Subcultures and Deviance

Abstract

In this chapter, I outline a genealogy of the concept of subculture. My interest is in the degree of assumed connections between subculture and deviance, as well as with other related social scientific concepts such as marginalization, resistance and lifestyle. What I argue in short is that there has been a diverse set of uses for the term subculture that do not necessarily fit well with one another. Early work by Chicago School sociologists predates the term’s entry into sociology’s standard vocabulary but was nevertheless crucial in developing a cultural understanding of group meanings. Later, Birmingham School cultural studies cemented a Marxist, structuralist view of subcultures that has had perhaps the most influence on scholars researching subcultural studies. At the millennium, a concerted effort was made among some cultural scholars to move on to the study of the so-called post-subcultures. This effort had mixed success, with subculture remaining an oft-used term and with some scholars explicitly maintaining the validity of the subculture concept (see, e.g., Muggleton and Weinzierl, 2003).