subcultures

     

In sociology, anthropology an 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. If a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture. As Ken Gelder notes, subcultures are social, with their own shared conventions, values and rituals, but they can also seem 'immersed' or self-absorbed - another feature that distinguishes them from countercultures. He identifies six key ways in which subcultures can be understood: 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.

Found pages about subcultures