TY - JOUR
T1 - The trouble with class: researching youth, class and culture beyond the 'Birmingham School'
AU - Griffin, Christine E
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - This paper revisits the work on youth cultures and subcultures that emerged from Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (hereafter CCCS) during the 1970s. I engage with a number of recent critiques of the 'youth sub/cultures project', including Thornton's influential work on rave and club cultures and its troubled engagement with class. I argue that the focus of the youth sub/cultures project on mediated cultural practices through which young people constitute themselves and their (gendered, classed and racialised) positions remains of value, especially the emphasis on a 'symptomatic reading' that locates these processes in a 'conjunctural analysis'. I end by exploring the legacy of this project for understanding youth, class and culture in contemporary late modern society.
AB - This paper revisits the work on youth cultures and subcultures that emerged from Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (hereafter CCCS) during the 1970s. I engage with a number of recent critiques of the 'youth sub/cultures project', including Thornton's influential work on rave and club cultures and its troubled engagement with class. I argue that the focus of the youth sub/cultures project on mediated cultural practices through which young people constitute themselves and their (gendered, classed and racialised) positions remains of value, especially the emphasis on a 'symptomatic reading' that locates these processes in a 'conjunctural analysis'. I end by exploring the legacy of this project for understanding youth, class and culture in contemporary late modern society.
KW - social class
KW - consumption
KW - youth culture
KW - gender
KW - transition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79952956494&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2010.533757
U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2010.533757
DO - 10.1080/13676261.2010.533757
M3 - Article
VL - 14
SP - 245
EP - 259
JO - Journal of Youth Studies
JF - Journal of Youth Studies
SN - 1367-6261
IS - 3
ER -