Youth and Urban Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Youth and Urban Culture - Essay Example While examining the youth culture and subcultures it has been seen that it is important that the youth are taught to adapt conventional political and moral outlooks and are habituated to discipline in working life. Subcultures emerge as solution to problems that are collectively faced because of challenges in the social structure (Brake ix). The objective of this paper is to talk about the influence of the youth on the urban culture, bringing out the behavioral patterns and lifestyles of the former especially in modern urban setting. Youth as Subculture The study of subculture is done in relation with the broader system of society. It includes symbolisms of clothing, music and other interests of the subculture and also how such symbolisms are looked upon by the members of the broader culture that dominates the subculture. In any subculture there is the struggle for establishment of subgroups of different values and lifestyles (Brake 3). Youth subculture represents themselves with the ir own style, interests and behaviour through their activities. They often adhere to their own rules outside their social institutions like home or school. They consciously form a signature style of their own which they relish and exploit (Gelder & Thornton, 1). Style is significant in subculture. It transforms the normal process and goes â€Å"against nature†. ... There was a dramatic change in the cultural expression of the class. With the introduction of mass media, shift from joint families to nuclear families, changes in the school and work organisations, all these resulted in disintegrating and polarizing the community of the working class. This method of polarization gave rise to youth culture (Hebdige 74). In the post war era the youth began to exhibit many â€Å"non-solidaristic elements† with the culture of their parents. The dominant culture of the parents refused to comply with the status established by the youth. This led to the youth being a â€Å"vehicle for anti-establishment currents† (Jenks 122). Cultural Significance There are many specific factors behind the youth culture and some of them are rise in the spending power among the youth of the working class, emergence of market as an outlet for spending the surplus income and reformations in the field of education. All these factors led to a consciousness among t he younger generation to create an identity of their own and often they were rebellious against the traditional norms. Youth was being regarded as a separate culture as they began to adopt their own style and behavioral patterns. In the 1920s, it was understood that youth culture is not devoid of classes when evidence was garnered on juvenile criminals on streets and bootleggers (Hebdige, 74-75). The youth subculture enforces their own social practices, lifestyle, choice of clothes, types of television programs, music and friendship groups. The attempt of the youth to maintain a separate cultural world from the adults is not insignificant. Such forms of â€Å"symbolic creativity† are essential for daily life for the young people and should be considered as an essential part of human