Essay on Youth Culture - 1434 Words

Essay on Youth Culture The 60’s and 70’s saw the rise of youth culture. Youth culture can be seen as a particular pattern of beliefs, values, symbols and activities that a group of young people are seen to share. Along with the rise of youth culture came the theories developed on it. The theories developed in the 60’s were mainly functionalism. Functionalists believe that society or a social structure is like a biological structure and that all social institutions function for the survival of society. As social structures change by becoming more complex, social institutions change by becoming more specialised. Functionalists, therefore, believe youth culture has a social function; they see it as young people solving there shared†¦show more content†¦Functionalists like Eisenstadt explain social institutions in terms of social problems and cultural solutions. The youth â€Å"problem† lies in young peoples marginal status, youth culture eases the resulting anxieties and uncertainties. His argument is that in meeting young peoples needs, youth culture has the general function of smoothing the transition from child to adult. He believes that the most important function for its members was emotional and providing young people with a set of relationships, (peer groups.) The most important point for Eisenstadt is not that some young people become deviants but that even the most deviant of youths become normal adults. He saw youth culture not as a political rebellion but as an essential problem solving social function. Eisenstadts argument is a general argument. It refers to the transition that faces all young people in industrial society but not all young people are the same. He didn’t take into account that growing up middle class is different to growing up working class and that growing up male is different to growing up female. Also, he was explaining youth culture in a time of relative affluence and optimism, growing up was not particularly problematic in the 1950’s. In the 1970’s the strongly Marxist influenced CCCS related class to youth subcultures. They argued that youth styles were a reflection of the economic system and its related class relations. They claimed thatShow MoreRelatedEssay on Identities and Individualism: Youth cultures1935 Words   |  8 PagesIndividualism: Youth cultures ‘Identities and Individualism: Youth cultures’ is aimed at lower secondary, level 6. As a part of a ‘suite of modules for Levels 1 to 6,’ this module addresses the very important issue of identity in today’s world (QSCC 2002:4). It not only allows for flexibility in discovering one’s position within a group in society but how they relate to and within the broader world scheme. 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