The Subcultural Imagination: Theory, Research and Reflexivity in Contemporary Youth Cultures

Description

The Subcultural Imagination discusses young adults in subcultures and examines how sociologists use qualitative research methods to study them. Through the application of the ideas of C. Wright Mills to the development of theory-reflexive ethnography, this book analyses the experiences of young people in different subcultural settings, as well as reflecting on how young people in subcultures interact in the wider context of society, biography and history. From Cuba to London, and Bulgaria to Asia, this book delves into urban spaces and street corners, young people’s parties, gigs, BDSM fetish clubs, school, the home, and feminist zines to offer a picture of live sociology in practice. In three parts, the volume explores: history, biography and subculture; practising reflexivity in the field; epistemologies, pedagogies and the subcultural subject. The book offers cutting edge theory and rich empirical research on social class, gender and ethnicities from both established and new researchers across diverse disciplinary backgrounds. It moves the subcultural debate beyond the impasse of the term’s relevance, to one where researchers are fully engaged with the lives of the subcultural subjects. This innovative edited collection will appeal to scholars and students in the areas of sociology, youth studies, media and cultural studies/communication, research methods and ethnography, popular music studies, criminology, politics, social and cultural theory, and gender studies. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Introducing the sociological and the subcultural imagination Part I History, biography and subculture 1 From here to modernity: rethinking the Youth Question with C. Wright Mills 2 Subcultural and post-subcultural compatibility: the case of Cuban underground rap 3 From bad to worse? Marginalised youth and ‘Road life’ (mis)representations and realities Part II Practising reflexivity in the field 4 The emotional imagination: exploring critical ventriloquy and emotional edgework in reflexive sociological ethnography with young people 5 Rachela through the looking glass: researching the occupational subculture of lap-dancers 6 ‘Biography in the laboratory’: applying the Chicago School approach to dual researcher positionality within the night-time economy 7 Temporary reflexive disempowerment: working through fieldwork ethnography and its impact on a female researcher Part III Epistemologies, pedagogies and the subcultural subject 8 Understanding nightlife identities and divisions through the subculture/post-subculture debate 9 Feminism, subculture and the production of knowledge: developing intersectional epistemologies amidst the reflexive turn 10 Bulgarian post-transitional subcultures: insider ethnographic research of the underground scene 11 Connecting personal troubles and public issues in Asian subculture studies 12 Conclusions: C. Wright Mills, the ‘subcultural’ imagination, reflexivity and the subcultural subject Index