Are Theories of Subculture Too Class Oriented?

Abstract

Two main academic schools have addressed the ‘subculture’ as an analytic issue; the Functionalist ‘anomie’ or ‘strain’ theorists and, later, Marxist scholars at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham, UK. These theorists assume very distinct analytic positions, as we will see. But they do converge at two main points — both focus on urban, male, working-class adolescents and both share a common concern with the influence of class. They may approach this factor from different directions, but in both cases it is given central consideration.