scholarly journals Class, Style and Territory in the Drari Microcultures of Brussels

Societies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Mattias De Backer

Much like Parsons’s notion of “youth culture,” the tradition of subculture developed by the Birmingham School was criticised as being too romantic, too general, and too dependent on a simplistic model based on the inside/outside binary. Since the 1990s, “post-subcultural” studies have developed which prefer to focus on agency rather than structure. A “third school” of youth cultural studies focused on medium sizes groups and their attachment to place, which they called “microcultures”. This paper, drawing from fieldwork undertaken in Brussels between 2013 and 2016 with young people, studies members of the Brussels “street culture” called the drari, while zooming in on the combinations of personalities, the events they share and the locations they make their own. Specifically, this paper argues that the drari microculture does not fit in the binary model of (post-)subcultural theory, nor in the criminological frame of urban youth gangs, by focusing on the affective and class-related phenomena internal to their practices of territory-building.

Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1117-1133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Mason

Sociological studies of youth culture have often focused on processes of social identification. Though some of this work has explored the importance of consumption within young people’s identity practices, much has foregrounded the effects of economic marginality and neglected the importance of ‘race’. This article explores the role of clothing and embodied dispositions, popularly referred to as ‘swagger’, within the ways that young people position themselves in relation to each other. Drawing on field notes and focus group data with a predominantly Somali sample of teenage boys, in a northern English city, this article elucidates the centrality of these seemingly mundane cultural signifiers within everyday processes of ‘racial’ and classed positioning. In doing so, the article seeks to extend contemporary studies of youth culture, consumption and identification by evidencing how marginalized young people simultaneously challenge and reaffirm their positioning, through the performance of stylized masculinity and swagger.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ndwakhulu Tshishonga

This article examines the socio-economic implications that the controversial sub-culture of skhothane has on the development or underdevelopment of youth at Ekurhuleni and surrounding townships. It interrogates skhothane within the post-modern expressive youth culture. In the township(s) of Ekurhuleni, skhothane is regarded not only as a controversial sub-culture but also as a lifestyle whereby young people compete in acquiring material goods with the ultimate purpose of destroying them. This practice co-exists alongside youth unemployment and underdevelopment which is exacerbated by poverty, rising unemployment and gross inequalities. The author argues that the practice of skhothane sub-culture does not only undermine the policies and programmes aimed at the socio-economic upliftment of young people, but turns the youth into materialistic consumers. In this article, young people are viewed as victims of post-modern lifestyles who are socialised under an intergenerational culture of poverty and underdevelopment. It uses primary data from selected interviews with skhothane members and general members of local communities and secondary sources from books, accredited journals and newspapers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 168-187
Author(s):  
Marluce Evangelista Carvalho Zacariotti

O eixo de atenção deste artigo é o conceito de eXtremo, de Massimo Canevacci, autor, cujas ideias inovadoras, e por que não dizer radicais, têm trazido boas contribuições para pesquisas sobre as juventudes, na interface comunicação/cultura/consumo na contemporaneidade. Trata-se também de uma perspectiva em plena discussão. Porque a temática juventude, destacada em inúmeras pesquisas, estudos, em incontáveis artigos, ensaios e livros que cada vez se proliferam mais, dada a sua crescente relevância, vem sendo abordada sob a perspectiva de vários campos do saber, gerando múltiplas possibilidades de percepção e teorização. Assim, estamos concordando com uma linha de pesquisadores, entre eles Canevacci, que caminham pelo terreno do múltiplo, do plural, envolvendo aspectos sócio-culturais-econômicos-geográficos que falam não de um jovem, mas de jovens; não de uma juventude, mas de juventudes. No limite deste trabalho, ficamos por aqui nesta justificativa para nos dedicar especificamente ao conceito de eXtremo e porque ele se mostra elemento-chave nas discussões que estamos proponho em nossas pesquisas em andamento sobre as juventudes, a cultura na pós-modernidade e os desafios à educação.   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Juventudes; pós-modernidade; educação.     ABSTRACT The focus of this article is the concept of extreme, from Massimo Canevacci, author, whose innovative ideas, and why not say radicals, have brought good contributions to research on youth, at the interface communication / culture / consumption in the contemporary world.It is also a perspective in full discussion. Because the thematic youth, highlighted in countless researches, studies, countless articles, essays and books that are increasingly proliferating, given their increasing relevance, has been approached from the perspective of several fields of knowledge, generating multiple possibilities of perception and theorizing. Thus, we are agreeing with a line of researchers, among them Canevacci, who walk through the terrain of multiple, plural, involving socio-cultural-economic-geographical aspects that speak not of a young person but of young people; not of a youth but of youth. At the limit of this work, we remain here in this justification to dedicate ourselves specifically to the concept of eXtreme and because it is a key element in the discussions that we are proposing in our ongoing research about youth, culture in postmodernity and the challenges to education.   KEYWORDS: Youth; postmodernity; education.     RESUMEN El eje de atención de este artículo es el concepto de eXtremo, de Massimo Canevacci autor, cuyas ideas innovadoras, y por qué no decir radicales, han traído buenos aportes para investigaciones sobre las juventudes, en el interfaz comunicación/cultura/consumo en la contemporaneidad. Se trata también de una perspectiva en plena discusión. Porque la temática juventud, destacada en innúmeras pesquisas, estudios, en incontables artículos, ensayos y libros que cada vez se proliferan más, dada su creciente relevancia, viene siendo abordada bajo la perspectiva de varios campos del saber, generando múltiples posibilidades de percepción y teorización. Así, estamos concordando con una línea de investigadores, entre ellos Canevacci, que caminan por el terreno del múltiple, del plural, involucrando aspectos socioculturales-económicos-geográficos que hablan no de un joven, pero de jóvenes; no de una juventud, pero de juventudes. En el límite de este trabajo, quedamos por aquí en esta justificativa para nos dedicar específicamente al concepto de eXtremo y porque él se muestra elemento-clave en las discusiones que estamos proponiendo en nuestras investigaciones en andamiento sobre las juventudes, la cultura en la postmodernidad y los desafíos a la educación.   PALABRAS CLAVE: Juventudes; postmodernidad; educación.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Woodrow ◽  
Karenza Moore

