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What determines whether an individual will fit with the culture of an organiza- tion? While a number of theories focus on the importance of cultural similarity at the time of hiring, there is considerably less research measuring the dynamics of fit once individuals enter an organization. This paper identifies imprinting as a possible conceptual tool for making sense of cultural fit. By further developing two aspects of fit, persistence and intersecting imprints, this paper develops a number of hypotheses about how individuals are inuenced by their previous experiences, and what might be moderating this inuence. I then test these hypotheses within the setting of project based organizations in the tech industry, a popular organizational form where individ- uals move between different projects, which may develop slightly different subcultures. This paper introduces a new dataset of 49 project based organizations which include 331 projects, 605 individuals, and 15,195 source code contributions, which allows for detailed study of the lasting inuence of project subculture on individual action as they move through different projects within the organization. This dataset provides significant new possibilities for analysis due to both its breadth and depth. Findings show that both initial and recent experiences play a role in shaping an individual's cultural fit. Moreover, more attention should be paid to the layered imprints of more recent experiences, as newer imprints provide at least as strong an effect on cultural fit as initial imprints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study critically examines the subculture of Jamband scene, particularly that of the band Phish, through Elijah Anderson's (2015) notion of the "white space." We demonstrate the existence of colorblind racism and denial of white privilege in the white space of Phish subculture, which is also emblematic of the Jamband subculture at large. This study utilizes content analysis drawing from social media comments that react to an article written by Headcount, a political organization in the Jamband subculture, titled "Phish Scene is So White: Let's Talk." The most salient themes we found were colorblind racism, anger, and denial in response to the article, fictitious situating Phish, along with the Jamband subculture at large, as an all-inclusive community. Our findings contextualize racialized meanings and sensemaking as rooted in a white supremacist racial ideology, which is promulgated by white anger and denial through deflection and sarcasm in racetalk. The racial implication of people of color navigating white spaces, prevailing forms of covert racism, and the meaning of diversity are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper explores how the BDSM (Bondage & Discipline/Dominance & submission/Sadism & Masochism) subculture successfully challenges the monogamous relationship norms of broader American culture by creating a culture where participants are expected to be in consensually non-monogamous (CNM) relationships. Background: Although many adults are neither married nor cohabiting, monogamy remains a fundamental normative building block of romantic relationships in American culture. I argue that the demographic composition of the BDSM subculture, along with its socially stigmatized position as a sexually deviant community, perfectly place it to challenge monogamous norms. Methods: This study uses data collected from extensive insider ethnographic observations, 70 in-depth interviews with BDSM participants in the mid-Atlantic US, and an internet convenience sample survey in 2017 with over 1,300 respondents from the US and Canada in the BDSM subculture. Results: The BDSM subculture has become "polynormative," meaning that the particular CNM practice of polyamory is expected there, the majority of participants prefer it, and increasing involvement in the BDSM subculture is associated with an increasing preference for polyamory. Polynormativity in the Scene de-emphasizes classic polyamorous subcultural rhetoric of "orientation" in favor of an attitude that anyone can do polyamory if they are self-aware and communicate effectively. Conclusions: The Scene has been extremely successful at undoing monogamous relationship norms, but its polynormativity creates problematic pressures against monogamy for some participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's willingness to cooperate in various types of exchanges (e.g. coworkers offering assistance, teamwork, etc.) has been shown to depend on the intentions they attribute to their exchange partners. For instance, people are more willing to reciprocate a favor to a coworker who is deemed helpful out of genuine kindness rather than a coworker who is similarly helpful but who seems motivated by an explicit cost-benefit calculus. I argue that such judgments of intention do not always lead to expected degrees of cooperation and suggest that the cultural context in which an exchange takes place alters these perceptions of intention and is consequently shaped by them. This paper addresses an important gap in the literature on social exchange theory, which has for the most part limited the role of culture to explaining people's willingness to enter into exchange relationships with others. I expand on this work to suggest how cultures - in particular, organizational subcultures - shape the outcomes of exchanges after they have already been initiated. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processes of social control are an underdeveloped area of study in music subcultures. This paper reports social control by analyzing the existence of "crews"—groups within the hardcore music subculture that have properties of gangs. A key component in the development of control is what I call "mythifacation," a process of creating an aura that surrounds crews. Ethnographic data for the paper was collected between September 2007 and January 2008 from fourteen hardcore music events in mid-Atlantic cites and also from three recorded interviews. Results show that hardcore crews' control over the subculture is perpetuated by a dialectic of mythifacation, reification and fetishism. Elements of exclusion reinforce possessive boundaries that crews establish according to their local subculture, and phenomenal attraction to hardcore crews will continue to promote their formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Cultural sociology gives us insight into inequality in ways that sociologists have been hesitant to utilize. But it is time to use the tools of cultural sociology to examine areas such as subcultures and consumption, two areas that have been neglected, to see how diverse cultural patterns and practices are significant contributors to patterns of inequality. The paper will take a closer look at the issue of inequality in connection to research on subcultures and countercultures, the connected issue of consumption, and also the nonprofit organizations that have been founded