social substructures in the context of contemporary culture

Social Substructures in the Context of

Contemporary Culture

Tatiana Margarint

ANNALS of the University of Bucharest

Philosophy Series

Vol. LXIX, no. 2, 2020

pp. 37 – 50.

SOCIAL SUBSTRUCTURES IN THE CONTEXT

OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE

TATIANA MARGARINT1

Abstract

As research fields, philosophy and anthropology operate with the notions of culture,

subculture, and counterculture, quite differently, even ambiguously, defined by some

authors. This article analyzes trending approaches regarding subculture, subculture

typologies, the functions of the subculture, elements of the subculture. The main question

addressed by the current research is about the necessary conditions for the emergence of a

subculture are. The studies consulted by now show that a prerequisite for the emergence of

a subculture would be a community looking for a particular solution to common problems.

Another necessary condition would be that each social group, reflecting characteristics

shared by its members, such as sex, age, race, ethnicity, occupation, embraces a specific

behavior and set of values. Our conclusion throughout this research will be that the

sufficient condition for the subculture`s existence is the acceptance of norms and shared

values of a group by all its constitutive members.

Keywords: subculture, types of subcultures, functions of subcultures, youth subculture,

online subculture.

Introduction

Many researchers define the subculture by referring to particular norms

and values that radically differ from those of other groups. According to

M. Brake (1985), the subculture is a set of norms and a system of values,

different from the generally accepted ones, which contribute to the

support and development of a collective lifestyle that contradicts the

1 Moldova State University. Email: <[email protected]>.

TATIANA MARGARINT 38

traditional style accepted in one given society. N. J. Smelzer considers that

subculture is any system of norms and values that puts a group in the

spotlight within a community (1990, 12). In turn, C. Schifirneț states that

‚subcultures manifest themselves as specific forms of cultural expression

within the global culture of a society. This culture has several levels: that

of tradition, values, understanding and its effects on the existing symbols

in society‛ (1985, 127).

Contemporary subcultures have both common and different

aspects. For many of them, differences are not reasons to confront

themselves directly to have a privileged position in society.

The subculture manifests a different lifestyle from the generally

accepted one; a specific language for expressing feelings and thoughts;

values, abilities, aspirations, interests distinct from those of other

members of society. The understanding of subcultures can be tracked

through the semiotic, anthropological research of the symbolism of

clothing, music, slang, and the subculture's relationship with the primary

culture. According to different authors, a high cohesion within the group

through interdependence, loyalty, and solidarity between its members

characterize subcultures. Important aspects of social cohesion are close

social relations, similarly shared values, the existence of a common way of

interpretation, the experience of a common identity, a sense of group, and

trust between group members (127). Very often, subcultures make an

effort to preserve their originality, defend values and survive in an

environment where the culture of the majority of the population prevails.

General considerations on the concept of subculture

We owe the understanding of subcultures to the following three

theoretical traditions:

1. The Chicago School tradition, which emphasizes deviant urban

subcultures.

The first ethnographers of the Chicago School, such as N. Anderson

(1923), P. Cressey (1932), R. Park (1925), F.M. Thrasher (1927), H.W.

Zorbaugh (1929), reviewed the social worlds of marginalized, deviant,

and criminal groups, which are later known as subcultures. Research

SOCIAL SUBSTRUCTURES IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE 39

conducted in this tradition has focused on how social and environmental

pressures have led to deviance, disorder. For instance, F. M. Thrasher, in

his famous work, Banda, starts from the geographical spread of crime. He

demonstrates that between the city center, where offices and shops are set

up, and the ‚peripheral‛ area, where residential neighborhoods are

located, there is a free perimeter where immigrants and the blacks live.

Their adaptation to environmental conditions is deficient so that high

crime rates characterize the area. This region, presenting ecological

isolation, is defined by the fact that the gang members relate to it as to

their private property. Consequently, any incursion in the given perimeter

would be considered an involvement or aggression, from which

numerous conflicts between rival gangs emerged along time. Later, but in

the same spirit, Albert Cohen (1955) concluded that subcultures reflected

a collective form of problem-solving for deviant and marginalized people

who could not adapt socially. A. Cohen, H. Becker (1963), and others see

subcultures as autonomous alternatives to mass culture that have unique

social forms, patterns of life, and a status system different from that

accepted in society. In these contexts, any research carried is

fundamentally based on empirical data collected during the observation

of human interactions and social life. So, to understand why some groups

of young people are involved in illegal activities, members of the Chicago

School tried to analyze their social environment through the lenses of

their perspectives or their lack of involvement. For example, in the case of

a criminal group of ‚delinquent boys‛, A. Cohen pointed out that their

behavior was a reflection of structural problems, such as the organization

of training, employment, and not a consequence of an ‚anomaly‛

reflected by a deviant nature.

