British Subcultural Theories

By the 1960s, as subcultural explanations were becoming less fashionable in North America, the subcultural tradition began influencing the new generation of sociological-criminologists in the UK. The foundational studies covered here, of Peter Willmott and David Downes, partially rejected Albert Cohen's status frustration but found support for the work of David Matza, Gresham Sykes and Walter Miller. The chapter then discusses the concept of moral panics, which focused attention away from the cause of subcultures to how society reacts to them. It then discusses the collective work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, who placed youth subcultures in a more positive light by framing them as a form of ‘magical’ resistance, and begun focusing closer on symbols of style. The chapter draws several examples of Irish subcultures and discusses the extensive literature on moral panics in Ireland.