Youth Subcultures | OCR A-Level Sociology (H580)
Youth Subcultures
- 78 questions
- 7 subtopics
- Component 01: Socialisation, culture and identity
- Component 01
Youth Subcultures is examined on component 01 of OCR Sociology, Socialisation, culture and identity.
It is one of the three Section B options on that paper, of which a student sits one. 78 recall questions across 7 subtopics.
Sample questions from Youth Subcultures
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture
Eisenstadt and other functionalists call youth culture a safety valve. What do they mean?
Show the answer
They mean this period of structured irresponsibility, in which young people are freed from full adult obligations, gives a contained outlet for the frustration of being neither child nor adult, so tension is released harmlessly and social order is preserved. -
Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture
Which research centre produced the neo-Marxist account of youth subcultures?
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The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham, usually referred to as the Birmingham School. -
Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures
What is bedroom culture?
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McRobbie and Garber's term for girls' leisure organised in the private space of the home, built around close friendships, music, magazines and talk rather than public street-based subcultures. -
Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures
Define a neo-tribe.
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Maffesoli's term, applied to youth music scenes by Bennett, for a loose, fluid and temporary grouping formed around shared musical or consumer taste, which young people drift in and out of without lasting commitment. -
Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict
Define hybridity in relation to youth subcultures.
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Hybridity is the blending of elements drawn from two or more cultures into a new cultural form or identity, such as young British Asians fusing bhangra with Western dance and club music. -
Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict
What is code-switching, as applied to young British Asians?
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Moving between a more traditional Asian identity at home and a more Westernised identity with friends, described by Johal as a dual or Brasian identity. -
Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures
How does Cohen say boys respond to status frustration?
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They turn mainstream values upside down and build a subculture in which vandalism, truancy, fighting and defiance earn respect, creating an alternative status hierarchy in which they can succeed. -
Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures
What did Willis find in his study of the lads?
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A small group of working-class boys had formed a counter-school culture organised around having a laugh, resisting teachers and despising the conformist pupils they nicknamed the ear'oles.
The 7 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Functionalist and neo-Marxist views of youth culture | Recall questions on the difference between youth culture and a youth subculture, Parsons's bridge and Eisenstadt's safety valve, functionalist views of subcultures and social order and their criticisms, and the neo-Marxist Birmingham CCCS account of resistance through rituals and Phil Cohen's magical solution. | 8 |
| Hebdige, feminist and postmodern views of youth subcultures | Recall questions on Hebdige's bricolage and incorporation, McRobbie and Garber's feminist critique of subcultural research and bedroom culture, why girls were less visible in street subcultures, the postmodern supermarket of style, neo-tribes and Muggleton's post-subculturalists, and the main objection to postmodern claims of free choice. | 9 |
| Class, ethnic and hybrid subcultures and consensus versus conflict | Recall questions on middle-class counter-cultures and working-class subcultures, youth subcultures built on minority ethnic identity including Rastafarianism and Pryce's Bristol research, hybridity with Back's South London study, Nayak's white wannabes and code-switching, and consensus, conflict and postmodern positions on youth subcultures. | 9 |
| Delinquent, criminal, spectacular and anti-school subcultures | Recall questions on deviant subcultures, the difference between delinquent and criminal subcultures, Albert Cohen's status frustration, Cloward and Ohlin's illegitimate opportunity structure and three subcultures, spectacular youth subcultures, and anti-school subcultures in Willis's study of the lads and in Hargreaves and Lacey. | 11 |
| Gangs, newer deviant subcultures and patterns in youth offending | Recall questions on gangs, with Hallsworth and Young's distinctions, Pitts's reluctant gangsters and claims the gang problem is exaggerated, trends in youth offending and its patterns by class, gender and ethnicity, the chivalry thesis and Heidensohn, county lines, newer deviant subcultures, and Cicourel's criticism of juvenile justice statistics. | 15 |
| Functionalist, New Right and Marxist explanations of youth deviance | Recall questions on functionalist explanations of youth deviance from Durkheim and Merton's strain theory, the New Right explanation and Charles Murray's underclass with its criticisms, traditional Marxist views of youth crime, Taylor, Walton and Young's critical criminology, and Hall's account of the 1970s mugging panic. | 9 |
| Labelling, identity, gender, ethnicity and moral panics in youth deviance | Recall questions on left realist objections to neo-Marxism, labelling with Becker and Lemert's primary and secondary deviance, deviant careers and Young's Notting Hill drug users, Thornton's subcultural capital, deviance and identity, Messerschmidt on masculinity, Gilroy and Sewell on ethnicity, and Cohen's moral panics, folk devils and deviance amplification. | 17 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR A-Level Sociology Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 859 questions with their answers.