According to the representatives of the Chicago School, the

predisposition to commit illegal actions by young people in certain

subcultures appeared in response to the challenges of urban life, as

mentioned by A. Cohen in the work Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the

Gang. Any ecological system, such as a city, must exist in a state of

equilibrium. However, in times of rapid social change, economic struggle,

political unrest, the system can turn into a destructive structure and

generate subcultures with a criminal orientation, especially in transition

areas with social disorganization.


A. Cohen distinguishes three levels of subculture analysis:

the historical level that aims to highlight the social conditions in

which subcultures develop;

the semiotic level that is targeted in the analysis of all cultural

artifacts (lyrics, clothing, slang, etc.);

the ethnographic level that highlights the social practices related

to the existence of these groups.

Between 2004-2010 the point of view of the Chicago School was

evaluated by various authors such as J. Williams, A. Bennete, K. Kahn-

Harris, R. Haenfler. As the emphasis placed by different theorists on

deviant behavior is criticized, the view that subcultures destabilize society

is progressively disapproved. Not all subcultures can be considered

deviant; there are youth subcultures that do not have a destructive effect

on the development of society. For example, the parkour subculture is

based on the philosophy of achieving harmony between body and spirit;

hipsters show interest in film, music, social events and fashion trends, etc.

2. The Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS)

with a focus on class, conflict, style, and resistance

The studies of British researchers in socio-pedagogy at the

University of Birmingham (CCCS) played an essential role in the

development of the class struggle approach. They set out to find the link

between the emergence of subcultures and the education system.

In his attempt to study the subcultures of London, tracked by the

symptom of deviant behavior, David Downes mentioned that the causes

of this behavior could be conditioned by the middle-class education

system and did not take into account the interests and abilities of the

working class. Paul Willis confirmed his colleague’s hypothesis while

conducting an in-depth study of the way of life of a group of young boys,

classmates in an English high school. The researcher identified that young

people from the working class were preparing for a standard, simple life,

accepting entirely from the beginning their inferior status in society.

Because of this, classes and any other content related to their formal

education were of no value to them. Young people isolated themselves,

created their own world with their own values and different behavior,

manifested by the absence of classes, lousy jokes, hostility towards those

who learned well. The researchers believe that young people in the


working class were not aware of the need for education and thus engaged

no efforts towards integrating along the training process, so they felt

terrible, which led to a decrease in self-esteem and, consequently, to

hostility. Young people from the working class began to look for specific

communities to obtain status and respect, these communities being the

street subcultures. Therefore, subcultures were the response of young

individuals belonging to the working class to the structural changes in

society (the post-war period of Great Britain was taken into account).

3. “Post-subcultural” answers to the question of whether the notion of

subculture should be reformulated or abandoned

Researchers interrogate if the concept of subculture has any

empirical utility or should be replaced with less restrictive terms, such as

neo-tribes, scenes, groups with the same lifestyle or taste culture. ‚Post-

subcultural‛ theorists have developed an approach based on the premise

that structural understanding of the subculture has become largely

irrelevant to the youths of our contemporary societies (2004, 11). For the

first time, S. Redhed observed the erasure of differences between

subcultures while studying a musical genre known as the rave subculture.

He showed that rave became famous due to the mixture of all types of

musical styles on the same dance floor, in one place, thus attracting a vast

number of opposing subcultures. In this way, the club’s subculture erased

differences such as class, race, and sex in people who preferred a specific

type of leisure.

According to post-subculture researchers, young people can easily

engage in ‚style surfing‛ today, such as moving quickly and freely from

one style to another as they wish. This degree of mobility is a source of

play and pleasure. They do not have to worry about their subcultural

identities because there are no rules, no authenticity, no ideological

commitment, just a stylistic game to play. Subcultural identities are

multiple and fluid (Muggleton 2002, 47-48). D. Muggleton has advanced

such perspective in Inside Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style and

extensively developed in other subsequent studies. Researchers begin to

use the notions of ‚lifestyle‛ – S. Miles, ‚neo-tribes‛ – A. Bennett or

‚scene‛ – W. Straw, which reflect the ongoing changes in young people’s

leisure, music, and/or lifestyle preferences and lead to an increased

number of subcultures (Muggleton 2002, 13-14).