to address these concerns at the local level. Theoretical considerations of structure and culture will also be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to consider punk as more than a "neo-tribe" (Bennett 1999) of young people simply engaged in a fluid musical/social scene, more than a youthful protest, more than a fashion. I will work to make a case for punk as more even than a politically concerned subculture, arguing that it can appropriately and usefully be considered a cultural formation that is a nexus of subculture and social movement, a space which perhaps requires consideration as its own category. To aid in this exploration, I have selected a particular part of punk on which to focus, for punk is not a singular or simple cultural category. In general, the area of concern will be anarcho (anarchist) punk, also known as DIY (do it yourself) punk, and in particular, the focus will be on the Minneapolis anarcho-punk collective, Profane Existence (PE). This paper makes the claim that PE is engaged in something more complex, more action-oriented and more specifically political than categorization as a subculture would seem to imply. To attempt a remedy on this point by categorizing PE as a political subculture characterizes its content and messages, but not its goals, actions or activism. This exploration of Profane Existence works to provides researchers with the framework for considering such political subcultures as interesting cites of true cultural and political resistance which are actively engaged in pursuit of social change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the overlooked subject of the occupational subculture by examining the case of country blues musicians as an occupational subculture in the 1930s and also as African Americans living in a white dominated society. Using ideas about myths and historical segregation and inequality, I argue that the occupational subculture of African American country blues musicians of the 1930s was a unique position within the larger society that led these musicians to employ myths and behaviors designed to enhance their status within their community and to enable them to become successful, if in a limited manner, within a society dominated by whites. Common myths in the Mississippi delta within the African American community were used by artists to establish their place within a society that was supposedly free and capitalist but alternatively racist. The myths particular to the larger African American community function to maintain in-group solidarity by legitimating the position of members of the occupational subculture who did not share this mythical status. In what follows, I examine the uses of myths in the occupational subculture of country blues musicians, concentrating on Robert Johnson. Then, I present the lyrical exerts of his songs to demonstrate the use of myths. Both the occupational subculture and the larger community of the Mississippi Delta accepted and perpetuated the myths but this acceptance was couched within a complicated and unique web of economic and race relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork to describe an anomalous social space within the field of homelessness in San Francisco, that of "pro" recyclers, homeless men who spend much of their time collecting recyclables for redemption. Unlike the panhandlers, broken shelter-dwellers and small-time hustlers of San Francisco's Tenderloin and other skid row zones, the recyclers orient much of their existence around work. By working within a unique economic niche provided by the state supported recycling industry, and by drawing on support from sympathetic residents and advocates, the recyclers, I argue, create an unusual homeless subculture which drew them close to the hobos of the late 19th and early 20th. The second part of the article uses Loïc Wacquant's manifesto against sociological "neo-romanticism" to interrogate the sociological implications of this rather surprising street subculture. I argue that his emphasis on the moralism of contemporary urban ethnographers blinds him to the very real preoccupation with morality and ethics among poor people themselves. The recyclers' concern to demonstrate their mutual respect and usefulness represent, I believe, not post hoc justifications of desperate survival strategies, but a dogged, often passionate collective effort to create a truly different experience and understanding of homelessness itself. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formulation of the "young adult" in life course literature has extended the transition from adolescence to adulthood so far into the life cycle, and with such blurry boundaries, that adulthood appears to have been devoured by an eternal youth. Those who are critical of this shift, including Calcutt (1998) and Côté (2000), have argued that an extended adolescence has led to behavior in the fourth and fifth decades of our lives that bears more and more of a resemblance to that of the second and third. The response by some has been to "close ranks" around what I call the "adult elite." I argue that the fear that traditional notions of adulthood were under siege, along with a growing disillusionment with old criteria for judging adulthood in the postwar era, created a need to find new ways to exclude individuals from the ranks of adulthood in order to protect its elite status. Musicultural affiliationâ?”affiliation with a subculture based on a musical genreâ?”provided an ideal place to draw the kind of arbitrary boundary necessary within this "us" and "them" framework of adulthood, considering their connotations of youth and rebellion, and more importantly, musiculture's intimate relationships with consumerism and mass or "lowbrow" culture. If the confounding of musicultural identities with youth rebellion and mass consumerism blocks adult affiliates from "adult" statusâ?”and the respect and authority that goes with itâ?”affiliates may feel real or imagined pressure to distance themselves from their affiliation as part of "growing up." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociologists at the University of Birmingham, U.K. began studying the ideological and consumptive dimensions of subcultures in the 1970s. Rooted in Marxian and Gramscian analyses of power and hegemony, Birmingham scholars argued on the one hand that style provided a "magical solution" for subcultural youth by taking their money but not improving their lives, and on the other hand that culture industries destroyed the authenticity of the subculture. Since then, much subcultural research has focused on style and consumption without adequately considering either the ideological underpinnings of the subcultures in question, nor the concept of authentic identity, primarily because of the serious critiques levied against the Birmingham School for their interest in ideology over empiricism. Our research reclaims the need for the study of subcultural ideology and authenticity without returning to Marxist/semiotic analyses. Using ethnographic methods and a symbolic interactionist framework, we study the meanings that young people attach to their own subcultural behaviors and identities and emphasize how subculturalists resist conspicuous consumption in lieu of the development of authenticity through ideological commitment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that peer acceptance, or sociometric status, is positively associated with school achievement and adjustment during adolescence. However, several subcultural criminologists contend that disadvantaged boys are often able to gain peer status through violence, and that membership in violent groups undermines future academic attainment. Building on these ideas, we use peer network data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine whether prestige within highly violent peer networks increases male risks of high school dropout. Consistent with a hypothesis derived from subcultural theories, we find that low SES boys with high status in violent groups are at much greater risks of high school dropout than other students. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I introduce two continuous measures of subculture membership (ideological embeddedness and behavioral-relational involvement), and use them to examine the relationship between membership in the jamband subculture and the affective meanings (evaluation, potency, and activity) associated with ten identities that are relevant to that subculture. I advance three hypotheses. First, I expect the continuous measures of membership to be stronger predictors of meanings than a dichotomous measure. Second, I predict that ideological embeddedness mediates the relationship between involvement and meanings. Third, I hypothesize that continuous membership is related positively to the evaluation and potency of subculture identities (a deadhead, a hippie, a phishhead, a raver, a stoner, a tourrat, a vendor), and related negatively to the evaluation and potency of authority identities (a capitalist, a nark, a police officer). Using data from self-administered surveys (N = 352), I find that continuous measures of membership provide more predictive power than a dichotomous measure. Also, I find that embeddedness mediates the relationship between involvement and six identity meanings. Finally, I find that continuous membership is related positively to the seven subculture identities and related negatively to the three authority identities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Florida's (2002) creative class theory has ignited controversy on the role of diversity in promoting social differentiation across US cities and metropolitan areas. This paper extends this theory to the neighborhood level and empirically examines the role that population diversity plays in the social and economic growth of Chicago neighborhoods by attracting new creative and talented residents. It draws on Fischer's (1975) subcultural theory of urbanism and recent scholarship on immigration to explain the social processes through which the diversity can generate new creative energies. Moreover, this paper adds to Florida's controversial conceptualization of diversity a new, more rigorous definition that integrates multi-ethnic, linguistic, immigrant, and regional components. Consistent with predictions, the findings show that diversity attracts increasing concentrations of creative class and highly skilled individuals, even after accounting for spatial spillovers. However, unlike bohemians, scientists or educators, the professionals' group tends to wither away from diverse neighborhoods, indicating the need to significantly reconsider Florida's definition of the creative class. Finally, the results also underscore the importance of accounting for the dynamic social processes in which, by impacting neighborhood growth, diversity potentially undermines itself. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research seeks to better understand the principle motivating forces behind Korean student activism. Two competing theoretical models - lineage socialization and generation units - are tested using 1111 self-administered survey data collected at ten Korean universities in 1993. Both bivariate and multiple regression techniques are used to examine the relative influence of the inter- and intra-generational factors upon students' political learning and protest activities. Findings in this study are not consistent with the predictions of the lineage socialization model which stresses the intergenerational value continuity. It was found, instead, that peer groups played a greater role in the politicization process through friendship networks and peer subcultures, insofar as politically active students are more likely than non-active students to be influenced by cohort subculture, show high levels of involvement in organizational activities on campus, and frequently engage in political discussions with their generational peers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exposition analyzes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer subculture(s) in terms of the reproduction of gendered hierarchies and stratification that mirrors the dominant, heteronormative Western culture. It is found in literature pertaining to identitiy politics and the body politic which LGBTQ subcultures utilize in attempts to resist dominant culture, hierarchies that reproduce and cater to heteronormatives are found pervasive. Utilizing the theories of Pierre Bourdieu, reproduction of gendered stratification is found in habitus and fields through cultural restraints, practices as a means of capital, ownership of LGBTQ identities as specialization, and the marketing of the Queer as a rational, money-making means. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at gender intervention in American comic books since the late sixties. Since this period women and men have intervened in this culture to transform the role and representation of women in comic book culture. This paper introduces the term modes of gender intervention to point to the complex array of practices and meanings found in gender intervention. Modes of gender intervention involve different sites and practices as well as different politics, identities and representations. In the case of comic book culture, interventions occur at sites like publishing, shops, conventions and the Internet and in practices ranging from creating comic books and fanzines to organizing panels and organizations. And content can range from feminist interventions to autobiographies from a female perspective to diverse female identities and representations. Also unlike most feminist media research, which focuses on female consumers, this paper looks at gender intervention in production and consumption. