Abstract
This paper uses 20 in-depth interviews with individuals who formerly identified as straightedge to explore a largely overlooked but potentially important dimension of youth subcultures: life after subculture. Interviews illustrate the potential importance of life after subculture for gaining a fuller understanding of subculture and indicate that residue from former subcultural affiliation can be a marker of a group’s relative substance. Interviews additionally underscore problems with prevailing theoretical models of subculture and support the claim that approaches to and conceptions of subculture should attend to phenomenological levels of analysis and potentialities.
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Notes
Internet websites used were http://members4.boardhost.com/tchardcore, www.thenjscene.com, and http://fargohardcore.proboards.com/index.cgi
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank those who provided valuable feedback and support during all stages of this project, including Patrick Carr, Karen Cerulo, four anonymous Qualitative Sociology reviewers, and the 2006 cohort RSC writing crew.
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Torkelson, J. Life After (Straightedge) Subculture. Qual Sociol 33, 257–274 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-010-9153-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-010-9153-1