In Progress

The paper “Youth Culture” defines and situates the term “global youth culture” within the currently dominant theoretical frameworks from cultural and media studies, including the Frankfurt School as well as the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The paper also touches upon recent work done in “Post-subcultural Studies” that incorporates the influence of recent new media technologies. The paper is based on an assumption that there is such a thing as a dominant youth culture that can be described in a categorical way.

In describing global youth culture, Kahn and Kellner use the Frankfurt School definition of the culture industry to describe the relationship between youth and media, while focusing on the Birmingham School’s definition of political subversion to illustrate political dimensions to the youth culture. The authors question the relevance of the idea of subculture in a global context, opening the door for what is called “market-based tribalism.” Kahn and Kellner’s work weaves together a survey of previous work in cultural and media studies to build a context for a surrent understanding of global youth culture. Primarily drawing on historically relevant theoretical works from the aforementioned schools, the authors describe the main ideas and present some of the limitations of each through content and historical analysis.

The most striking limitation to the paper is its omission of any discussion of how global youth culture shapes the culture industry. It is well-established that not only are youth influenced by the culture industry but they also contribute to and serve as an influence on the culture industry. In this paper, the authors limit their role to a passively receptive one, with the notable exception of the political sphere. The paper is, however, an important step forward in situating critical study of global youth culture in a theoretical framework of references. By introducing the term global youth culture and tracing its roots, Kahn and Kellner pave the way for future work on the population linked to it.

Youth Culture
Richard Kahn; Kellner, Douglas
p. 1319-1321

Posted on November 12th, 2008 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Books, Global Culture, Media, School, Uncategorized