capital fashion, but also a means of overcoming the social crisis arised from the collapse of the USSR.

KOMUNITAS SURABAYA WOTAGEI: Sebuah Kajian Budaya Populer

This study analyzes about Surabaya Wotagei Community whose uniqueness is different compared to other communities in Indonesia. Surabaya Wotagei Community emerged not only due to the same preference of the members but also by its uniqueness that is rarely encountered. This study uses qualitative-descriptive method through fandom and youth subculture approaches that emerged in the community. This study shows that Surabaya Wotagei Community is part of the subcultures because they exist as a community that is anti-mainstream but also stays neutral, as in not trying to fight or oppose something. Surabaya Wotagei Community offers a form of fandom with its own unique characteristics, where its members have other ways to provide support for AKB48 or JKT48 without being obsessive and possessive. On the other hand, as a community, Surabaya Wotagei Community is indeed formed by the popular youth culture which makes this community fluid and is well-known by many circles.

Трансформация современной молодежной субкультуры в условиях развития цифрового общества

Трансформация современной молодежной субкультуры в условиях развития цифрового общества

Socio-cultural significance of youth subcultures in modern realities

The purpose of the article is to determine the role of youth subcultures in contemporary sociocultural realities and to identify the specifics of their influence on the evolution of Ukrainian society in the 21st century. The research methodology is based on the existing and the latest theoretical and methodological approaches and principles, primarily on the interdisciplinary integration of the leading methods of modern cultural science and sociology. The method of analysis and synthesis (to study the specifics of youth subcultures and understanding them as an important component of the general culture), the typological method (aimed at identifying and defining the role of youth subcultures in the transformation processes of the 20th century sociocultural space), the sociocultural method (for considering subcultures in the context of civilizational processes) and the method of theoretical generalization (to summarize the research). Scientific novelty. A culturological analysis and typology of global youth subcultures at the present stage of national social development has been carried out; identifies the main features of subculture differentiation of Ukrainian youth; The connection between the styles and values of youth subcultures, social and cultural transformations is revealed. Conclusions. Ukrainian culture of the twentieth century, as a social phenomenon, is at a new stage of formation and development, and, in the dynamic process of developing various forms, cultural patterns, worldview postulates and value orientations, together forms the ideological basis of the modern domestic sociocultural space – the field of human social life which is governed by cultural norms. Youth subcultures, as an important component of sociocultural space, manifesting sociopolitical and socioeconomic problems, direct the ideological basis, and accordingly the behavior of young people, in a certain direction, affecting the social system as a whole and promoting the positioning of specific norms and postulates as generally accepted for all members of society.

Representing Spaces, Performing Places: le strade di Londra nel romanzo Absolute Beginners (1958) di Colin MacInnes e nella sua versione cinematografica

This paper addresses life in London in the late 1950s portrayed by the musical film Absolute Beginners (1986) directed by Julien Temple and its fictional source, that is Colin MacInnes’ novel of the same name (1958). While the musical film has been criticized for its lack of character development and for its last-minute attack on racism, MacInnes’ Absolute Beginners was a successful novel. It tells the story about youth subcultures in postwar London and in this paper I will examine the way in which the City of London and its transformation is portrayed as a urban space/place where young people create and establish new places and spaces for themselves for their regular encounters. So, London as the setting becomes not just a background element but a driving force in the whole story. By seeking to understand London as a site of local encounter, global exchange, national significance, and social memory this paper aims at providing an analysis of the places and spaces both of the film musical and the novel which characters absorb the audience/reader and show the variety of human experience of the capital as seen through the eyes (and camera lens) of a nameless 18 year-old photographer.

Digitális kreativitás – a vizuális és informatikai kultúra szinergiája

A vizuális művészetek új műfajai a digitális kreativitás körébe tartoznak. Az immár általánosan elfogadott, az információs és kommunikációs technológiákat felhasználó képalkotó módszereket és innovatív megoldásokat tartalmazó új vizuális kultúra iskolai megismertetése fontos feladatunk, hiszen a fiatalok képalkotó közösségei ezt ma főként az iskolán kívül egymástól tanulják. Ebben az írásban röviden ismertetjük az Új Képkorszak képzőművészetének digitális műfajait, összefoglaljuk egy nemzetközi kutatás eredményeit a Vizuális Kultúra Tanuló Közösségekről és bemutatjuk a MoholyNagy Vizuális Modulok – a 21. század új képi nyelvének tanítása című pedagógiai program részeként megvalósuló, integrált vizuális és médiapedagógiát.