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methamphetamine remains a major drug of abuse throughout the United States, yet occupies a peculiar place in the Northeast in that it remains a club drug rather than street drug. The drug has yet to diffuse beyond the confines of club subcultures in New York City. Club subcultures differ from the street economy in their organization, their placement within the class structure, and the social networks involved. The varying contexts of club subcultures have varying epidemiological implications for the use of methamphetamine, other club drugs, and assorted additional health issues. In this paper, the authors use data from the Club Drugs & Health project, a mixed-methods study aimed at further understandings of club drug use among club-going young adults (18-29), to explore methamphetamine use in club subcultures. They provide estimates of the rates of methamphetamine use as it varies across the diverse range of the club going population. In-depth assessments provided qualitative data on methamphetamine use in club subcultures. The areas described include the initiation into methamphetamine use amongst this population, transitions to other patterns of use, and the role of methamphetamine within club subcultures. Ultimately, the diversity of club subcultures provides insights to the crucial role of context in the use of illegal drugs and its associated risks. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies of masculinity have shown the problematic nature of men's negotiation of their identities in relation to hegemonic masculinity. In the DIY punk subculture, members actively resist hegemony by creating a countercultural space for the articulation of art, music and activism. In examining the question of how men negotiate their identities around the hegemonic ideal, I conducted ten in-depth interviews with men involved with the DIY punk subculture in Long Island, New York. While the men all had different experiences, they all found the DIY punk scene to be a place where they could collectively articulate alternative forms of masculinity and gender performance. The main problem facing these men is the struggle to continue to articulate alternative masculinities outside of the subcultural space in their dealings with everyday life in mainstream society, especially in the workplace. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how processes of aestheticization in popular culture alter cognitive structures and modes of experience. The emerging strand of post-subcultural studies has thus far paid little attention to the changing forms of reflexivity and techniques of the self informing the boundary practices around youth cultural or other social identities. The paper offers a brief detour through the debates on aestheticization and prosthetic culture suggesting that the notion of aesthetic reflexivity is a useful analytical concept that helps conceptualize the complex and contradictory sensibilities cultivated in youth and popular cultures. Based on an elaboration of Schütz' notion of experience, the paper sketches out how aestheticization might be construed as an intervention into the construction of reality and experience. This is followed by a more specific discussion of stylization and sensation as two significant dimensions of aestheticization in popular youth dance cultures. Both, stylization (as a subjunctive mode of acting 'as-if') as well as sensation (as an 'endocolonisation' of the body) create new border zones of possible becoming. However, instead of fully dislodging the experiential paradigm of authenticity they prompt new devices for reconfiguring the boundaries of bodies, selves and identities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the Immigration Act of 1965, some of the fastest growing groups of immigrants have originated from South Asia, particularly from Bangladesh. These immigrants come to the United States in search of economic opportunities and educational opportunities for their children. They strive to uphold their cultural values and traditions even while living in the United States. These immigrants have created ethnic communities in which they are able to form a Bengali subculture in the United States and better resist assimilation. These immigrants also strive to raise their second-generation children in traditional Bengali manner, so that they will also resist assimilation into the American culture. However, since the second-generation Bengalis have more exposure to the American culture in school and the media, they have two sets of values; one that reflects the traditional Bengali culture taught by their parents and ethnic community, and one that is more modern and westernized American value system. The second-generation Bengalis will integrate these two value systems, but will be more inclined to one set of values depending on how much assimilation has occurred. One of the ways in which assimilation can be seen in second-generation Bengalis is through marriage. Marriage plays a major role in the Bengali community, especially for females. Not only are Bengali immigrants faced with the pressures of fulfilling the functions of marriage, but they must also deal with issues of choosing between traditional arranged marriages or dating, endogamy or exogamy, and changing gender roles. These deal with assimilation of Bengali immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between sport participation and adolescents alcohol and substance use in the context of other peer activities. Focusing on sport participation we analyze data from a nationally representative sample of Icelandic adolescents, exploring the variation in the use of alcohol and illegal drugs between three different types of adolescents subcultures taking both the family and the school context into consideration. The findings show that alcohol and substance use varies significantly between peer groups, based on what kind of leisure patterns they engage in. More importantly, the findings show that adolescent engaging in sports are less likely to use alcohol and drugs even if they come in contact with alcohol and drug using peers. The findings suggest that it is important to understand adolescents' sport in the context of other peer leisure activities that define the modern adolescent society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on theorist David Riesman's writings on punk subculture, and integrates them with the writings, typologies and theoretical musings of other theorists. According to David Riesman, in 1950 a change of social character was on going in the U.S. which refers to is a societal change based on an inner directed American character to a society dependent on an other directed character. Rock and roll innovators, like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins and Sam Phillips transcended the times and helped put a sound to the ambivalence being felt amongst the youth pertaining to the changes ongoing in society.

