Keith Goldstein and Pnina Golan-Cook
Immigrant and second generation youth face distinct challenges adapting to school environments in the host society. Young people’s popularity is often influenced by style-based…
Abstract
Purpose
Immigrant and second generation youth face distinct challenges adapting to school environments in the host society. Young people’s popularity is often influenced by style-based subcultures. This research investigates how students from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds in Israel, a multi-ethnic society with a large proportion of immigrant youth, adopt subcultural identities, and the effects this has on popularity attainment.
Methodology/approach
This study makes use of a nationally representative quantitative survey of Hebrew instructed high schools. Results are analyzed through Structural Equations Modeling.
Findings
Results highlight how youth who have less tenure in the country and preserve indigenous languages are increasingly drawn toward delinquent subcultures as a means toward gaining popularity in school. Differences based on ethnic belonging are also discussed.
Social implications
In order to create a more conducive environment for immigrant children to make friends with locals, educators require knowledge about the causes of social conflict. Immigrant youth are often drawn toward delinquent subcultures as a means for attaining social acceptance, which can lead to perpetual inequalities.
Originality/value
Subcultures are widely recognized as playing an important role in one’s choice of friends, but hitherto little research examined the mediating role that subcultures play for immigrant youth, especially in the Israeli context.
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In May 2016, Aleks Eror’s op-ed article ‘Dear fashion industry: Stop making up bogus subcultures’ on the HighSnobiety website accuses the fashion industry of creating ‘quasi…
Abstract
In May 2016, Aleks Eror’s op-ed article ‘Dear fashion industry: Stop making up bogus subcultures’ on the HighSnobiety website accuses the fashion industry of creating ‘quasi-subcultures’, such as Normcore, Seapunk and Health Goth to promote specific fashion trends via the Internet. Eror argues that these fashion subcultures do not exist in resistance to mainstream culture (as he understands subcultures), but instead offer the specific fashions and their designers cache for being associated with a counterculture and connecting with alternative trends. Setting aside Eror’s narrow understanding of subcultures, he raises questions of authenticity and the current state of virtual fashion subcultures.
Still, there is evidence of these subcultures online and growing in substantial numbers regardless of their inception. Furthermore, persons identifying themselves with these groups practice alternativity, which delineates their scenes, artefacts, and practices from those of mainstream Western society. I pursue questions of authenticity regarding these recent fashion subcultures who appear to emerge in close proximity to the launch of specific fashions. The author explores the ways in which these fashion subcultural experiences differ from known subcultures. The author investigates notions of constructed resistance and perceived alternativity and marginalization, as well as how that positionality manifests into a fashion subculture identity.
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The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures…
Abstract
The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures. Given its durability and resilience, this subculture offers an opportunity to explore subcultural development and maintenance. I employ a contemporary, symbolic interactionist approach to trace the development of deadhead subculture and subcultural identity. Although identity is a basic concept in subculture research, it is not well defined: I suggest that the co-creation and maintenance of subcultural identity can be seen as a dialectic between collective identity and symbolic interactionist conceptions of individual role-identity.
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John E. Mello and Hilary Schloemer
This interdisciplinary investigation examines the topics of organizational climate and subcultures, which have received scant attention in the supply chain literature…
Abstract
Purpose
This interdisciplinary investigation examines the topics of organizational climate and subcultures, which have received scant attention in the supply chain literature, highlighting the potential importance of these social dynamics to supply chain management phenomena.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a single-organization revelatory case study design, qualitatively analyzing coded interviews and observations of participants.
Findings
The authors’ findings indicate that a firm's organizational climate can contribute to the formation and strengthening of a subculture and that the subculture may desire to insert their own values and norms concerning supply chain management which could run counter to those of the overall company.
Research limitations/implications
The authors theorize about the conditions under which strong subcultures emerge and that they may exert outsized influence on the way a company approaches supply chain management activities. Accounting for such influence may unearth important social dynamics occurring within supply chain phenomena that will better help researchers understand behavior and outcomes within that phenomenon.
Practical implications
Managers should be aware of the potential for subgroups to form strong subcultures and that subcultures may influence the way supply chain activities are performed. Climate dynamics can also affect employee perceptions and behaviors, and managers should monitor these dynamics and adapt their policies and messaging accordingly.
Originality/value
This study examines a phenomenon that has previously been underexamined in the supply chain management literature–the influence of culture and climate on subcultures and their subcultures' subsequent impact on how companies perform supply chain management activities.
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The term “disaster subculture”, was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, but has since not been given a great deal of attention. Even though it is still referred to in passing, the…
Abstract
The term “disaster subculture”, was introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, but has since not been given a great deal of attention. Even though it is still referred to in passing, the elements of disaster subculture are rarely discussed. After considering some examples of the phenomenon and its characteristics, concludes that disaster or emergency subculture does not seem to be an appropriate application of the wider sociological concept of subculture. It is not an alternative to the mainstream culture of a society but represents an aspect of that dominant culture that only manifests itself under particular circumstances. Proposes that, like other aspects of culture, it is learned by society and its members from past experience, personal as well as societal. It entails many features typical of society’s cultural heritage and often entails role and behaviour changes deemed appropriate in emergencies. Concludes that, in light of this discussion, it would seem reasonable to change the term subculture as applied to disaster behaviour to bring the name in line with generally accepted usage.
