Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 108

Within any culture there are subcultures, or groups of people who accept much of the dominant culture but are set apart from it by one or more culturally significant characteristics. In the United States, major subcultures include the LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people), Hispanics, Hasidic Jews, hip-hop fans, and youth. Muslims are becoming an increasingly important subculture in the United States (especially in cities such as Detroit). They already constitute a major subculture in many European countries, most notably France and Great Britain.

Subcultures arise in the realm of consumption as well. For example, “brand communities” develop around particular brand name products (Todd and Soule 2018). Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders are one such subculture (called HOGs, for Harley Owners Group), with distinctive clothing, events, and norms. Brand communities have formed around a number of Apple products, such as the Macintosh computer (the “Mac”) and the iPad. The members of these communities share a number of cultural elements, including norms. In the case of the Mac, for example, some community members positively sanction “jailbreaking,” a method for hacking into Apple’s software to get around its restrictions and limitations.

Any society includes many subcultures, such as hackers or those devoted to fishing, that develop around particular styles of life and share special vocabularies. A great deal of attention has been devoted to “deviant” subcultures, such as those of punks, goths, and the like (Barmaki 2016). In Great Britain, “football hooligans,” those who often engage in violence at or in regard to soccer matches, constitute a deviant subculture largely specific to that society (Ayres and Treadwell 2012; Dunning, Murphy, and Williams 1988). However, there are also many “straight” subcultures, such as those who play online games (e.g., Fortnite) or “straight” fans of clean eating (e.g., the Whole30 program [https://whole30.com] or the Paleo diet; Wood 2006).

Another example of a subculture is the world of skateboarders. The majority of skateboarders accept most of the larger society’s culture, norms, values, and language, but they also differ in some ways. Many are more willing than most members of society to take physical risks, for example, by participating in the sport known as parkour, which involves using the body to overcome urban obstacles such as walls and ledges (Kidder 2012; Thorpe and Ahmad 2015). Skateboarders in general, as well as those who practice parkour, see such obstacles as enhancing the thrill of their activity.

Skateboarding has developed a subculture with its own norms, values, language, and environments. Do you belong to any similar subcultures?

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