Course:WMST307:Student Pages: Amy Spence

Subculture

Popular Culture: A User’s Guide defines ‘subculture’ as “typically conceived of as groups of individuals who come together around shared practices and ideas that are rejected or treated with suspicion by official, mainstream culture. By creatively expressing their dissatisfaction with existing social norms and practices, subcultures challenge and modify what counts as normal, everyday life” (O’Brien, Szeman 368).

This is a standard textbook definition of ‘subculture.’ Unfortunately, it is somewhat simplistic and does not convey the dynamic nature of subcultures, or the degree to which members of different subcultures actively ‘challenge’ cultural norms and resist assimilation. Ideally, a subculture would be defined by a) frequent interaction between its members, b) a common world-view, and c) an unwillingness or inability to assimilate into the larger culture (Dowd, Dowd 28). However, one must recognize that different groups have different reasons for attempting to maintain a separate culture, and not all may have the same capability or desire to do so (23). Therefore, it is necessary to understand and classify subcultures along a continuum ranging from ‘Most Likely to be Assimilated’ to ‘Less Likely to be Assimilated’ to ‘Least Likely to be Assimilated’(28).

This first category includes youth subcultures or subcultures that are formed by people who have been physically isolated from mainstream society for a period of time, and therefore are only temporary and easily assimilated (28). The second category includes ethnic minorities or immigrants; groups which are culturally distinct and will attempt to maintain boundaries between themselves and the mainstream while still adopting some aspects of the dominant culture (29). The last category, those that are least likely to assimilate, is composed of religious or political organizations, or people who voluntarily participate in a certain lifestyle that deviates from the norm (29). These kinds of subcultures may also be categorized as countercultures, for not only do these groups deviate from the norm, voluntary participation also means that they actively challenge the mainstream in their attempts to resist assimilation (29). All of this, of course, is dependent upon what one defines as ‘mainstream culture,’ for the narrower our understanding of that, the more subcultures one could identify.

Sources: Dowd, James. J; Dowd, Laura A. “The Centre Holds: From Subcultures to Social Worlds.” Teaching Sociology 31.1 (2003): 20-37. Web. 21 Nov. 2012.

O’Brien, Susie; Szeman, Imre. Popular Culture: A User’s Guide. Toronto: Nelson Education Ltd. (2010) p. 368. Print.