Young People, Hip-Hop, and the Making of a “Grammar for Unpolitics” in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT This article investigates youth political subjectivity and subject formation in the context of postsocialist transition and projects of post-conflict peace-building in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following a youth subculture, it explores how nationalist visions of the future, the geopolitics of partition, and the very notion of ethnic identification itself are unwound and contested through embodied, affective geopolitical engagements in a hip-hop public. Drawing on feminist political geography, the article argues for scholarly understandings of young people’s lives as constituted by and constituting everyday geopolitical realities. In doing so, it calls for scholarly attention to the ways in which youth, in the course of turning away from dominant institutions, practice illegible forms of politics. To that end, the article tracks how these young people used hip-hop to cultivate a “grammar for unpolitics” centred around the urban as an ethics and category of belonging that fostered forms of mutuality radically alter to dominant notions of identity. These unpolitical engagements, the article argues, appropriate and subvert larger political discourses such as violence and victimhood, creating spaces for politics outside of the ethno-national problematic.

Особенности совладания со стрессом у молодых людей, отдающих предпочтение художественному направлению Young Adult

The paper reviews the concepts of youth subculture and neo-tribes. Young adult literature is regarded as an art movement and analyzed from a psychological perspective. The movement acts as a compensation for life experience unavailable for a modern adolescent in the real world that can lead to escapism as a behavioral strategy at an older age. The paper presents the results of an empirical study on coping strategies and hardiness of young people reading young adult books. The research employed the following methods: the partially standardized questionnaire, the Hardiness Survey by S. Maddi modified by Russian psychologists E.N. Osin and E.I. Rasskazova, and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) by R. Lazarus adapted by T.L. Kryukova, E.V. Kuftyak, and M.S. Zamyshlyaeva. The sample consisted of 124 people aged 20-30; the main and control groups were equalized by gender. The findings obtained were processed with the help of the descriptive statistic methods and Mann-Whitney U-test (SPSS 20.0). The research highlights the characteristics of coping strategies and hardiness of young people leaning towards young adult fiction. The paper reveals that the group under study prefers self-control and escapism and demonstrates the lack of involvement in life events. Besides, this group possesses a lower level of hardiness in comparison with others and is less often able to face the challenges.

Roots of the Czechoslovak skinheads: Development, trends and politics

Abstract This article focuses on the roots and ideological sources of the Czechoslovak skinheads. It describes the development of this subculture from the 1980s until the end of the joint Czechoslovak state. It looks at the history of this subculture together with its development trends in the 1990s. The relationship between the skinheads and politics clearly belongs in this account as it was the source of the distinctions between the various groups in the subculture. The themes that were typical of the skinhead subculture are introduced together with an exploration of how they later transformed in line with the political requirements of this part of the youth subculture. This subsequently led to support for nationalist political parties. The article is of a descriptive and analytical nature, and is an attempt to grasp the key processes taking place among the adolescents who identified with the skinhead subculture. Contemporary magazines are the basis of an analysis of the key themes in skinhead subculture in the early 1990s.

Secondary Multimodal Discourse of the Modern English Mass Culture as a Phenomenon of the Convergence Culture

