What is Subculture

A subculture is a distinct socio-cultural group that exists within a larger, dominant culture. It develops when a set of people—often connected by shared interests, values, lifestyles, or identities—create their own norms, symbols, and practices that differ meaningfully from those of mainstream society. While members of a subculture still participate in the broader culture, they also cultivate a sense of belonging through unique styles of expression, such as fashion, music, language, or rituals. Subcultures can be organized around various core interests or activities, such as sports, music, fashion, religion, ideology, etc. Other types of subgroups are those based on certain collective characteristics – race, ethnicity, immigrant status, imprisonment, homelessness, age, etc.  While all members of the first type of subgroups chose to become part of the subgroup and the membership is usually open to everybody who wants to join, members of other types of subgroups are often forced to become part of the subgroup, and the membership is contingent on possessing that collective characteristic. For example, while everybody can become a hippy, only immigrants can become part of the immigrant subculture. Ultra radical groups who are in open opposition or revolt against the dominant culture and those who hold political power are labeled as  ‘‘contra-cultures’’ or ‘‘countercultures.’’

Subcultures often arise in response to social conditions or as acts of resistance. For example, youth subcultures like punk or hip-hop emerged partly to challenge existing social norms and provide spaces for marginalized voices. These groups allow individuals to explore alternative ways of being, offering identity, empowerment, and community. At the same time, subcultures are dynamic: they evolve, influence mainstream trends, and sometimes become commercialized, blurring the boundaries between the alternative and the dominant.

Ultimately, a subculture is both a social refuge and a creative engine. It provides its members with a shared identity outside the mainstream, while also enriching the broader culture through new ideas, aesthetics, and forms of expression.

                               Research on Subculture

The Chicago School of sociology was formed at the beginning of the 20st century and their main focus was urban sociology and they used the city of Chicago as a social laboratory, because, at that time, Chicago was one of the biggest cities in the USA with a wide variety of social problems (crime, delinquency, homelessness, class strife, etc.), and populated with people of various ethnic and racial background. This situation gave rise to various subcultures, and Chicago school scientists used new, pioneering empirical, qualitative, and quantitative research methods to study those subcultures.  

Frederick Thrasher is one of the criminologists who was a member of the Chicago School. His doctoral dissertation, mentored by Robert Park, was published as The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago (1927). This research is the first thorough study of a gang of minors in a large city. Thrasher used a large number of methods in his research: court statistics, observation, collection of personal data of members of juvenile gangs, as well as interviews. Thrasher observes juvenile gangs through an ecological paradigm developed by the Chicago School of Sociology. Gangs are the product of the structural and environmental consequences of the social disorganization that took place in Chicago. Juvenile gangs have sprung up in isolated and impoverished immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago. Gangs were part of the psychological and group processes among adolescents in these neighborhoods. Thrasher defines a juvenile gang as follows: "The gang is an interstitial group originally formed spontaneously, and then integrated through conflict. It is characterized by the following types of behavior: meeting face to face, milling, movement through space as a unit, conflict, and planning. The result of this collective behavior is the development of tradition, unreflective internal structure, esprit de corps, solidarity, morale, group awareness, and attachment to a local territory." (Thrasher, 1927). Jail time and criminal endeavors were a source of pride and prestige in gangs. Apart from criminal activities, members of juvenile gangs spent most of their time playing cards, smoking cigarettes, and harassing neighbors and shop owners. Thrasher was an advocate of social reforms and the practice of juvenile courts as a solution to the problem of juvenile gangs.

In the book Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (1931), co-written by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, the authors explore the distribution of delinquency in different parts of Chicago in the early twentieth century. They found that delinquency is increasing in neighborhoods away from the city center and that some neighborhoods have had high rates of delinquency for decades, even though ethnic composition has changed significantly in the same neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with high delinquency rates had high rates of adult crime, tuberculosis, and infant mortality. Shaw and McKay created an environmental model to explain juvenile delinquency. They observed the increase in delinquency in the context of the cities' increase because with that increase comes the formation of neighborhoods with specific physical, social, economic, and cultural characteristics. The neighborhoods, where the population is declining, where poverty is widespread, and where a large proportion are immigrants and African-Americans, are most affected by delinquency. As a result of these factors, togetherness and common goals are declining, leading to a reduction in the influence of institutions and social control. All these circumstances have led to the existence of opposing value systems. The decline in the community's ability to informally control crime has led to the formation of a criminal subculture. Delinquent subcultures, peer pressure, and the need to belong to a group were critical factors in the development of delinquent behavior. For young people, belonging to delinquent groups meant the possibility of achieving goals that they could not achieve otherwise. As a solution to these problems, the authors proposed the implementation of programs that would unite and strengthen the community and social life in it.