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In recent years, the concept of subculture has been fiercely criticized, with some scholars even claiming that it is no longer relevant in a multi-cultural world (Muggleton, 2000;…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, the concept of subculture has been fiercely criticized, with some scholars even claiming that it is no longer relevant in a multi-cultural world (Muggleton, 2000; Chaney, 2004; Stahl, 2004). However, the authors argue that by revisiting the Chicago School tradition and reconceptualizing subculture on the basis of acknowledging its limitations and its potential, subculture theory remains applicable in the context of contemporary China. Through an eight-month ethnographic study of a group of deviant students in a secondary school in urban China, the purpose of this paper is to contend that the subculture of these young people from lower-class backgrounds is a means to negotiate their space and power in a failing school system situated in a drastically transforming society full of diversified yet often conflicting values.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors undertook an ethnographic study to follow a group of deviant students for eight months, trying to understand their everyday lives and the process of their identity construction. The research was conducted in Xiamen, a coastal city located in the southeast part of mainland China. Unlike large metropolitan areas such as Beijing and Shanghai, where most studies have been conducted so far, Xiamen represents one of the medium-sized cities, which are the majority in China. After a process of sampling among 11 classes from five schools in different tiers, the authors chose one class in Grade 2 at a medium-level secondary school called “Central Park Secondary School” as a pseudonym. The authors stayed in the field for the main study and the authors also paid another visit to the school to follow up on students’ recent development.
Findings
In this study, a group of problem students identified with each other and shared the same problems and situations, and collectively formed a subcultural group, from within which they could challenge the authority of teachers and parents and negotiate power in the school; for example, reaching a truce with teachers so that they could have an easier time at school until they graduated. Their subculture and resistance may seem like a self-defeating practice, because what they learned at school and the qualifications they obtained could only assure them laboring jobs and reproduce their lower class status. However, this subculture offered an alternative way to safeguard their happiness and healthy development, which in this case is psychological well-being and better interpersonal skills.
Practical implications
This paper could provide the teachers and school administrators with a new perspective to look at some of their students’ poor performance and disruptive behaviors. With a deeper understanding of their “deviant” students, the teachers may develop more pertinent measures to help their students.
Originality/value
This paper argues that, through revisiting the Chicago School tradition and reconceptualizing subculture on the basis of acknowledging its limitations and potential, subculture theory remains applicable in the context of contemporary China.
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Fernando Rey Castillo-Villar, Judith Cavazos-Arroyo and Nicolas Kervyn
The purpose of this study is to focus on analyzing the role of music subcultures in the communication and promotion of conspicuous consumption practices. The object of study is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to focus on analyzing the role of music subcultures in the communication and promotion of conspicuous consumption practices. The object of study is the “altered movement” as the music style of the drug subculture in Mexico.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative content analysis of 78 lyrics and music videos of “altered movement” was carried out between August and December 2018.
Findings
The analysis of lyrics and music videos leads to the identification of four narratives (from poor to rich, power through violence, lavish lifestyle and power over women) and diverse symbolic markers (luxury brands mainly) that together, display messages aimed at promoting conspicuous consumption practices.
Originality/value
The current research expands the body of literature of music subcultures in the consumer research area by contesting the common conception of this phenomenon as a healthy source of self-identity formation and deepening into its role as a source of conspicuous consumption practices.
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Dàvid Losonci, Richárd Kása, Krisztina Demeter, Balázs Heidrich and István Jenei
The purpose of this paper to examine the impact of shop floor (SF) culture (organizational culture (OC) perceived by workers) and SF subcultures assessed by the competing values…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper to examine the impact of shop floor (SF) culture (organizational culture (OC) perceived by workers) and SF subcultures assessed by the competing values framework (CVF) on the perceived use of lean production (LP) practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyse questionnaires completed by workers at the single case company undergoing a commonplace lean transformation. The survey items cover both LP items and CVF statements. The propositions are analysed applying cluster analysis and regression.
Findings
At the case company, the multidimensionality of SF culture only partially exists, and the perceived use of LP practices shows little connection to OC. The considerable differences between SF culture and SF subcultures on the one hand and among SF subcultures on the other hand indicate the existence of a special multidimensional SF culture. Altogether, SF culture’s impact on LP is weak.
Practical implications
Managers should rethink the usual lean implementation pathways and understand how values pervade SF culture and how culture types impact the perceived use of LP practices at the SF. Managers could face a trade-off: smoother lean transition by engaging in SF subculture-specific transitions and reinforcing it or by developing a homogenous lean SF culture.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical attempt to understand the impact of SF culture on the perceived use of LP practices by adopting a validated OC measurement tool. Furthermore, the study provides insight into workers’ subcultures.
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Jennifer Palthe and Ellen Ernst Kossek
Past research suggests that most culture change efforts proceed with limited attention to the pluralistic nature of contemporary organizations. We argue that the relationship…
Abstract
Past research suggests that most culture change efforts proceed with limited attention to the pluralistic nature of contemporary organizations. We argue that the relationship between organization subcultures and the implementation of new HR strategies into HR practice has not been adequately explored because of the lack of a comprehensive framework for defining and integrating culture change and the strategic HR literature. We review the organization culture and strategic HR literature and present a heuristic that serves as a step toward exemplifying the role of changing employment modes and organizational subcultures in enabling or constraining the implementation of HR strategy.