ABSTRACT

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.

part |45 pages

History, biography and subculture

chapter |14 pages

From here to modernity

Rethinking the Youth Question with C. Wright Mills

chapter |13 pages

Subcultural and post-subcultural compatibility

The case of Cuban underground rap

chapter |16 pages

From bad to worse?

Marginalised youth and ‘Road life' (mis)representations and realities

part |59 pages

Practising reflexivity in the field

chapter |15 pages

The emotional imagination

Exploring critical ventriloquy and emotional edgework in reflexive sociological ethnography with young people

chapter |14 pages

Rachela through the looking glass

Researching the occupational subculture of lap-dancers

chapter |14 pages

‘Biography in the laboratory’

Applying the Chicago School approach to dual researcher positionality within the night-time economy

chapter |14 pages

Temporary reflexive disempowerment

Working through fieldwork ethnography and its impact on a female researcher

part |63 pages

Epistemologies, pedagogies and the subcultural subject

chapter |13 pages

Feminism, subculture and the production of knowledge

Developing intersectional epistemologies amidst the reflexive turn

chapter |15 pages

Bulgarian post-transitional subcultures

Insider ethnographic research of the underground scene

chapter |8 pages

Conclusions

C. Wright Mills, the ‘subcultural' imagination, reflexivity and the subcultural subject