AbstractThe global COVID-19 pandemic has created, exposed and exacerbated inequalities and differences around access to—and experiences and representations of—the physical and virtual spaces of young people’s leisure cultures and practices. Drawing on longstanding themes of continuity and change in youth leisure scholarship, this paper contributes to our understandings of ‘liminal leisure’ as experienced by some young people in the UK before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, we place primary pre-pandemic research on disadvantaged young people’s leisure spaces and practices in dialogue with secondary data on lockdown and post-lockdown leisure. Subsequently, we argue that existing and emergent forms of youth ‘leisure liminality’ are best understood through the lens of intersectional disadvantages. Specifically, pre-existing intersectional disadvantages are being compounded by disruptions to youth leisure, as the upheaval of the pandemic continues to be differentially experienced. To understand this process, we deploy the concept of liminal leisure spaces used by Swaine et al Leisure Studies 37:4,440-451, (2018) in their ethnography of Khat-chewing among young British Somali urban youth ‘on the margins’. Similarly, our focus is on young people’s management and negotiation of substance use ‘risks’, harms and pleasures when in ‘private-in-public’ leisure spaces. We note that the UK government responses to the pandemic, such as national and regional lockdowns, meant that the leisure liminality of disadvantaged young people pre-pandemic became the experience of young people more generally, with for example the closure of night-time economies (NTEs). Yet despite some temporary convergence, intersectionally disadvantaged young people ‘at leisure’ have been subject to a particularly problematic confluence of criminalisation, exclusion and stigmatisation in COVID-19 times, which will most likely continue into the post-pandemic future.


