Paul Hodkinson

'Insider Research' in the Study of Youth Cultures

Ethnographic research on youth cultures, particularly at doctoral level, is often conducted by investigators with some degree of initial cultural proximity to the individuals or cultures under the microscope. Yet elaboration of the practical and epistemological implications of ‘insider research’ among such scholars has been somewhat limited. This article contributes to the development of such discussion through drawing together a range of previous writings and by drawing upon elements of the authors own experience of researching a contemporary youth subculture as a long-term participant of the grouping. In the face of theories emphasising the complexities of identity and the multiplicity of insider views, the paper argues for the continued use of the notion of insider research in a non-absolute sense. Subsequently, it is argued that researching youth cultures from such a position may offer significant potential advantages—in respect both of the research process and the types of understanding that might be generated. It is also suggested, however, that the realisation of such possible benefits and the avoidance of significant difficulties, requires a cautious and reflexive approach.

Online journals as virtual bedrooms? Young people, identity and personal space

This article considers the increasing importance of personal, individualized spaces in the lives and identities of young people through a comparative examination of the contemporary use of the physical space of the bedroom and the ‘virtual’ territory of the online journal. Particularly popular among those in their teens and early twenties, online journals constitute an interactive form of web log whose content tends to be dominated by reflections upon the everyday experiences, thought and emotions of their individual owner. We propose here that such online journals often take on for their users the symbolic and practical properties of individually owned and controlled space — something we illustrate through a comparison with young peoples uses of the primary, individual-centred, physical space in their lives — the bedroom. This discussion is informed by research by each of the authors, on young peoples bedrooms and on the use of online journals respectively. The article identifies and explores understandings and functions of these two spaces for young people, identifying a number of apparent similarities in their use. Through doing so, we illustrate the potential value of the bedroom as a prism through which to understand online journal use at the same time as helping to illuminate the general significance of personal space to the lives and identities of contemporary young people.

Youth Cultures: A Critical Outline of Key Debates

Please note that this file represents the original version of the chapter, prior to proofing and formatting by the publisher. One or two minor changes were made for the final version and pagination is obviously different. The reference list for the chapter is integrated with the full bibliography at the back of the book. The final, definitive version of the chapter was published by Routledge as part of the Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes book in 2007. All rights reserved.

Family and Parenthood in an Ageing ‘Youth’ Culture: A Collective Embrace of Dominant Adulthood?

‘Youth’ music and style cultures, such as the punk, goth, metal and club scenes, are often regarded as opposed to the institution of the family and the values it symbolises. Yet significant numbers of the participants of such groups are now remaining actively involved into their thirties and beyond alongside the taking on of permanent cohabitation, marriage and parenthood. This article explores the increasing importance of family life for ageing members of ‘youth’ cultures in relation to the case study of the goth scene, a dark-themed grouping whose average age is rising. I emphasise the collective nature of the embrace of family among older goths and the implications of this for the values and environment of the group itself and the trajectories of individual members. Amongst other things, I explore whether the drift towards family and parenthood amongst goths might be understood as a collective assimilation into dominant adulthood.

Youth: identities, transitions, cultures

Young people are a priority of the European Union’s social vision. Youth policy arises from the recognition that young people are an important resource to society, who can be mobilised to achieve higher social goals. The EU approach acknowledges that youth policy – being crosssectoral – cannot advance without effective coordination with other sectors, such as education or health. In turn, youth policies can contribute to delivering results in other areas, such as gender equality. The integration of gender concerns in youth policy is increasing, yet most research and policy documents are rarely concerned with gender differences and an explicit and clear gender perspective is still lacking.

Bedrooms and beyond: Youth, identity and privacy on social network sites

This article considers young people’s identities and privacy on social network sites through reflection on the analogy of the teenage bedroom as a means to understand such spaces. The notion therein of intimate personal space may jar with the scope and complexity of social media and, particularly, with recent emphasis on the challenges to privacy posed by such environments. I suggest, however, that, through increased use of access controls and a range of informal strategies, young people’s everyday digital communication may not be as out of control as is sometimes inferred. Recent adaptations of the bedroom analogy indicate that social network sites retain intimacy and that their individual-centred format continues to facilitate the exhibition and mapping of identities. Although an awkward fit, I suggest the bedroom may still help us think through how social network sites can function as vital personal home territories in the midst of multi-spatial patterns of sociability.

Youth cultures and the rest of life: subcultures, post-subcultures and beyond

ABSTRACT Recent debate on the conceptualisation of youth cultures has been characterised as an irreconcilable stalemate between materialist defenders of a version of subcultural theory derived from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and post-subcultural theorists who favour more individualised understandings. This article suggests that, beneath this facade lies a more complex and reconcilable debate and that it may be time to move beyond the polarising presence of the CCCS as primary reference point for the discussion. Turning to substance, I go on to examine how enduring areas of disagreement within the debate can be resolved, establishing ways forward with respect to the interplay between spectacular groupings and individual pathways and the contextualisation of youth cultures, including with respect to material and structural factors. I advocate greater emphasis on the study of collective youth cultures as part of broader biographies as a way forward that can draw together these substantive strands and bring together insight from across the subcultures/post-subcultures debate.

Youth Culture, Popular Music and the End of ‘Consensus’ in Post-War Britain

Modern British historians have rarely shown much interest in questions of youth, youth culture or popular music.1 Though it would be over-stating matters to suggest that young people have been writ...

Review: Dan Laughey, Music and Youth Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. £50.00 (hbk), £16.99 (pbk). 248 pp

people together within the polis located in the nation-state, but on the emergence and celebration of differences – ‘What we have in common is our difference’, he writes. And these differences are resolved, according to Silverstone, in the mediapolis through a number of key concepts. These include notions of justice and a Derridian interpretation of ‘hospitality’, which he interprets as ‘obligations to offer hospitality to the stranger in the symbolic space of media representation . . . a precondition for media justice’. The ideas presented in this book are rich and complex. The text is, on occasion, dense but for the most part it verges on the lyrical. It is a work of intellectual daring, and of a breadth that is remarkable. The conclusions might be somewhat tentative but they contain a snail’s trace of optimism – a trace that is all too rare in the work of contemporary media and cultural studies scholars. This book stands as a tribute to the work of Silverstone and a reminder of how much more he might have had to say and how gracefully he might have said it.