How do the typologies and functions of subculture influence the

analysis of such phenomenon?

Subcultures can be included in different typologies. Depending on the

social criterion, we distinguish elite culture, i.e., the subculture of

representatives of privileged groups in society. The following features are

characteristic: communication only with people belonging to the group,

high quality of life, appreciation of self-sufficiency, opposition to other

subcultures—for example, the subculture of bikers worldwide, the new

Russians in Russia, etc. Even the phenomenon of poverty has developed,

in its way, a subculture: this includes groups of people with a low

professional qualification, people poorly paid for their work, those with a

low quality of life, who owe their status to the lack of education, that

potentially leads to a high crime rate among them—for example, gopniki

in the former Soviet countries, chav in Great Britain, etc. Coined not long

ago, the concept of organizational subculture has influenced the way of

thinking and action of researchers, professionals in the field of social

sciences and humanities, but also managers.

The interest comes from the need for a better knowledge of

organizational activity to prosper, face new challenges, and improve its

results. An important role is played in this context by the human resource

that determines the corporate culture. The organizational subculture can be

divided into:

the institutional subculture present in medium and large

companies, in which there are differences between the main

sections, directions;

the professional subculture of employees with the same or related

professions.

The essential elements of these two subcultures are the institution’s

vision, mission, values, strategies, policies, quality of services, partnerships,

behaviors, norms, traditions, philosophy, language, symbols, interpersonal

relationships. The conceptual framework of these subcultures is natural to

have ramifications in all socio-human sciences – philosophy, anthropology,

sociology, social psychology, ethics, economics. Today, more and more

specialists in these fields create mixed teams to analyze organizations


concerning the quality of life, their values, the existing vertical and

horizontal relationships, taboos, and organizational rituals.

The following elements make the description of organizational

subcultures: sets of values, norms set within particular languages for

specific purposes, beliefs, employee conceptions, habits, attitudes

generated by taboos, identifications with heroes or projections of ideal

organizations, ceremonies, symbols, myths with integrative function,

opinions arising from code manipulation, individual experiences, social

standards, and common practices. The organization members influence

the subculture, and the subculture makes a significant impact on the

behavior and attitudes of its members.

Another type of subculture is the youth subculture. The American

anthropologist R. Bell was one of the first to talk about the existence of a

subculture of youth, born due to the diminution of the socializing

function of institutions such as family and school; to the authoritarian

relationships specific to primary socialization factors; to the dynamics of

ways in which young people are introduced to adulthood. Approaching

this topic, C. Schifirneț concludes that all young people have an uncertain

status and are exposed to the discontinuous action of different

socialization factors (1985, 117).

The subculture of youth is formed in contemporary societies, being

mainly favored by urban environments. Distinct borders, separation from

older generations, specific values, slang, way of behaving, common

leisure activities are its landmarks. American sociologist David Matza

claims that youthfulness is the period of rebellion that manifests itself

through delinquency, radicalism, and bohemianism. Such values drive

delinquency as the manifestation of the spirit of adventure, aggression,

contempt for work. Radicalism is driven by apocalyptic visions, populism,

and evangelism. In its modern embodiments, the bohemian tradition is

proned to romanticism, expressive authenticity, and monasticism (1961,

102-118).

According to T. Parsons, the youth subculture is preparing young

people to live outside the family. He considers that significant structural

gaps between the family represent industrial societies as a social

institution that should host the maturation of a child, and the social

system, in which he/she must take a position. This indicates how


complicated it is to change the status in the transition from childhood to

adulthood. New social institutions that control and manage young

people's development outside the family appear in society to facilitate this

process. According to this interpretation, the subculture is understood as

an institution that regulates the child's separation from the family,

preparing young people to occupy their social position in the adult social

system. The subculture, in this sense, is more or less a ‚form of

adaptation‛ that helps society as a whole achieve stability.

The subcultures of nowadays youth amaze with their variety of

forms and manifestations. Young people choose their style as a product,

and they look to get this in a great variety of styles until they determine

their belonging. In many cases, a young individual enters a specific

subculture not because he/she is close to its ideology but because he likes

the ‚symbols‛ or ‚rituals‛ shared by its participants. The youths prefer

music, leisure activities, the way they dress, or the behavior pattern of

their members.

Music and fashion are among the most frequented means of

expression embraced by members of modern subcultures. Thanks to the

media, one of the most common targets is becoming famous and

increasingly playing on music channels. Representatives of subcultures

see their idols on TV or concerts and start copying their way of dressing,

putting on make-up, experimenting with piercings, or tattooing

themselves by adopting, step by step, the model of their cherished

influencers. This leads to many stereotypes in clothing, hair, accessories,

and the elements of the subculture become objects of sale that hold the

monopole on the social consciousness of such communities.

