The Political Status of Youth and Youth Culture *

One of the most influential models has been subcultural theory, derived from deviancy theory and symbolic interactionism and politicized in the work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The subordination of the subcultural population, a subordination defined both positionally and experientially, was constituted by the dominant culture and ideology. Youth is not merely an ideological construction and what is at stake is not merely a question of what it means to different groups. But this struggle is not merely sociological. It has to be located within a larger political and economic project: a struggle over the political possibilities of the nation. Thus the contemporary uncertainty surrounding youth, and the struggles over youth and youth culture, cannot be reduced to a mere token of a more universal struggle to discipline youth because it is such a powerful-if potential-site of antagonism and resistance.