In light of greater attention being paid to "moral values" in the wake of the 2004 Presidential elections, a possible resurgence of the "culture wars", and the international growth in moral and/or ideologically-informed phenomena emphasizes the compelling need for sociological explanations addressing why certain forms of moral discourse and understanding become dominant within a given society. Three perspectives that attempt to explain the rise and dominance of certain forms of moral discourse are memetics, the metaphorical reasoning of George Lakoff and moral vocabularies. Memetics contends that "memes" spread in a pattern analogous to the transmission of specific genes. Lakoff contends that much of recent political discourse appeals to particular dominant metaphorical "frames" such as the "strict father" and "nurturing parent" frames. The moral vocabulary paradigm contends that coherent forms of moral discourse are comprised of differing moral resources whose compatibility with the larger host society reflects the degree to which fragments of the moral vocabulary becomes accepted within the host society. A comparison of these three paradigms is conducted in order to demonstrate the relative explanatory strengths and limitations of each perspective and why particular forms of moral discourse have become dominant within forms of political and moralistic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subcultures and dominant cultures can best be classified within hegemonic frame works that assign cultures hierarchical symbolic meanings. However, few scholars of culture stress the empowering aspects of knowledge on subordinate groups. One of the main challenges for scholars within the field of cultural studies is examining how subordinate groups use dominant frameworks to empower themselves. In this paper I will fill this gap by focusing on power relationships within the field of knowledge, with an emphasis on semiotic classification and the reproduction of power via structures of knowledge among dominate and subordinate subjects employing the theories of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and Patricia Hill Collins. I choose these authors because they hold historical and empirical theories of power relations vis-à-vis marginal and/or dominate cultures with regards to how power is reproduced within paradigms of knowledge that are symbolic and relational, gendered and racial. I will examine throughout this paper the strengths and weakness of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault's theory concluding with Patricia Hill-Collins' theory of intersecting forms of domination as a holistic way knowledge and discourse can be viewed not only as oppressive, but empowering among marginal groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article refers to the tendency for ethnic religion to reinforce traditions among immigrants. Religion plays an important role in ethnic reproduction as it can shape immigrant culture and intergenerational relations. It has been explained here how ethnic religion, particularly evangelical Christianity, can convert immigrant parent-child relations. Christianity enables immigrants to know family life in the American evangelical subculture. The immigrant families are restructured by transforming the moral vocabulary of the family from one filial duty to religious discipleship.

The Cantonese speaking Guangdong Province (Canton Province) has higher fertility than many other parts of China, although it has higher income and education. Some people believe Cantonese have a pronatal culture. This paper compares the fertility behavior of Cantonese Chinese immigrants and Mandarin Chinese immigrants in the United States to access the effects of subcultural norms. I found that Cantonese have higher fertility and more traditional familiar settings than other Chinese in the United States, even when immigration status, demographic characteristics and places of origin are controlled. However, Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong actually have significantly lower fertility, which those who are from Vietnam have persistently higher fertility. Education plays a very role in depressing education and explaining the variation of fertility in Chinese immigrants. English ability, education, labor force participation, income and home ownership all help to explain the Chinese fertility behavior. These results also imply that the "exceptionally" higher fertility in Guangdong may be due to its low urbanization rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organizational forms that give rise to social movements have received much attention by social movement scholars (McAdam1982, Morris1984; Fantasia 1988; Taylor and Whittier 1992). Little research has looked at the relationship between gangs and social movements. The skinhead subculture provides ripe ground to examine the rise of right wing movements, and the organizational forms from which they emerge. That skinhead gangs provide a nexus between social movement formation and mobilization should come as no surprise, given the historical precedence of street gangs embracing politics. This paper examines skinheads as a social movement by looking at its origins in a gang subculture. Through ethnographic research conducted since 1997, we examine the process by which the skinhead subculture became politicized in the mid 1980s. We argue that the social organization of previously existing gangs provided the impetus for the rise of the skinheads as a social movement. In addition to these internal resources, skinhead politicization was facilitated through network ties with adult white supremacist groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This presentation will explore the changing conduct norms of a new marijuana using subculture: the Hip Hop Blunt Subculture. We will first discuss the emergence of this new subculture and how it distinguishes itself from previous marijuana using subcultures. Based on the analysis of qualitative data from direct ethnographic observations and open-ended depth interviews with 120 marijuana users in New York City, this paper will then describe some the new conduct norms followed by members of the Blunt subculture. Conduct norms regarding sharing, use/non-use, and the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, and their relationship to market and policy factors will be discussed and explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews theory and research related to the role of subcultures in cultural production and makes the case that alternative sport subcultures, even as their sports become increasingly commercialized, have the potential to challenge dominant commercial messages about the cultural values of sport and to shape the production of new sport forms. The paper includes an analysis of recent data on alternative sports and makes the case that there are gaps in the research that prevent examination of the mechanisms through which alternative sport participants might effectively mount a challenge to outsider control of their sports. Further research should empirically document active attempts by participants to achieve or maintain control over the organization and presentation of their sports and should seek to measure whether observed attempts are effective in contesting commercial control of these activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon an ethnographic study of the straight edge subculture, a clean-living movement connected to the punk rock scene, this paper examines how members of youth subcultures understand their involvement as they grow older in their scene. As they age, members of subcultures face more choices than simply exiting the group or maintaining their previous involvement. Not all members drop out entirely; indeed, most find new expressions for their subcultural values as their involvement wanes. They create new meanings and incorporate new understandings that are compatible with life outside of the subculture. I first examine older members? critical and reflexive understandings of straight edge. Next, I reveal how older members continue their involvement, focusing on strategies they employ to keep the identity relevant to their lives. I conclude by discussing how both those who leave and those who stay redefine their connection to the straight edge identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the reconceptualisation of the term ?subculture?, as used in sociological work on youth, music, style and identity, as a reflexively articulated lifestyle strategy (Chaney, 1996). Beginning with a brief overview of the subcultural theory of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and post-CCCS work, during which it is noted how criticisms of the CCCS focused on subcultural theory rather than the term ?subculture? itself, it is subsequently illustrated how subculture has remained a standard, and increasingly arbitrary, concept in the sociology of youth. The problems inherent in defining subculture in abstract theoretical terms, it is argued, are increased through the media?s appropriation and introduction of subculture into the public sphere which has resulted in subculture becoming a framing device for a range of youth discourses embedded in everyday life. The second part of the paper contends that if subculture is to retain relevance as a sociological concept it must begin to engage with the way in which subcultural meanings are constructed and contested by young people themselves in the context of their everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women, coming to the realization that conception is not simple often end up on a quest to discover everything they can about infertility to not only make sense of their own experience, but to understand what it all means. This quest I am arguing transforms those experiencing infertility into members of an ?Infertility Culture?, and those outside of this culture have no idea that this other world exists. I plan to make visible in this paper a ?culture of infertility? that both shapes and reflects the infertility experience. I plan on utilizing qualitative research methods to focus on the unique sub-culture created by the infertility experience and the ways in which this infertility culture is constructed through gender relations, knowledge/language, the experience, and the infertility process itself. The infertility experience challenges the core of what it means to be a man or woman?the ability to procreate, and to carry a child to term. Basically, I want to tell a story about the struggle so many of us are on to become pregnant by telling other women?s stories, to hopefully improve the process for others in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a disaster, a set of norms and patterns of action emerges to structure the behaviors of those experiencing the crisis event. These distinctive norms and behaviors are termed the "disaster subculture". This paper examines how the disaster subculture influences evacuation behavior and informal support exchanges for families with at-risk members during a natural disaster. Data is used from a detailed survey conducted immediatly following a massive ice storm in North Carolina in 2002. Logistic regression models are used to evaluate how the presence of vulnerable individuals within a household influences the family’s behaviors during a natural disaster. Results show that families with young children are significantly more likely to evacuate, while families that include a member over the age of 65 were likely to rely on neighbors for assistance during the disaster. These findings shed light on the phenomena of evacuation failure by explaining why different families select different courses of action during a disaster event. Since behavior during a disaster is influenced by the unique norms of the disaster subculture, it is important to understand the role it plays is shaping action during a crisis event. These findings help explain why some families select counterproductive courses of action such as refusing to leave a threatened area as a disaster develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers a historical perspective on the car as a cultural object that incorporates various social theories in a contradictory development of auto production and consumption. History of mass consumption in the U.S.; Limitation of the Frankfurt School's theory of the car as mass individuality; Assumption underlying Fordism; Example of subversive consumer subcultures developed by theorist Dick Hebdige. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on data from 89 in-depth interviews, six years of participant observation, and content analysis of postings from an on-line discussion group, this paper explores the phenomenon of large-scale gay dance parties commonly referred to as, circuit parties. The ?circuit? consists of a continuous series of annual, international dance events. Prominent examples include: White Party in Palm Springs, Morning Party at Fire Island, NY, Black and Blue in Montreal, Winter Party in Miami Beach, Hell Ball and Magnitude in San Francisco, Black Party in New York, and the Gay/Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney. These circuit events last from 2 to 5 days and often draw tens of thousands of participants to a single party event. Circuit boys, as commonly referred to in the scene, gather with friends, use recreational drugs (e.g., ecstasy (MDMA), alcohol, Special K (Ketamine), GHB (Gamma Hydroxybutyrate), crystal (methamphetamine) and cocaine), dance to house music, and often engage in sex over the course of a circuit weekend. While widely reviled by social conservatives, condemned by law enforcement, and considered pathological by public health authorities, AIDS organizations, and numerous prominent gay intellectuals, my research suggests that circuit events now function to meet a variety of important social and social psychological needs for some gay men. My work also suggests that participation in the circuit culture leads to the development of various patterns of resiliency, and circuit participation frequently also embodies countercultural values and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper examines how punk and alternative rock subcultures have created their own commercially independent media, such as independent record labels and fanzines, through a so-called "do-it-yourself ethic." The formation of independent media is a response to the growing concentration of power among corporate conglomerates in the entertainment and music industries. The do-it-yourself ethic gives people involved with punk and alternative rock music democratic access to a means of creative expression, empowering them to be cultural participants rather than just consuming spectators. In many cases, it also enables them to use music as a vehicle of protest and activism, a kind of "public sphere" that gives voice to viewpoints marginalized by mainstream media while facilitating dialogue about critical social issues. My paper gives special attention to the "riot grrrl" movement and subculture, a collective of young women who sought to revitalize feminism by using fanzines and music as media for consciousness-raising and community organizing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil War reenacting consumes the time, money, efforts, and imaginations of all those who don the uniform of the fallen soldier. Unlike some avocations, however, the efforts of reenactment participants evoke historical concerns bearing more social significance than a mere pastime. The reliving of this pivotal event in our country?s history brings to light a number of social issues our society is grappling with in modern times. Questions of the individual in modernity, historical representation, and race and gender relations all manifest themselves in the theatre of the reenacting battlefield. To date, most research on Civil War reenacting has been done by academics in the arenas of folklore and cultural studies. This paper attempts to rectify the lack of research placing reenactment in a sociological context. The research explores the meanings of reenactment for the participant, as well as the crises of historical representation along race and gender lines occurring in the arena. Qualitative methods are used to examine the topic; participant observation at a battle reenactment and four in-depth interviews with reenactors have been conducted for the research thus far (interviews and participant observations are ongoing, however). A theoretical framework of collective memory to examine Civil War reenacting is utilized, while acknowledging emergent themes manifested in the data. Historian Alon Confino?s assertion that the past is constructed as myth to serve a particular community, a past which individuals are committed to constructing to sanctify community and individual meanings, is discussed in the context of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of popular culture and corporate culture producers in perpetuating consumerism as an ideology. Drawing on work from both Cultural Studies and postmodernism, the paper discusses the theoretical contributions each has made to the study of culture, as well as to the study of resistance to dominant cultural ideologies on the part of subcultural groups. This review calls for a return of sociology to the study of cultural production and re-production, identifying both methodological and theoretical contributions the discipline can make in the study of culture and social change. In particular, the paper suggests that further studies of groups who seem to be resisting dominant cultural messages may be helpful in determining potential spaces for human agency in resisting consumer culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ambiguities and contradictions for women embedded in one gender regime (Connell, 2002) in sport. Specifically, it examines the gender regime in the skydiving community, and the ways in which women are marginalized in this culture. Through an examination of normative social practices and rituals, it is argued that, despite a rhetoric of gender equality in skydiving, women are marginalized, sexualized, and trivialized through the culture of skydiving. The paper also explores the ways that women perpetuate the systems of their oppression in order to enjoy the privileges offered them through the dominant masculine culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1964 1.7 million Americans worked in restaurants/bars, and in 1994 the number had reached 7.1 million (Dickinson and Schaeffer 2001, 58). The importance of studying restaurant workers becomes explicit when their crucial function in both the economy and daily life is considered. This study focuses on the workers as a social group, and their interactions with each other. Restaurant workers are a distinct subculture. Their shared lifestyle is quite different than that of other work groups. Major indicators of this are the hours that restaurant people work and the high availability of alcohol and occupational acceptance of its use. A variety of aspects of restaurant workers are under investigation including their carousing habits, work as performance, worker interaction, and a few race and gender issues. One objective is to empirically demonstrate that a subculture exists by illustrating the various components of it. Data was collected using a multi-method approach: participant observation, survey, and interview. I worked as a waitress at a bar and grille in a Midwestern city holding the dual role of waitress and participant observer. At the end of this phase I administered questionnaires to restaurant workers at the site and at two other restaurants in the area. In addition, I conducted eight interviews with wait staff from the original site for in-depth qualitative data. The restaurant subculture is one that has been generally unnoticed by sociologists who study both occupations and culture. There is an array of literature dealing with restaurant workers from fields beyond the social sciences. One of the purposes of this research is to bring a sociological perspective to the literature on restaurant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate crime de prés via the lenses of anomie and material happiness. Specifically, the anomie theories of Durkheim and Merton become the basis upon which the fundamental function of external regulatory forces is examined. Have these forces lost their potency to regulate desires, enabling individuals to reap rewards without thought of the consequences to the individual stockholders from whom the rewards are being taken? Have individuals within these corporations that have succumbed to corporate crime been overtaken by inextinguishable thirsts, blinding them to all potential repercussions that result from their misdeeds; enabling them to myopically focus on the satisfaction of the immediate need before them? Is their behavior explained by the theory of differential access? Do they lack social support? Did they receive erratically delivered social support or coercion? Does the ?decommodification of labor? act to force people to operate against their will, stealing from their fellow human? How do market inequalities produce crime? Can general strain theory be used to explain corporate crime? These issues have been grouped into three categories: (1) Societal issues; (2) individual issues