Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies

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The focus is on: a) differences and similarities between fifteen-year-old male and female groups which occupy differently specialised positions within the field of popular youth culture; b) the relationship between such positions and forms of involvement in schooling and education. The research is further concerned to explore the relationships between social class, sexuality and patriarchy in the practices within and between the various groups. To place the study in context, I discuss the role of qualitative research on youth, and examine five major traditions, ranging from the Chicago School, the Functionalists, British research on deviance in the 1950s and 1960s, Sociology of Education, through to the work of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Criticism of these approaches forms the starting point of the theory and method of the research. The sample consists of over 120 girls and boys in a secondary school in the South of England. Five major groups are identified: Mod Boys, New Wave Girls, Boffin Boys, Boffin Girls and Criminal Boys. All the young people were studying for a number of GCE examinations (except the Criminal group). From this point of view the sample is unusual in British research, as it offers the possibility of studying forms of resistance and conformity among those whom the school considers as the pedagogic elite. The method used was ethnographic and entailed sharing the experiences of the various groups both inside the school (classroom and leisure spaces) and outside the school (leisure and family spaces), for a period of two years. In addition, I have interviewed the headteachers, all heads of subject departments, and younger members of staff. Tape recorded discussions took place in and out of school (street and other locations), with groups and individuals. The research provides the basis for a theory of youth cultural forms, which integrates structural, communicative and semiotic practices. The theory has arisen out of, and in part controlled the collection of the ethnographic data.

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In the early twenty first century, the mobile phone plays an integral role in helping young people shape their identity and achieve social goals. This means that designers of mobile phones are not only creating an artefact that will have a functional purpose for the end user, but one that will be saturated with cultural meanings. In response, the research conducted for this thesis aims to investigate the use of mobile phones in youth cultures so the social and cultural intricacies of interactions can be understood. Consistent with a user centred design approach, the insights from the user study are applied to the development of new technology. The result is the development of The Swarm; a mobile phone prototype that meets the specific social and cultural needs of the young users in the study. Integral to this is the development of a methodological approach that embeds cultural theory within Human Computer Interaction and more specifically, the user centred design process.

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This thesis focuses on the skateboarding industry in China as both a youth subculture and a cultural industry. I am investigating the transition between the two and examining how the emerging skateboarding industry operates through detailed analysis of the feelings, motivations and meanings attributed to it by its participants and the emerging strata of cultural workers. In order to achieve this research objective, this thesis has positioned the analysis in a triangle of forces between the development of Chinese skateboarding culture, the emerging skateboarding cultural industry and government interventions. This ethnographic study takes into account distinctive characters in the development of Chinese skateboarding communities that signify continuities inside contemporary Chinese youth cultures. I argue that such continuity is still embedded in the organisation of the Chinese skateboarding industry as a cultural industry, in both subcultural and corporate entrepreneurial practices. Moreover, this thesis contributes to ongoing discussions in the field of not only cultural studies but also of the political economic analysis of cultural/creative industries by examining the dynamic incorporations at play between the commercial and governmental forces at the centre of current debate around the inclusion of skateboarding in the Olympic Games, and the consequences of the sportisation of skateboarding in mainstream economic structures. Last but not least, this research captures the working conditions of the cultural labourers who are at the forefront of shaping and reshaping the Chinese skateboarding industry.

Over the past decade, popular music in Iran has steadily gained recognition beyond its borders. The Western media has increasingly provided an idealised and romanticised view of music-making in the Iranian underground. These reports create an image of popular musicians united under the same political and social challenges, while struggling to be heard against an oppressive regime. Contrary to these often overly politicised accounts, the current Iranian youth generation continues to explore its identity through the creation of new hybridised forms of popular music. This dissertation utilises first-hand accounts of musicians and those involved in Iranian popular music to analyse the current state of popular music in Iran since 1979. By recognising the heterogeneity of the Iranian post-revolutionary pop world, this study distinguishes the individual voices and experiences that make up the dynamic and multifaceted popular music scene in young, urban Iran and the Iranian diaspora. Opening with a historical account of music’s fluctuating relationship with regime censorship, this dissertation illuminates the many contradictions of popular music practice in a controlled climate that are also embedded within youth identity. Dichotomies continually emerge during this discourse, including globalisation vs. localism, authentic vs. borrowed, and home vs. homeland. These themes are prolific throughout the discussions of the illegal underground music scene in Tehran, the complexities of music in exile, and the final discussion of the role of popular music in the 2009 presidential election and subsequent Green Movement. Popular music continues to serve as an outlet for pleasure and entertainment while simultaneously representing the diverse voices of the young generation of Iranians in the world, as they seek to assert their identity and establish a future of their own.

Drawing from a cultural studies perspective, this dissertation examines digital, visual, and idiomatic expressions and platforms that both create and inform youth culture in Chile. In what ways have globalized media trends influenced cultural production, class-consciousness, and identity formation in Chilean youth culture, and how do these expressions mirror a global neoliberal agenda and shed light on a history of economic, political, and religious globalization in Chile? In order to answer these questions, this dissertation provides an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate changing media trends in Latin American youth culture. I argue that cultural influence of the United States and the rise of global neoliberalism have informed the production, reception, dissemination, and identity formation of this segment of Chilean society. This dissertation is organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 provides a historical contextualization of political and economic changes in Chile as well as the literature review and theoretical foundation for my analysis. Chapter 2 contends that the class-consciousness spectrum in Chilean television and film works as a reflection of consumption behavior and identity formation in youth that has been informed by a U.S. neoliberal agenda. Chapter 3 studies one particular young Chilean, Germán Garmendia, and his popular YouTube channel, "Hola Soy German," to argue that the spreadable and invisible factors that inform his global success as a grassroots, "latino" vlogger can be traced to U.S. digital commercialism. And lastly, Chapter 4 highlights digital texts of the student organization, "Chile Siempre," and their stylized performance of moral values through mediatized and digitalized spaces in order to reveal U.S. religious and cultural interventionism through evangelical missionaries in Chile. The triangulation and interdisciplinary approach of these texts expose a consistent history of political, economic, and religious transculturation and calls into question U.S. cultural influence in Chile that continues, while not overtly, to manifest in new media forms.