The Internet plays an essential role in this process. There are

particular sites like Interpunk.com, Gothshop.com, lots of online stores,

hip-hop culture stores, which make the process of buying ‚subculture

styles‛ more straightforward and accessible to everyone, even to those

who are not members of that subculture.

Young people are active, mobile, experimenting with the choice of

clothes, consumer goods, leisure activities. They no longer want to live in

the same style, which implies a subculture in its primary sense. Youth are

beginning to gain freedom not only from the authority of adults but also

from the authority of other young people’s subcultures, so there is a


tendency for them to go through many styles. The desire to be ‚free‛

plays a vital role in constructing their social life and identity. The choice of

a particular behavior model allows them to empower their freedom

whenever seeking their own identity.

The Russian researchers, S. I. Levicova and V. A. Babaho, interested

in youth subcultures in Russia, proposed the following typology:

subcultures that bring together admirers of musical styles (like

metalheads or bikers); subcultures with a particular value orientation,

primarily political and ideological (anarchists, pacifists, greens, etc.);

apolitical and evasive subcultures (hippies, ‚system‛ people, etc.);

aesthetically oriented subcultures (Russian ‚mitki‛ movement, etc.);

subcultures that share the cult of physical strength (bodybuilders, etc.);

criminogenic subcultures, based on aggression and manifested against the

law (gopniki, etc.) (2007, 186-187).

G.A. Nigmatulina conceived a typology of young people’s

subcultures depending on the nature of their social manifestations. She

distinguishes the following types of subcultures:

tolerant – of those distanced from the outside world and who do

not have a negative attitude towards it: bikers, break-dancers,

rappers;

nihilistic – of those who express their style and values as an

alternative: majoriki;

negative-prone – of those who firmly oppose the predominant

culture but does not try to destroy it: hippie, punk;

aggressive – of those who actively demonstrate their protest

against the dominant culture: skinheads (2004, 123-124).

These typologies allow us to understand both the attitude of the

representatives of certain subcultures towards society and the attitude

that society cultivates towards them. In this context, of particular concern

are criminogenic subcultures, aggressive subcultures that ignore a

consistent part of the norms of a specific community.

As already mentioned, the admiration of idols/heroes, clothing, music,

dance highly characterize a youth subculture. It is no coincidence that

clothing is considered one of the most widespread and accessible visual

means of communication. Teenagers are firmly turning towards

personalities who become accurate role models for them. They chose their


hero from figures known directly or indirectly by them in the cultural and

social environment. Teenagers manifest veneration of these popular

heroes in different ways: by their active presence in spectacles or by

proving that they know by heart the lyrics of the hits; by decorating their

rooms with posters; by imitating the way their idols dress, their hairstyle,

and even their behavior (Schifirneț 1985, 131).

Consequently, they identify themselves with stars or celebrities that

sometimes have nothing in common with the adults who live around

them, like Japanese cartoon characters. Once appropriates the social

identity of an idol, the adolescent can shape and develop his behavior

mimetically to it. The clothing is a subtle way to communicate to others

the type of role they want to play in life, and it influences a person’s social

interaction and the becoming of its personality. Music and dance reflect

the cultural preferences that discriminate between generations. Therefore,

each subculture performs symbolic expressions, choices, and values.

Functions of the subculture

Subcultures offer people space, a community where they can manifest a

lifestyle, values, conjunctures different from the generally accepted ones.

The sociologist Michael Bake identifies five functions of youth

subcultures. In his opinion, they: 1) offer solutions, albeit at an ‚illusory‛

level, to some structural issues caused by the socio-economic

contradictions of the society; 2) offer a new culture with certain elements

such as style, values, ideologies – for the development of a different

identity; 3) serve as an alternative form of the social reality in which they

find themselves; 4) offer the possibility to spend free time consciously,

outside the basic activity; 5) create opportunities for the individual

solution of some life dilemmas by appealing to a specific style that allows

the formation of the desired identity (Brake 1985, 24).

