Subculture can be understood as groups which come with their own norms and values. The most important thing is these rules and norms are way different from that which is followed in our society or by the majority.
Society vs. Culture
Culture is nothing but an expression of society. This expression is made up of beliefs as well as material things in society. Of course everybody knows about their own culture and the examples are already familiar to all. Usually the culture includes the things in society like ideological values, language, social conventions, and gender roles, artistic and realistic expressions such as paintings, films, and books
Before understanding subculture or culture one must also understand the term society. Society is the group of people who are interacting in some defined territory and they are sharing their culture with one another. Society is a bundle of cultures. Every society may include different cultures and these cultures again may come with varieties of subcultures.
Let’s look into some of the terms and theories which are related to subculture.
Subcultures
In societies, you may find small societies that are usually culturally uniform and there are many large industrial societies that are culturally diverse. These industrial large societies usually involve many subcultures. As we defined earlier, subculture is nothing but a set of norms and rules which are usually distinct when compared to the rules followed by the majority. The subculture will be a group of people following different norms and they will be inside a wider society.
For example, if we consider United States, some of the subcultures present here are Goths, hippies, hip hop fans, fans of heavy metal, and even bikers. We can give many examples, especially in wider society. There are unlimited subcultures found in United States. There will be one area that represents particular interest and that becomes the deviant subculture inside a wide society.
Subcultures are no longer limited to location or geography thanks to the internet. A strong example of this is hookup culture. In certain countries and societies female and sexual liberation is very limited, but via the internet with fuck buddy websites, hookup culture has spread to more traditional and conservative groups around the world.
A Deeper Look
Subculture will be present inside the main culture. But important thing is there will be some characteristics present in the subculture which differentiation from the parent culture wherein it belongs. One thing to note here is always the subculture will have founding principles that are completely based on the parent culture. Even though it evolves and carries many other unique norms, it will continue to maintain the principles carried from parent culture.
Later stages, subcultures develop their own values as well as norms that are related to political, cultural, and even sexual matters. So, understand subcultures as part of society which always carries its own, specific characteristics. This concept of subculture was earlier developed in cultural studies and in sociology. Subcultures are completely different from counter cultures.
If you look into the dictionary definition of subculture, it is defined as a culture within a wide or large culture that carries interests and beliefs which are different from the larger or parent culture. Subculture is the style of the minority inside a majority culture. The values believed by subcultures are known as subversive values.
The best definition of subculture can be it is a subversion of a large, parent, and dominant normalcy. In most of the cases, subcultures receive criticism and they are perceived in a negative way. This is mainly because of their nature since they are way different from parent culture which is followed by the majority in the society.
Subcultures are usually brought or developed by a group of people who are completely neglected in the larger society. This is a group of individuals who are like-minded and have interest in developing a sense of identity.
Subcultural capital
This is the most important term used in the subculture. This can be understood as cultural commodities and cultural knowledge which are acquired by the members in a subculture. The subcultural capital helps them in raising their status and it also supports them in differentiating their culture from the majority and other subcultures.
A subculture is a group that serves and motivates the individuals in the group in adopting behaviors, artifacts, values, and norms which are characteristics of that group. Subcultures are also interpreted as forms of delinquency and deviance. Subcultures emerge from particular sector which lacked socialization with parent culture and mainstream. Later they become a group and started following the norms of the subculture and their own normative models.
The subculture never accepts the objectives or the means of actions that are offered by the parent culture. They will start proposing different norms and follow the same. But this will definitely depend on the rebels, innovations, and circumstances. Subcultures are more than the alternative strategies and they are considered to be the labeling processes. But slowly the parent culture or the mainstream society will treat them as outsiders.
Subculture comes with its own language and image and these will become their recognition trait.
Even though the subcultures are different from the parent culture, they are still treated as part of the main culture. …