Youth Cultures as Cultures of Resistance - Literature review Example

YOUTH CULTURES AS CULTURES OF RESISTANCE By Location Youth Cultures as Cultures of Resistance Introduction Insome quarters, youth culture or subculture tends to be a form of resistance in which the youth tend to form their own way of doing things that may go against the norms that exist in a society (Ciastellardi & Patti 2011, p. 172). Ideally, youth culture tends to offer those that follow them, especially the youth a form of hostility in which they usually subscribe to their own lifestyle that the society may view this as a counter culture (Falk G & Falk U 2005, p. 39). In many cases, these subcultures take the form of youthful music genres that require the use of extreme presentations as a way of making expressions to the society. One of the renowned youth cultures is the chav culture, which began in Britain as depicted by the British media.Essentially, ethnicity, gender, class, intelligence among a list of many other factors tend to the principle contributors that influence the development of subcultures that help the youth in expressing themselves as a way of responding to dominant systems in a society as suggested by France (2007, p. 43). In most cases, participants of chav subcultures tend to differentiate themselves from others in society through the fashion that they too chose to adorn, and their aggressive nature. With this background information, this essay will give a critical review of articles that assert that youth cultures tend to be cultures of resistance using the chav culture as a reference point through the relevant areas that attract this phenomenon that summarise the key issues surrounding this debate. Contextual overview of the report that highlights this phenomenon Principally, the capitalist view was one of the greatest contributors to the emergence of the chav culture resulted to resistances because the media had stereotyped the youth were as violent and non sociable people that the state had to contain by all means including the use of force (Young & Atkinson 2008, p. 268). The other ways in which neo-liberalist thought as an applicable way of handling the perceived uncontrollable youth was through the use of oppressive rules and intimidating ways to make them cower from their so-called rebellious nature (Katjavivi 2010, p. 56). The implication of this was that the youth were somehow to blame for the social problems that the society was facing at that time in which the youth as though it were an unfair representation of themselves and opted to take action.The fact that the youth repressors were not aware of was that these young people had a civic-minded mentality in which they were also able to help in create solutions to the societal problems that they faced (Carr & Porfilio 2010, p. 2). Therefore, they were not only involved in influencing inequalities in society and in their schools, but they were also able to be instrumental in making their social environments better as part of their communal responsibility. Some of these movements became positive while others generated into negative groupings that did not support the ideals that the society stood for and that they youth had to abide by. A relevant review of the literature that summarises the key areas of the debate The youth resistance as caused by their engagement in chav subculture has been the focus of many researchers as they have sought to establish a correlation between these two different aspects that exist in the society. The implication is that youth cultures as a form resistance can be viewed from different angles depending on the area of research that a researcher may choose to focus on. The chav culture is viewed as a demonization of the British working class associated with certain dress codes. Essentially, PatrickWilliams, J is one such researcher who focuses on the significance of the string theory developed by the Chicago School and the post sub cultural studies in youth cultures (Briggs 2013, p. 190). Further, this researcher highlights the analytical concepts that have included resistance, identity, and the societal reactions on youth subcultures that include riot grrrl skateboarding and punkgot among a list of other subcultures (Bibby & Goodlad 2007, p. 60). Another research article by an author with the same name Williams Patrick from Nanyang Technical University focuses on the concepts of resistance that have resulted from subculture. This author also seeks to illustrate the situations that may influence the young to resort to resistance that include the exercising of power and intimidation intimating that this could be a possible reason as to why the youth may rebel. However, Williams takes a diversionary approach by focussing on those that are in control contrary to most researchers that only focussed on those that these subcultures had afflicted. Another research paper by Porfilio and Carr (2010)gives another dimension to the youth resistance resulting from youth cultures by intimating that the rise of these subcultures was a way of empowering ethnic and racial communities against oppression. This article also illustrates the other reasons that can influence the rise of subcultures that include environmental degradation, poverty, and over-policed and racialized communities. Carr and Porfilio intimate that these youths may use pictures, technology tools, or music to make their concerns known to the public as a way of pushing their agendas (Rubin & Casper 2013, 591).As highlighted by the previous researchers, technology and the media can be key propellants to influencing the youth to rebel in which Wilson (2006, p. 1) Seeks to establish the relationship between these two variables. This means that the research by Wilson ascertains that the existence of an online culture can be instrumental in influencing offline subcultures that can in turn result to youth resistance. Therefore, this research intimates that the virtual provides a great avenue in which the youth can react against the real world because of the anonymity that exists here. Wilson (2006, p. 308) suggest that the youth uses this as a culture of resistance because it does not have the harshness that it is present in the real world. A critical discussion and analysis of the research evidence and link to an appropriate policy or theoretical perspective Williams (2007, p. 572)begins by explaining the history of youth subcultures, which was relatively in the USA and Britain within cultural sociology. Essentially, the establishment of youth cultures was an applied approach to education as participants had interests in commodifying all aspects of the social life. Ideally, most youths felt that they were under the pressure of survival for the fittest mentality in which the North American government did not view them as social investments that could contribute in making the world a better place. In Williams (2007, p. 574), the author suggests that subcultures formed a distinctive component in a society that was typical among the marginalized and the poor. Chav culture is not an avenue for advocating for the rights in which the political and the richer classes as applied by other subcultures in making their stands known (Jones 2012, p. 73).Research has proven that the chav sub cultural grouping did not take the form of ethnic cocoons, youth, and cultural groups that sought to defy norms set by society