THE POOR AND THE HIP: SOME MANIFESTATIONS OF CULTURAL LEAD.

The article discusses the concept of subculture. When a segment of the population of a society is said to adhere to a subculture, this generally means that the people in that segment have been observed to share a distinctive pattern of values, beliefs and behaviors, and to exhibit a style of life which differs significantly from the dominant culture and other subcultures. It further means that the characteristics of the subcultural style of life are perpetuated by socialization, and are passed on from generation to generation. Social scientists have found the concept subculture theoretically productive and challenging, and have extended the label to apply to the cultural life of such diverse aggregates as delinquents, suburbanites, inmates, blue-color workers, hippies, the poor, and drug users. The process of discovering a subculture, and the implications of that process for the discoverer and the discovered, are promising matter for the sociology of knowledge. The social scientist perceives some collective, consensual and perpetuating (or perpetuated) social patterning within his candidate group, and if his criteria are met, he speaks of a subculture.