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AS Sociology

AS Sociology. Topic 6 – Age identities. Getting you thinking. Age identities …. An introduction. Deemed to be socially constructed thus the norms and values associated with age will vary depending on societies,

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AS Sociology

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  1. AS Sociology Topic 6 – Age identities

  2. Getting you thinking

  3. Age identities …. An introduction • Deemed to be socially constructed thus the norms and values associated with age will vary depending on societies, • In the UK, children are seen as innocent and this is supported by social policy which outlaws sexual intercourse until the age of sixteen, whereas in some cultures men and women in Nepalese tribes are expected to be sexually active as soon as they hit puberty, and young girls can be married at the age of 12.

  4. Bradley – 5 main stages of life

  5. What are the key stages of life in terms of age identity? • With a partner try to think of names for the five key stages • Then give each age group an age range (what ages do you have to be to fit into ‘childhood’, for example?) • Then list 3 of 4 norms and values you would expect to find within each age group.

  6. Bradley 5 stages of life • Bradley suggest that there are 5 main stages of life: • Childhood, • Youth, • Young adulthood, • Midlife, • Old age

  7. Bradley 5 stages of life • Broad agreement with regards to the existence of these groups or generations. • Lack of clarity with regards to when each stages starts and ends or the norms and values within those stages. • Each stages is divided with regards to factors such as ethnicity, social class and gender. • Pilcher – divisions and distinctions between age group are increasingly broken down. • How might this happen ?

  8. What socialising agent for what stage ? • Childhood • Youth • Young adulthood • Midlife • Old age

  9. Debate the following… • You are only as old as you feel… • Life starts at 40…. • Kids grow up quicker these days…. • Better to live fast and die young. Old age is terrible and depressing…. • 18 year olds are not yet really adults…how many 18 year olds do you know who are financially and socially independent?

  10. The story of youth culture … or is it subculture?

  11. It used to to be like this … This is a picture of young people in 1930. Do they look like they share a youth culture? Why?

  12. So what changed in the 1950s? Can you identify some of the factors that created youth culture?

  13. Did you get that? • The development of compulsory education forced young people to delay entry into paid work • The peer group became important to them as they felt excluded from the adult world • Growing affluence (wealth) meant young people had money to spend … • … which they spent on a whole range of consumer goods like records and clothes

  14. The development of youth subcultures • Between the 1950s and1980s a number of flamboyant youth subcultures developed. • Can you name those in the next slide and do you know when they were around?

  15. Have a look at the following clips • What is going on? When did it happen? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1gpxDYhASA http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zn5vYOwCTak

  16. How did sociologists explain these subcultures? • One group of sociologists at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (the CCCS) – influenced by Marxism - felt their rebellion was actually a symbolic resistance to capitalism.

  17. Skinheads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih26uQBff2g

  18. How did this idea work? Take skinheads in the 1960s and 70s … They were an attempt to ‘rediscover’ working class communities. Let’s see how that worked …

  19. Skinheads • Their close cropped hair, braces and big boots reflected the clothes and style of a manual worker.

  20. Skinheads • Their obsession with ‘territory’ in terms of football violence, chanting and aggression reflected an attempt to rediscover a sense of community at a time when working class communities were being destroyed as slums were knocked down and people rehoused.

  21. Invent your own youth subculture • Think about the problems facing young people today … • … and then design a new youth subculture that reflects the problems faced by young people today

  22. What about girls? • Lots of subcultural theory focused only on males. McRobbie and Garber felt that girls were more controlled by their parents so developed a ‘bedroom culture’. Do you think this is true?

  23. And today? • Postmodernists like Muggleton suggest that now ‘anything goes’ for young people and they can choose any sort of style they like. • How many people do you see who are members of subcultures?

  24. Ordinary kids • Remember: most young people are not members of glamorous subcultures. • Davies (1990) conformist, conservative, follow values of parents.

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