Youth Culture

Young people belong to many strands, of cultural groupings; they align themselves with others in fragmented ways, and construct their own identity narrative. I do not see the punks on one side and the hip hoppers on the other, what I see daily are mergers, a fragmentation has occurred on many levels creating distinctions and nuanced accounts of the self in relation to ‘other’ and groups. In the centre, young people who could be at first impression (through articulations of their chosen clothing and attire) could be labelled as ‘sporty’ or ‘metallers’ or ‘shufflers’, ‘gamers’, ‘goth’ etc etc. Though empirically they are neither one nor the same. Hybridized Youth, they take with them what it is about various medias and subcultures, those that they find appealing, and align with themselves, for fashion reasons, sensibilities or political motivations, they find articulation of a sense of self through borrowing, aligning as bricolage - or a bio-chemical process considered as a elective affinity groups.

Recently while looking into Youth Cultures a journal article from Hodkinson (2005) became handy in thinking over ethnography in relation to Youth Cultural research. Hodkinson (p137) quotes Muggleton about authenticity, in research and Youth Culture in general. Those who merely ‘adopt’ an unconventional appearance without possessing the necessary ‘inner’ qualities are regarded . . . as ‘plastic’, ‘not real’ . . . a subcultural ‘Other’ against which the interviewees authenticate themselves. (Muggleton 2000, p. 90)
Hodkinson confirms the importance and relief expressed by some of the young Goth interviewee’s in his study. He states that it was important that members of the Goth subculture felt comfortable in talking with him, and that his insider status enabled a smooth transition of conversation and allowed him to channel appropriate topics of conversation, his own authentic history of involvement within the subculture allowed for exchanges of Goth gossip, antidotes and a two way exchange rather than a direct question and answer style of interviewing

Not too long ago the centre took on a student Youth Worker on their work placement, a requirement set by the college. On this students first shift a group of young men who frequent the centre were observing and making criticisms amongst themselves, how this student placement worker, dressed, their style, fashion, manner, and way the worker was interacting with the young people. Noticing this I approach the boys and asked how they were, what they were up to today and the like. It took less than a minute until one of the boys, (the leader if you will) asked me directly who the new guy was, why he was there and if he had started to work with us, implying a permanence to the position. My answers were brief as I explained he was on his placement and that they should say hello and make him feel welcome. In response the leader of the group referred to the new guy as ‘lame’, ‘dickey’ and ‘in need of some serious advice on his chosen look.’ Alliances were re-forged as the group continued to pick at the ‘try hard’ for his lack of authenticity and differences in direct comparison to myself (who has an established and long lasting rapport with the group). The attack lasted only for a few short sentences in which fun was made at the expense of the ‘new guy’. Another comment from one of the young people brought attention to the choice of style and clothing of the student/worker. ‘Who dresses like that nowadays’, ‘what, does he think we are in America, try hard’.
This interaction is quite insightful into the inner workings of the group. The process of value making or judgement is in direct comparison to themselves and the choices one has in producing their identity in terms of fashions and styles, and how displaying those choices such as through the way they dress. Shirts or shoes become signal of identity and as an essential clue about the essence of the person. Somewhat never truly as one coherent thing but an alignment of symbols and signs of culture, attributed to the politics of the person.
Other things can be said about this scenario such as the age-old trope ‘us and ‘them’ as ‘other’, the group is what it is not or the shock of the new, challenges the normative social climate. Things brought in, how are they valued and placed in the group, how is integration worked on? What becomes an obstacle for the group and what must they align themselves with in order to thoroughly integrate or risk feeling ill at ease with and resist each other. How does one find legitimization within a group? What is a subculture?