1. Collective IdentityPrompt Question 2:Emergence of theteenager/youth sub cultures

2. Through history Children had a very different experience ofyouth in the past. The concept of the teenagerdid not emerge until post war Britain andVictorian children would often be working atthe age of 5 in coal mines, sweeping chimneyetc. Today, British society places a high value onchildhood and protects children throughvarious laws. 3. Some reasons for the emergence ofthe teenager are: The post war baby boom after the war soldiersreturned home and started families Affluence and women in work the general standardsof living were rising including pay. More women alsobegan to work and giving many families a dual income.Consequently, young people were not expected to giveall of their working wages to their parents and haddisposable income for the first time. This meant theycould spend money on having fun and being youngbefore they had to take on greater responsibilities. 4. Some reasons for the emergence ofthe teenager are: Rise of consumer culture Throughout the1950s, the growing numbers of young peoplebegan to influence music, television andcinema, spurring the explosion of rock and roll inthe late 1950s and a full blown youth culture inthe mid 1960s, partly in the form of sub culturessuch as mods, rockers and hippies. As teenagerscreated their own identity and their expendableincome increased, marketing companies focusedtheir efforts on them. 5. Some reasons for the emergence ofthe teenager are: Independence young people also started toget married later, move out of their familyhome before they married, and due to theintroduction of contraception, have pre-marital sex. 6. The Increase of Youth Subcultures The 90s and the subcultures of today cannotbe described as the same as the 60s or 70s oreven the 80s. A number of factors account for the increasein the number of subcultures in society today 7. Factors A. The Size of the SocietyCharles Kraft larger societies will also developmore sub groupings. These sub groupings areusually referred to as subcultures. B. The Rate of Change in the SocietyThe greater the change in a society the moreintense and stronger the subcultures aspeople identify more with their subculture inorder to find identity and security. 8. Factors C. The Globalisation of the SocietyThe rate at which cultural objects and ideas aretransmitted in large parts of the world today isa significant factor in the number of youthsubculture groups that are identified. 9. Youth subcultures in todays society Todays youth subcultures point to aninterweaving of style with gender, class and agewhich follows a more contemporary outlook asopposed to some of the classic theories. Under post-modern conditions, identities appearto be in a constant state of change: individualsmove freely from one sub-cultural group andenthusiasm to another; they mix and match whatwere formerly distinct categories like the 60sbikers. 10. Features of youth sub cultures Fashion- may have certain characteristic incloths e.g. Mods Music- identity may be defined by music e.g.punks Class- identity may be defined by your socialor economic class e.g. Youth subcultures inworking class communities will show a greateramount of gang activity 11. Task Pick one past text (Quadrophenia or The Young Ones) andone current text (Attack the Block, E20 and TheInbetweeners) and answer the following How are the reasons for the emergence of teenagersrepresented in the past text you have picked? What sub cultures are represented in the texts you havepicked? In what ways can we recognise the sub cultures and howare they different?