Subculture and After It: A History of a Fundamental Concept in the Youth Studies

Abstract

The concept of subculture, which is customarily associated with any type of youth collectivity in Russian sociology and ethnography of youth, had emerged in the 1920s and reached its epistemological height in the work of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies during the 1970s. From the 1980s on, the concept became the target of criticism from the adherents of the post-subcultural approach. The article discusses the history of the subculture concept, its critique, and alternative concepts (neotribe, scenes, lifestyles, etc.) offered by the post-subcultural group.