The article focuses on psycholinguistic features of the secondary multimodal discourse of the modern English mass culture as a linguistic, social and cultural phenomenon and a specific type of communication with a peculiar context. This research paper represents the unique and valid definition of the secondary type discourse, its role, and place as the phenomenon of the convergence culture in the modern English youth subculture.
 Based on the differentiation of such related concepts as «youth subculture» and «interpretative community» the research proves that the latter concept is a structural element of a fan subculture. Both of these two concepts model the environment of the secondary textual spaces arranging. The focus of the paper concerns the creation of interpretative communities based on large-scale transmedia projects. The latter develop narration to transfer the world or the project story to the recipient from various perspectives and in different forms.
 Another concern of the study is that development and expansion project platforms can go far beyond technical means of information creation and transfer. Transmedia project can concentrate on the primary literary source, TV series, a computer game, and different related products thus anyway contributing to the representation of the whole story. Therefore, this psycholinguistic study focuses on a large-scale factual material the Marvel Universe with its elements represented on various platforms. In combination, these elements create a cohesive plot and a compositional space.
 Based on the sociolinguistic experiment results (questionnaires of totally 100 English native speakers), it is claimed that an integrative condition of the Marvel Universe transmedia storytelling is the independence of each separate platform. The main findings of this research cede on the statistical data, the results of online-questionnaires, and show that only 15% of the respondents are acquainted with the part of the Universe represented in comics. 80% of the respondents believe that movies are the starting point for the Universe entering and thus they are perceived as independent works. Only 5% of the respondents expressed their uncertainty about the priority of one or another platform.
 Another finding is that transmedia storytelling and participatory сulture are two key features of convergence culture. The recipients of such large-scale projects lose the status of passive consumers and within the interpretative communities, they become producers of a new media content. Thus, we identify the psycholinguistic mechanism of the modern English mass culture secondary textual spaces arranging through the dominant features of a new cultural paradigm, such as an active development of participatory culture, intertextuality, multimodality, and transmedia storytelling.
 In the social and discoursive space of the youth subculture, the recipients borrow any idea, image, plot or a character from the cult textual space, convert them into diverse media formats, and expand them across all available platforms. Thus, the recipients create the unified and inseparable secondary multimodal textual space.

A philosophical-sociological diagnosis of youth subcultures in the context of social changes

A philosophical-sociological diagnosis of youth subcultures in the context of social changes

Zen na poddaszu. Przyczynek do recepcji buddyzmu w Polsce

Artykul jest probą przedstawienia dziejow recepcji buddyzmu w powojennej Polsce, jako elementu przenikania nad Wisle zjawisk charakterystycznych dla cywilizacji zachodniej (atlantyckiej) w drugiej polowie XX w. Przedstawione zostaly glowne, pozauniwersyteckie ośrodki i grupy, w ktorych podejmowano proby praktyk buddyjskich, oraz osoby, ktore przyczynily sie do popularyzacji roznych odmian buddyzmu, ze szczegolnym uwzglednieniem nurtu zen i roli, jaką w jego rozpowszechnianiu w Polsce odegral amerykanski nauczyciel buddyzmu zen, Philip Kapleau. Przedstawiono rowniez dzialania prowadzone przeciwko polskim buddystom przez policje polityczną oraz droge prowadzącą do rejestracji i tym samym zalegalizowania dzialalności pierwszej wspolnoty buddyjskiej w Polsce, co nastąpilo dopiero w 1981 r. Zen in the attic. A contribution to the reception of Buddhism in Poland The reception of Buddhism, which in Europe began already in the nineteenth century, did not pass over Poland. Initially limited to scientific milieus and small social circles, in time Buddhism became more widely present, especially in artistic communities and youth subculture groups. After the World War Second, despite of being cut off by the Iron Curtain from main cultural changes, Poland was permeated by fashions and phenomena characteristic of the Atlantic civilisation, including the fascination for Oriental religiosity, especially Buddhism. Oriental studies were carried out at universities, while individuals and groups of enthusiasts tried on their own to study Buddha’s writings and teachings. There were among those people Wladyslaw Misiewicz from Radom and Piotr Boninski from Gliwice. Their interest, however, was limited to intellectual reflection and they did not practice Buddhism. One of the first groups to practice Buddhist meditation was the circle of artist Andrzej Urbanowicz, who in 1967, together with his friends established an artistic group called “Oneiron”. Texts and intellectual quest led them towards Zen Buddhism, and Urbanowicz’s atelier became the first place in Poland where meditation was practiced. Meetings were also held at Mąchocice Kapitulne near Kielce. Activities of the still unformal group of Buddhists were kept under surveillance by the secret police. In 1975 Philip Kapleau, an American teacher of Buddhism, answered the group’s invitation, and from that time on, he visited Poland many a time. After Urbanowicz left Poland, in 1978, architect Andrzej Korbel became the leader of the group; in time, the Warsaw circle took the lead, with psychotherapist Wojciech Eichelberger. In the meantime, however, efforts to legalise the group encountered obstacles and it was not until 1981 that the first Zen Buddhist Community in Poland was established. Later on, next groups were organised but, despite the fact that a real breakthrough took place after 1989, already in the 1980s there were four officially registered Buddhist communities, with branches and circles in different towns and cities.