and (3) market issues. To answer the aforementioned questions, this paper examines corporate crime as it relates to each of these components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal norms emerge as embedded features of face-to-face behavior, coinciding with other controlling properties of interaction?interactants? status, maturity, intentions, and comfort in social settings. The present paper proposes a theory of interaction general enough to embrace all of these matters. Based in recent discoveries about the brain, the theory provides a model of brain-behavior mechanisms active in attachment. In previous research, we have used computational methods to discover the implications of the model for understanding core patterns in social interaction. But the model can also be used to derive implications about normative behavior. In this paper, we consider the potential applications of the theory for explaining conformity pressures in small groups, and show how the model explains the emergence of informal norms. We illustrate the argument using examples familiar to sociologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an exploratory visual study of the Louisville Extreme Skate Park, which opened in April 2002 in Louisville, Kentucky. The focus of analysis is the social landscape; how different athletic groups in the park relate to one another, the organizational structure of the park, the behavioral constructs of skate park visitors, and the social interactions found in this unique recreational facility. The objective is to gain a better understanding of the creation of new subcultures and how social bonds form in an urban subcultural setting with the emergence of new architectural structures. The skater subculture articulates members? identities and opposition to the dominant culture through the creation of in-group jargon, distinctive dress and lifestyles, rituals, the negotiation of cultural space, and expressive consumer products that declare them as ?different? from mainstream culture. Qualitative photo-elicitation interviews were used to examine the dynamics of this social landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music, art, and theater critics have long invoked "scenes," but social scientists have barely addressed the concept. This paper outlines a theory of scenes as elements of urban/neighborhood life. Scenes have risen in salience as analysts recognize that jobs and distance explain less, and amenities and lifestyle are critical elements driving economic development and migration. Our theory of scenes is more than 1. neighborhood 2. physical structures 3. persons labeled by race, class, gender, education, etc. We include these but stress 4. the specific combinations of these and activities (like attending a concert) which join them. These four components are in turn defined by 5. the values people pursue in a scene. General values are legitimacy, defining a right or wrong way to live; theatricality, a way of seeing and being seen by others; and authenticity, as a meaningful sense of identity. We add sub-dimensions, like egalitarianism, traditionalism, exhibitionism, localism, ethnicity, transgression, corporateness, and more. All the dimensions combine in specific ideal-types of scenes like Disney Heaven, Beaudelaire's River Styx, and Bobo's Paradise. Simultaneous with our theorizing, we have assembled over 700 indicators of amenities from Starbucks to public schools for every zip code in the US. We code the indicators using the above analytical dimensions of scenes, to model the processes that lead neighborhoods to develop or decline. All the above components join in our models. We stress not a single process like gay tolerance or Veblenesque conspicuousness, but how multiple subcultures support distinct scenes and development patterns. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that there is a large party subculture in America that is especially prevalent among economically privileged youth, that this party subculture constitutes a major form of secret- in the sense of not officially labeled- deviance, and that this secret deviance has among its correlates a passive disengagement and dissent from conventional political participation during the period of emerging adulthood. Becker and others successfully encouraged some sociological criminologists to give critical attention to the social and legal problems of official deviants, but relatively little attention has been given to the more socially and numerically prominent party subculture of unofficial secret deviants identified in this paper. Our analysis of data from a national longitudinal survey of adolescents indicates that these more advantaged secret outsiders are now joined with less advantaged and officially known outsiders in dissenting from identification and investment in conventional political parties and processes that emphasize the focal values of Western democratic consumer societies. Both through non-participatory passive dissent, and through active dissent involving the support of outsider candidates, these subcultural adherents have the potential to markedly influence future electoral outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, the hip hop subculture has been a medium for African Americans to express their collective identity as an underrepresented and marginalized group within the United States and its institutions. For scholars and non-scholars alike, the growing presence of young white males within this subculture is a puzzling cultural event. This honors thesis examines the participation of white male youths in the subculture of hip hop. The primary focus of the study is on why these white youth seek to become members. Although the discourse of white males in hip hop is varied, this study challenges the existing discourse with empirical evidence and argues that class, race, and gender are fundamental to their presence in hip hop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the study of subcultures has largely been abandoned by American sociologists over the last two decades, we propose a methodological approach that takes seriously Fine and Kleinman's (1979) call for the examination of subcultural artifacts in the context of an interactionist framework. Using the specific case of "emo," a youth-based musical subculture that has emerged through the punk and hardcore scenes within the last decade, we develop a strategy for identifying a representative subcultural sample and using the artifacts of self-proclaimed emo bands to describe and analyze the organization and structure of the emo community. This framework allows us to examine subcultural adolescent groups in two ways: as local formal groupings (i.e. bands), and as a larger, more global emo "community" (comprised of both producers/bands and consumers/audience). We conclude by examining the extent to which the contours of subcultural communities can be adequately understood in musical, spatial, ideological, or temporal terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]