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Sociology vocabulary · Society and Culture

Subculture

Meaning in sociology, with examples

/ˈsʌbkʌltʃə/nounCommon term

In sociology, subculture means: A group within a larger society whose members share some distinctive values, norms, styles or activities while still taking part in the wider culture.

In Turkish: alt kültür

How it is used

Common in studies of youth, music, crime and online life. In the 1970s the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies studied youth subcultures such as mods, skinheads and punks. A counterculture goes further and openly rejects mainstream values.

Example sentences

  1. Hebdige analysed punk as a subculture that used style to express resistance.

  2. Gaming communities have developed their own subculture, with shared slang and unwritten rules.

Common collocations

  • youth subculture
  • deviant subculture
  • subcultural theory
  • member of a subculture
  • cultureThe shared beliefs, values, norms, language, practices and material objects that a group of people learn and pass on from one generation to the next.
  • devianceBehaviour, beliefs or characteristics that break the norms of a group or society and lead to disapproval or punishment, whether or not they are against the law.
  • identityA person's sense of who they are, shaped both by how they see themselves and by the social groups, such as nation, class, gender or religion, they belong to or are placed in.
  • normA written or unwritten rule about how people are expected to behave in a particular situation, supported by approval when it is followed and by sanctions when it is broken.

More terms: Society and Culture

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