Course Catalogue

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This course is concerned with tracing the economic and social origins of distinct youth and subcultural forms and practices from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. It examines changes and continuities in consumption, crime, music and fashion, linked to political, social and economic shifts in Britain, Europe and the United States of America. Some of the issues which will be addressed are: how consumption and consumerism helped create distinct youth subcultures; how class, gender, sexuality and race shaped subcultural participation; how certain subcultures were perceived as deviant, and what responses these provoked from national and local authorities. The course will engage with movements such as punk, skinhead, working-class gangs, and emergent sexual subcultures.

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40 credits averaging grade B3 or above in level 1 Economic and Social History,

OR 40 credits averaging grade C3 or above in level 2 Economic and Social History,
OR 20 credits at grade C3 or above in level 1 Economic and Social History AND 20 credits at grade C3 or above in level 2 Economic and Social History AND 20 credits at grade C3 or above in another cognate subject, at the discretion of the Honours Convenor

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35% - One essay (2000 words, excluding bibliography) chosen from a list of questions linked to seminar/lecture theme 1)

30% - One primary source report project (1500 words excluding bibliography) chosen from a list of topics linked to course lecture topics

35% - One essay (2000 words, excluding bibliography) chosen from a list of questions linked to seminar/lecture theme 2)

■ Encourage a critical approach to nineteenth and twentieth-century social and cultural history; grounded in an understanding of crime, deviance and culture and how economic and social factors influenced social actors and their experiences of crime and society across Britain, Europe and the United States of America.

■ Develop critical awareness of the factors which shaped access and participation in subcultural movements. Encouraging students to think about cultures and subcultures in relation to power and privilege, class, sexuality and gender, space and place.

■ Encouraging students to think about cultures and subcultures in relation to power and privilege, class, sexuality and gender, space and place

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the different historiographical, theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of youth culture, deviance and society.

2. Show ability to critically assess the impact of economic, social, political and cultural changes on the experiences of youth culture in Britain, and with reference to developments in Europe and the United States of America.

3. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the experiences of both women and men in the period, across class, place and space. 

4. Using a range of historiographical and theoretical writings, and primary sources, to debate and analyse the emergence of distinct social subcultures; collective organisation and the responses these provoked from official arms of the state

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.