Edwin Sutherland, in Principles of Criminology (1924), presented the theory of "differential association" to explain the adoption of criminal behavior by individuals. Differential association refers to the understanding that people, during their lifetime, come into contact with different types of people who have different perceptions about the acceptability of crime. This theory is based on the view that criminal behavior is, for the most part, acquired and learned through interaction in small groups. At the same time, individuals learn the techniques used to commit a crime, but also adopt the motivation to commit those crimes. Motivation, which consists of attitudes, urges, and definitions, is key to the process of learning criminal behavior. Sutherland stated that criminals do not become criminals just because they were in the company of other criminals, but because a situation arose in which the definition of the acceptability of a crime could be applied. He does not believe that criminal behavior is a product of the general needs and attitudes of the wider population, because only those who join small criminal groups actually commit crimes.

Lloyd Ohlin and Richard Cloward co-authored the book Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of the Delinquent Gang (1960), which deals with juvenile delinquents and their gangs. The authors developed the theory of "differential opportunities" to explain how the circumstances that exist in a local community, and above all, the opportunities to earn illegal income, primarily affect the existence of different subcultures of delinquents. Different situations that exist in different local communities create different subcultural responses of juvenile delinquents from the poorest strata. The authors single out three typical types of juvenile gang subcultures: stable criminal subculture, conflict subculture, and withdrawal subculture. A stable criminal subculture emerges when there are conditions for crime to achieve economic mobility and the status of a serious criminal; a conflict subculture emerges in very poor neighborhoods or slums, while the withdrawal subculture brings together unsuccessful drug-addicted delinquents. These two authors find the explanation for delinquent behavior in the inability of individuals to achieve socially propagated goals by legal means, and because they themselves accept those goals, they turn to illegal means to achieve them. On the other hand, delinquent groups or gangs enable their members to commit illegal offenses more easily, and in addition, these groups, through their own attitudes and norms, provide rationalization and justification for the delinquent behavior itself.

Robert Merton developed his own theory of anomie. Anomie is a consequence of the discrepancy between culturally defined goals, on the one hand, and culturally defined rules for achieving those goals and structural possibilities for achieving those goals, which are in accordance with the prescribed rules, on the other hand. When the goals, rules, and possibilities for achieving the goals are in line, then conformity is developed, which enables the maintenance of stability and continuity of the society. In such a stable state, some actors may begin to exhibit deviant behavior. Merton singles out four main forms of deviant behavior: 1) innovation - goals are accepted but non-institutional means are used to achieve them, 2) ritualism - goals are reduced, while means are considered legitimate, 3) retreatism - rejection of both means and goals (when both acts are internalized as norms, failure to fulfill leads to defeatism and resignation), and 4) rebellion - a combination of acceptance and rejection of means and goals, revolutionism. Each of these four types has different consequences for the functioning of the social system and carries a different potential for social change. According to this theory subculture of street crime starts when a group of individuals, due to their structural position in society, can't realize their aspirations, so they start using innovative (illegitimate) means to satisfy dominant norms of economic materialism.

In the 1960s and 1970s, youth subcultures became the focus of social sciences in Britain. The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham was at the forefront of that research. In that time, working-class youth subcultures, such as teddy boys, skinheads, and punks, started appearing. They rejected and resisted bourgeois hegemony, while media and public reacted by creating ‘‘moral panics’’ – a widespread atmosphere of fear and moral indignation which called for stronger policing and penalties for “delinquent behavior” of youth subcultures.

Stuart Hall and Tony Jefferson (both associated with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies) edited the book Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-war Britain (1976). The book argues that working-class youth subcultures, such as Teddy Boys, Mods, and Punks, use style, music, and symbolic "rituals" as a form of resistance against the dominant social and political order of post-war Britain. Authors suggests that subcultures are not just delinquent or deviant, but actively and symbolically resist mainstream culture. Their distinctive styles—from the punks' safety pins to the skinheads' working-class pride—are not meaningless. They are acts of "resistance through rituals," reinterpreting everyday items to challenge established norms and dominant cultural values. The book argues that these subcultures emerged from the real-world experiences of working-class youth facing structural marginalization, including declining industrial jobs and rapid urban change. The subcultural "style" acts as a way to negotiate and make sense of these social conditions. Drawing on Marxist and neo-Marxist theory, the book examines how dominant culture (hegemony) is maintained and challenged. Subcultures are seen as a contradictory battleground where class relations are expressed and contested, with their styles and practices symbolizing both opposition and limited inclusion within the broader capitalist culture. To understand the symbolic meanings of subcultural style, the authors used semiotics, the study of signs and symbols. This enabled them to decode the hidden messages and underlying political meanings embedded in clothing, music, and language. While highlighting subcultures as resistant, the book also points out their inherent contradictions. Subcultures could simultaneously challenge mainstream norms while reinforcing other forms of inequality, such as sexism or narrow definitions of masculinity. 

