Subculture can be defined as a group of people that resonates within a larger culture but differentiates themselves through interests' values and norms contrary to their parent culture. Subcultures are formed on foundations based on social, cultural, political or sexual matters that differentiate them from the others. For years small groups have been identified by their way of life , customs , and ideas that differentiate them from the society, like the bikers, gays, goth, and hippies just to mention a few. Subcultures are, therefore, generally defined as groups united by sets of concepts, values, shared meanings and symbols specific to the members of that group (Conley, 2013).
An intriguing characteristics that gives life to these subcultures is the originality that its members have and their courage to stand and back their beliefs freely expressing themselves in their own defined identity. A subculture is formed through isolation from the larger societal cultures and taking up the risk to separate themselves with their own defined distinctive norms and values with disregard to what the normal society at large interprets of them (Griffiths et al. , 2017) . This rebellious kind of act is believed to create an awareness that they are created to gain a deeper understanding of individuals and groups who are not part of the standard culture and may have been dismissed or ignored.
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Sociologists have for the past years continued to try to get a full understanding of subculture as this topic is contentious evolving every day. Research has elaborated on a few characteristics that distinguish subcultures in society. For instance, they have diffuse networks where they do not consist of, formal membership, leadership or any explicit organizational structure (Bennett, 2004). In addition to sharing identity, the subcultures also share values, practices and cultural practices. The shared distinctive meaning differentiates them from the norm. This, however, does not break the boundary of distinguishing culture and subculture as both domains can share ideas and coexist together.
Sociologist has defined three existing dimensions of resistance that are practiced by subculture; passive or active , overt and covert, and , micro and macro-level (Williams 2017). Passive and active resistance is based on the member affiliate, intention to resist any discrimination or marginalization. Covert resistance is resistance that is intentional but goes unnoticed whereas overt is actions of the sub culturists that drive the people to notice the intention of resistance (Griffiths, 2017). The final dimension is based on what or for whom the resistance is directed to. For example, for the second resistance dimension, it may exist at the micro -level, developed as a psychological defense mechanism against bullies and peers, whereas macro-level resistance is usually directed at politicians or policymakers, such as Christian Abstinence Youth Groups calling for a ban on birth control.
In a n attempt to understand the concept of subculture in life, I recall having part of a small group in schools that classified themselves as Goth. We had embraced this culture from known Goth culture that began in England during the early 1980s. This, however, was different for us as a group because of our numbers were not as many to challenge the larger fraternity of students. Our deviance was challenged as we did not fit well within the dominant culture (Rachel, 2015). In my experience, I was able to understand that subcultures often face marginalization within the dominant society hence the need to strengthen their resistance to be recognizable.
In conclusion, subcultures are widely spread out across the world. They share distinctive characteristics that enable them to stand out from the others. This, however, does not guarantee their dominance in society. The boundaries between culture and subculture are hardly distinguished as both domains can coexist together as long as they are not in conflict affecting the others.
References
Bennett, A. (2004). Virtual Subculture? Youth, Identity and the Internet. After Subculture , 162-172. doi:10.1007/978-0-230-21467-5_12
Conley, D. (2013). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist (Third Edition) . New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Griffiths, H., Keirns, N., Scaramuzzo, G., Cody-Rydzewski, S., Strayer, E., & Vyrain, S. (2017). Introduction to Sociology 2e.
Rachel Buckne. (2015, June 7). Subcultures and Sociology. https://haenfler.sites.grinnell.edu/subcultural-theory-and-theorists/what-is-a-subculture/
Williams, R. (2017). Culture and Society . NY: Vintage Classic.