Comunicar ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Luiza Oswald

This paper intends to show, based on the contributions of Latin American Cultural Studies, that the difficulty children and young people have with the organization of written texts, such as that found in books, is determined by the impact that the technology of images exercises over the ways in which they learn to read the world. An analysis of the first interviews with young people, conducted as part of an institutional project in progress, point to the role played by the language of television cartoons in their development as readers. El presente trabajo trae el análisis de las primeras entrevistas realizadas en el ámbito de una investigación institucional en curso interesada en investigar los sentidos/lecturas que niños y jóvenes realizan acerca de los productos de la cultura pop japonesa –mangás (historias en cuadritos), animes (dibujos animados) e videojuegos– basada en la orientación de los Estudios Culturales latinoamericanos (Jesús Martín-Barbero, Néstor García Canclini, Guillermo Orozco Gomes, entre otros autores). Ellos proponen que la recepción de los productos mediáticos sea analizada a partir de un desplazamiento teórico-metodológico que, reorientando el foco de los medios/mensaje para las mediaciones, permite identificar los receptores no como «dóciles audiencias», sino como productores activos de sentidos. Se pretende, con eso, intentar contribuir para la superación de la tensión entre la escuela y las culturas infantil y juvenil, tensión que tiene como uno de sus pilares el conflicto entre la cultura letrada y la cultura de la imagen. El estudio, que supone la opción por un abordaje cualitativo de carácter etnográfico, viene siendo realizado a través de entrevistas semi-estructuradas individuales con consumidores del trípode de la poderosa industria de entretenimiento nipónica, que se viene constituyendo como fenómeno mundial de comunicación de masa. Los discursos de los primeros entrevistados –cuatro jóvenes fanáticos de animes y mangas, cuya edad oscila entre 17 y 22 años– destacaron la influencia que el lenguaje de la TV ejerce sobre el extrañamiento que mantiene con el texto impreso tal como él se organiza en el libro. No obstante, la presencia en lo cotidiano de esos sujetos de un cúmulo de estímulos sonoros y visuales, no es raro depararnos con la existencia de una crisis de lectura que afecta niños y jóvenes, influenciando su desempeño en la escuela. Delante de los relatos, el grupo de investigación se formula algunas cuestiones: ¿la alusión a la crisis no sería, en el fondo, una incapacidad de las generaciones que fueron educadas y escolarizadas en los moldes de la cultura letrada?; entender que «el pretencioso gesto universal del libro» (W. Benjamin) ya no resuena entre las nuevas generaciones que ya nacieron bajo el impacto que la tecnología del sonido y de la imagen ejercen sobre la escritura? No sería, entonces, posible suponer que, si hay una crisis de la lectura, ¿es por las generaciones pasadas que está sendo vivenciada? Frente a esto, ¿no sería más adecuado, en vez de quedarnos repitiendo que existe una crisis de lectura que afecta la escolarización de niños y jóvenes y de permanecer buscando soluciones milagrosas para ese conflicto, asumir que estamos delante no de una crisis, sino de un contexto histórico del cual precisamos aproximarnos para no perder el tren de la historia? Esas fueron algunas de las preguntas que el examen de las cuatro primeras entrevistas con los jóvenes permitió sacar a luz de los fundamentos de los Estudios Culturales latinoamericanos, y es sobre ellas que ese texto se vuelca, no con la intención de responderlas, sino con el objetivo de constituirlas como un mapa que puede revelarnos caminos «para pasar de las respuestas que fracasaron a las preguntas que renuevan las ciencias sociales y las políticas libertadoras» (Néstor Canclini).


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-171
Author(s):  
Irina Vladimirovna Samarkina ◽  
Igor Stanislavovich Bashmakov

This article is devoted to the study of urban youth local identity in a large and medium city. This identity is manifested in everyday interaction with the urban community, its socio-political institutions and visitors and affect the level of public and political participation, the presence of constructive civic practices. The aim is to identify and describe the main components and place of local youth identity in the system of social identities in large and medium-sized cities of Krasnodar krai (Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, Sochi and Armavir). The empirical basis of the study was made up of focus group transcripts conducted with various groups of young people (schoolchildren, students, and working youth). To verify the conceptual model a modified version of the Kuhn-McPartland method was used. On the basis of the conducted empirical research, the place of local identity in the system of urban youth social and territorial identities was revealed. The dependence between the size of a city and a cohort of young people and a local identity was shown. Such components of young people local identity as awareness of the city and its socio-political life, attitude towards representatives of other communities, a sense of their involvement in city life, the desire to stay and live in the city, the will to work for the benefit of the city, to participate in its socio-political life. The study made it possible to identify the valence of youth identity (negative, neutral, positive). The trajectories of young people spatial mobility that affect the degree of actualization and valence of local identity were also described. The dependence between the strength of youth local identity and participation in public and political activity for the benefit of the city and the region, participation in the activities of public and political organizations has been revealed.


Author(s):  
Jack Reid

This chapter explores how hitchhiking—with its promise of free, untethered, and spontaneous mobility—allowed youths of the late sixties and early seventies the ability to maintain a largely nomadic existence while living out the values of the hippie (or freak, as many self-identified) lifestyle. Within the national culture soliciting rides became closely connected to an increasingly politicized counterculture—one that sought to upend the Protestant work ethic and conventional sexual and gender norms. Notably, this radicalized youth culture and its dismissal of traditional values generated resentment among many, creating a deep cultural divide between young people and older, so-called straight Americans. Because of its association with the freak movement, the act of hitchhiking became a key point of confrontation. An increasingly mature regulatory state began cracking down on the practice, in part to reign in the counterculture and women’s liberation movement, but also to promote safer and more uniform traffic behavior. Still, these efforts did little to slow the growing popularity of the practice in the early 1970s.


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