Paul Willis, another member of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, also studied youth subculture. In the book Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs  (1977), Willis studies how cultural values ​​shape pupils' attitudes toward education and work. The fieldwork of this study was conducted in Birmingham. Willis opposed the hypothesis that children from working-class families, due to academic failures, recognize their intellectual limitations, and then, as a result, they accept jobs with limited chances for career advancement. He spent a long time with a group of white boys from working-class families. He came to the conclusion that they understood very well the system of authority that exists in the school, but that they actively fought against it, and one of the ways of fighting was through constant conflicts with teachers. They saw school as a hostile system that they could manipulate. The hostile attitude they had towards the authoritarian system at school, with constant attempts to provoke and manipulate, they kept latter on, because they had the same attitude towards work. They were happy to have a paid job, but did not expect to get any pleasure or sense of accomplishment from the work, nor did they have the desire to pursue a career. Remaining in the class of parents, for these children, was a product of cultural reproduction, because the subcultural pattern, which was accepted during childhood, continued to operate when entering the labor market. In this group of boys, Willis also found extremely macho behavior - expressing aggressive masculinity by using sexist language concerning girls, establishing a very clearly defined framework of acceptable behavior for boys, and harassment and physical aggression toward homosexuals.

Dick Hebdige, who is also associated with the University of Birmingham, in his book Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979), uses a semiotic analysis of the aesthetics of musical subcultures such as mods, rockers, and punk rockers. He argues that a bricolage of behavior, dress, rituals, and tastes of those youth subcultures signifies an ideological resistance to structural and economic inequalities that are the consequences of the hegemonic and oppressive nature of capitalist society in post-war Britain.

In Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang (1955), Albert Cohen integrates “cultural transmission” theories of delinquency with a “psychogenic” perspective focused on individual psychology. He contends that gang subcultures offer alternative standards of achievement, allowing members to gain status in ways unavailable to them in mainstream society. Cohen argues that deviant subcultures and delinquent behavior arise as responses to adjustment difficulties produced by structural class inequalities. Recruitment occurs because these subcultures supply “answers” to the adjustment problems faced by successive cohorts of working-class boys—problems rooted in the status frustrations they encounter when judged by middle-class norms, especially in school. According to Cohen, gangs function as a reaction formation: young working-class males are rewarded for deviant behavior through the gang’s own value system, which provides them with a sense of belonging and an outlaw identity. Neighborhood subcultures continually draw in new generations of youths, serving as subcultural “carriers.” New cultural forms emerge and endure through interactions within youth peer groups, as young people collectively “solve” their shared adjustment challenges through delinquent practices. In this way, subcultures act as a microsociological link between class position, neighborhood environment, and delinquency.

In Delinquency and Drift (1964), David Matza criticizes prevailing positivist theories of deviant subcultures for placing too much emphasis on determinism and structural constraints while downplaying the agency and free will of those involved. He further contends that the norms guiding delinquent behavior are not fundamentally distinct from mainstream norms. Matza offers two related ideas: first, that delinquents rely on familiar moral “techniques of neutralization” to justify or excuse their rule-breaking; and second, that delinquent and conventional cultures significantly overlap, coexisting in what he calls a “subterranean” manner. Jock Young applied subterranean analysis in his book The Drugtakers (1972). Young argues that hedonism and despisement of work exist in all of society, and that the subculture of drug takers only accentuates these values.

Fine, Gary Alan, and Kleinman, Sherryl, in their article "Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis"(1979) define a subculture as a group that functions as a motivator for potential members to adopt the behaviors, artifacts, norms, and values shared by the group. Fine later developed the concept of "idioculture". According to him, idioculture is a system of knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by members of a small interactive group and forms the core of the production of the cultural content of a group. The scientific use of this concept enables focusing on interactions that can be empirically observed. Fine studies group dynamics, as well as the processes by which a cultural pattern becomes part of idioculture. To become a part of idioculture, a pattern must be: known to all members of the group, usable, functional, appropriate, and challenging.

In the article "Contraculture and Subculture" (1960), Milton Yinger presents one of the first sociological studies on "counterculture". Yinger continues his study of the counterculture (he changed the spelling of the concept by changing the prefix form “contra” to “counter”) in his book Countercultures (1982), in which he sees counterculture as a set of norms and values ​​of a group that drastically oppose the dominant norms and values ​​of the society of which that group is a part. He believes that countercultures express three types of protests against the wider society: direct opposition to dominant values; opposing power structures; and opposing established patterns of social exchange.

Michael Maffesoli’s book The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society (1988) argues that mass society has produced a tribalised society. “Neo-tribes,” as he calls them, are the product of that tribalization. They are similar to subcultures as they are also defined by common taste and lifestyles, but they are also different because neo-tribes have been shaped by the postmodern epoch – they have eclectic tastes, transitory membership, and multiple identities. Sarah Thornton, drawing on the concept of cultural capital developed by Pierre Bourdieu, introduced the notion of "subcultural capital", referring to the cultural knowledge of members of a subculture that is used to themselves from other groups. Ken Gelder, in his book Subcultures. Cultural Histories and Social Practice (2007) presents a cultural history of subcultures, from the early forms present in London’s ‘Elizabethan underworld’ to the modern day. Subcultures are non-conforming, but they are also  ‘immersed’ or self-absorbed. Gelder argues that subcultural identity is primarily based on shared narrative and narration.

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