Youth Cultures Subcultures

Youth as a social phenomenon arose largely as a cultural derivative of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States and is now global. In the twentieth century particularly, youth became an object of sociological, cultural, and psychological analyses. The concept 'subculture' has been used with various degrees of success to analyze youths? individual and collective behaviors. In this course students will survey some of the many strands of subcultural theory about youth during the 20th and 21st centuries. The course will begin with early sociological work from the University of Chicago, followed by an overview of the British cultural studies approach. Students will then move on to examples of contemporary subculture theory and research. A number of historical and contemporary subcultures will be discussed during the course.