that appeared repressive to them like other resistance movements. This made way for the Chicago School model that inclined towards the straining of individuals to achieve the social goals to their psychological well being. The implication of this was that this model suggested that certain the occurrence defiant behaviours resulted from the existence of dominant social systems that were not favourable to all society members. The dominant social systems stretched to labour alienation in which the national state was not able to intervene effectively so as to make the situation better. Therefore, this influenced the youth and the unemployed to resort to the establishment of youth subcultures whose intention was to combat the social inequalities that they were facing as a result of capitalism, policies, and neo-liberalism in institutions (Nybell, Shook & Finn 2009, p. 402). These authors also seem to suggest that these forms of resistance have been feminist inclined in which the shapeless tend to have a fit for their sizes in order to be part of the existing style. The implication of this is that chav culture tends to incline towards the making of fashion statements rather than going with flow. Therefore, some of these youth cultures gave rise to movements that sought to address system barriers and unjust treatment that had been dominant in dressing. Williams (2007, p. 575) seems to be in agreement with the youth culture movement that sought to unify the inequality standards that the youth and the working class had faced for a long time, which was no longer an act of defiance, but one of resistance to unequal treatment. Ideally, this seems to intimate that the resistance that the youth cultures sought to address had resulted from the clustering of individuals within social classes that made a certain class more deserving than another. The result of this according to Willis was the establishment of subcultures after the Second World War, especially in Britain in which their framing drew influence from the resistance to social and cultural power. The only difference between the youth culture addressed by Williams and that addressed by portfolio was that the former intimated that this form of resistance was applicable to education, social inequalities while the latter was based on the injustices in social classes (Asthana & Halliday 2006, p. 235). On the other hand, the Marxist-related theory suggests a relationship between the sidelined youth and a controlling group, which is one of the chief reasons as to why there was the emergence of youth resistance. This gave rise to the expressions that strongly suggested resistance through symbolic and shocking hairstyles and music that did not help in any way to change the perceived repressive circumstances (Wilson 2009, p. 312). In this article, Wilson also suggests that the media and other technology tools have been instrumental in influencing the interactions that the youths have had with other society members. This is because these media tools tend to highlight that certain groups might be enjoying power privileges as compared to another, which is likely to influence resistance behaviour or the emergence of a deviant youth culture. Steinberg, Parmar & Richard (2006, p. 518) suggests that as compared to the social resistances influenced by the emergence of youth subcultures, the one caused by the internet and other media tools tends to be on a global scale in which curbing it tends to be challenging because of the rapid global cultural transmission. According to Williams (2009, p. 22), rebellion or resistance behaviour may go to extremes that may include smashing windows, burning automobile, and obnoxious dressing in which the mainstream individuals tend to feel uncomfortable with (Guan 2010, p. 190). However, all these four authors seem to agree that there is a correlation between the environment that the youths live in that may influence them to develop resistances and the actors that orchestrate the acts of resistance. On the other hand, the youth felt sidelined because only the corporate leaders were viewed as the principal contributors to the enhancement of globalization while the youth were instruments of violence (E. I. F 2008, p. 872). Essentially, the youths had no entitlement to social benefits that included access to quality health care, good education, access to social amenities, and proper housing conditions, which became a crisis for the youths. The challenges that researchers have battled with include ascertaining whether acts of resistance by youths are intentional or whether they should be part of a significant global movement for fighting injustices. With this (2009, p. 23) illustrates that there are classes of resistances that are passive to active, micro-macro and overt to covert (Blamires 2006, p. 604). The first form of resistance only involves the acts of rebellion by the youth and not on the consequences of such actions while the second form in which participants enquire on the direction that the resistance is to take that inclines towards heroism as intimated by Khouri & Varga (2006, p. 248). In the last form of resistance, the participants and those in which the rebellion aims at recognise that it is visible and may include social movements that may be intentional and might go unnoticed. Conclusion As per these literatures that focus on youth subcultures, the obvious implication is that resistance from these forms tend to be multidimensional in which analysing them may spread across different areas and may result from different aspects. The most dominate aspects here is that resistance tends to a youthful or social class trait in which participants may opt to use different ways to express their grievances ranging from shocking dressing to hairstyles that defy normalcy. However, the chav youth cultures began as instruments of advocating for inequalities for class inequalities, but they later changed into rebellious movements moving from the original concept. In many cases, the youth opt for resistance forms that promote anonymity hence use youth cultures to hide their true selves that aims towards achieving certain social goals. The inclination here is that those that may purchase punk music may buy it passively, but this music may influence them to act out in a manner that does not agree with the ideals of society, which may influence an active resistance. In the end, the emergence of youth cultures seems to have a direct correlation with cultures of resistance because their main objective seems to be defying the norms of society as illustrated by the above literature. Bibliography Asthana, S & Halliday, J 2006, What works in tackling health inequalities? pathways, policies, and practice through the lifecourse, Bristol, UK, Policy Press. Atkinson, M & Young, K 2008, Tribal play: subcultural journeys through sport, Bingley, UK, JAI Press. Bibby, M & Goodlad, LME 2007, Goth: undead subculture, Durham, Duke University Press. Blamires, C 2006, World fascism: a historical encyclopedia 1 1, Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.], ABC-CLIO. Briggs, S 2013, Criminology for dummies, Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons. Ciastellardi, M & Patti, E 2011, International Journal of McLuhan Studies understanding Media, Today. McLuhan in the Era of Convergence Culture, Barcelona, Editorial UOC. 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