ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an introduction to the subculture concept to identify particular collective forms of deviance. It reflects upon the theme developed essentially through the insertion of the concept into a broader social analysis at the heart of which there is class conflict. Subcultures are essentially formed as a temporary flight. They offer collective solutions of a cultural kind to structural problems, building a symbolic context permitting the development and strengthening of a collective identity on one hand and individual self-esteem on the other. Subcultures, by infringing cultural expectations, are a symbolic challenge to a symbolic order, or a form of resistance in which criticism of the dominant ideology is indirectly represented in the style. Recalling the Chicago hypothesis whereby deviant subcultures should be interpreted as normal behaviour in abnormal social circumstances, youth subcultures are therefore interpreted as reactions to structural transformations which have occurred in society.
