The trouble with class: researching youth, class and culture beyond the 'Birmingham School'

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Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)245-259
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Youth Studies
Volume14
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011

Keywords

  • social class
  • consumption
  • youth culture
  • gender
  • transition

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