In the industrial and post-industrial society, the subculture of young

people assumes a part of the function of socialization, which some

families and public organizations cannot fulfill. Young people can achieve

socialization in three ways: traditional – by parents; mixed – by parents and

society; through the subculture of youth. Involved in a particular subculture,

they isolate themselves, perform their rituals, adopt their symbols,


gestures. Starting from this idea, we delimit two phenomena – youth

subculture and youth culture (as a form of mass culture). Even if both

directly connect with young people, they are different in their essence,

and they coexist together in society. Unlike the youth subculture, the goal

of youth culture is to keep young people engaged in society by providing

them with what is more accepted and closer to the adult generation. There

has been intentionally created a considerable volume of mass art, on top

of which we find music, movies, literature, fashionable clothes, video

games for young people. It is impossible to completely ignore the culture

of young people, at least for the following reasons: 1. it manifests itself in

everything related to young people and being imposed, sometimes it is

expressed aggressively; 2. it is constantly going through a process of

learning, updating, and trying to adapt to society.

Online subculture

The subculture of online communities can be correlated with many social

groups based on the use of information technologies. The emergence and

development of the subculture of various virtual communities is an issue

for the legitimacy of any subculture. The members of these virtual space

communities, on the one hand, tend to form a virtual analog of traditional

culture, but, on the other hand, they create their subculture, in which they

reveal their identity in a new way. The subculture of online communities

can be understood as a specific socio-cultural phenomenon, with an

internal socialization mechanism, with characteristic elements such as

language (slang), a system of symbols, norms, traditions, customs,

knowledge, skills, values, heroes, myths. The Internet is becoming a new

place where formations with shared opinions and customs appear,

creating opportunities for a new subcultural space. As a result, various

virtual subcultures appear, such as cyberculture or virtual culture.

Belonging to an internet subculture does not simultaneously exclude

participation in another subculture, as many opportunities for fun and

spending free time together might arise. Virtual reality is attractive

because it allows individuals to perceive a unique way of self-expression,

and communication is built, in this case, on shared interests and


preferences. Thus, gamers are excited about the game process and the

sophisticated way to pass the game; internet trolls are interested in

posting provocative, denigrating messages on forums; various forums

allow communication, sharing music, photos, videos, etc.

The advantages of Skype technologies derive from the following

outcomes: they allow the involvement of more people around the world,

compared to local events; they reduce the problems and costs of finding

‚party places‛; they cancel transport costs, making participating in

subcultural events more economical and accessible to anyone interested.

On the other hand, the following aspects reflect the disadvantages: within

a virtual subculture, face-to-face communication is no longer valuable,

and social communication skills are lost; the ability to dialogue is wasted,

the attempt to gain the interlocutor’s attention is no longer a priority,

whereas the importance of non-verbal communication is underestimated.

A feeling of alienation from the outside world hunts the consciousness of

individuals since people who take part in the social life are lost for them;

moreover, those involved in online subcultures may acquire

psychological disorders that include distorting the perception of reality.

Possible anticipations regarding the evolution of subcultures

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in studying urban subcultures that

starts from the relationship between the individual and society, micro-

group and macro-group, subcultures, and dominant cultures. Urban

anthropology frames these forms of social organization as an important

study problem at the current stage because they are a product of society,

which has relative autonomy. The subcultural theory of urbanism is one

well known in the literature. Its author, the American sociologist Claude

Fischer, sets out the following fundamental theses:

1. The more urban a place, the greater its subcultural variety.

2. The more urban a place, the more intense its subcultures.

3. The more urban a place, the more numerous the sources of diffusion and the

greater the diffusion into a subculture.

4. The more urban a place, the higher the rates of unconventionality. (Fischer 1975)


Claude Fischer considers that subcultures result from urbanization.

He argues that the higher the number of urban settlements reaches, the

greater the subcultural diversity becomes. In his opinion, there is a great

variety of subcultures, social groups, and lifestyles, regardless of the city

considered. People develop strategies of coexistence, making it possible to

live in this space. The absence of effective communication can lead to the

emergence of social problems and subcultures, of social groups

considered ‚undesirable.‛

Conclusions

As social structures within the dominant culture, subcultures are

composed of individuals who share similar values, behaviors, attitudes,

symbols, and rituals, have different lifestyles. All these issues distinguish

and separate subcultures from dominant cultures. There are subcultures

of various types, such as elite culture, i.e., that constituted by privileged

groups in society; the culture of poverty; organizational subculture,

manifested through institutional subculture and professional subculture;

youth subcultures; online subculture, etc. All subcultures generally have

several standard functions. The longer a specific subculture resists, the

more it forces the dominant culture to adapt to it. As a result, the

subculture does not shock and scare anymore, and the nonconformism of

the members of a subculture ceases to be an attribute by which they

differentiate themselves.

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