Youth and Culture

In what way does Buckingham and Giddens theories relate to Youth and Youth culture?

The Young Ones 1961

The Young ones (1961) illustrates a very positive representation of youth. Youth are mainly presented as happy, respectable, friendly, community activists and standing up for what they want in a responsible manner. Activism is generally associated with some public action designed to raise awareness around an issue usually related to matters of social, political or economic importance. This is particularly shown through their attempts to save their youth club from closure. The characters are also shown to be dressed in much more formal and smart clothing than modern day which provides a sense of higher class. Their etiquette and the dialects is also considerably better than today's youth, once again presenting them in a very positive perspective. Their passion seems to be singing and dancing which enhances the difference in normalities between 1961 and 2011 as the youth are seen to be running around the streets performing .

Attack the Block 2011

In comparison to The Young Ones, In Attack The Block (2011) the youthful characters are presented in an extremely negative light. They also seem to be community activists but in a much more negative way as attempt to raise awareness in regards to the alien invasion but end up causing trouble. They are seen to be considerably violent through the fact that they carry weapons with them with intent to cause harm. They also are portrayed to be rebellious through the recognition that they lie to their parent on their whereabouts and also through one of the characters being arrested towards the end of the clip due to the possession of drugs. Their use of vulgarisms and dress code provide the sense that they are significantly low in class and education which differ from the youth presented in 1961. However, a positive can be taken out of the clip as they seem to be loyal to their friends in the situation that they are put in.

Theorists

Anthony Giddens believes that there is a social structure which shapes our lives (traditions, institutions moral classes, established ways of doing things) but it relies on individuals following these structures. When they act differently the social structure can change. Structuration is the process in which human agency and social structure are in a constant relationship + social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individual people and can therefore change. It is obvious that structuration has taken place due to the different representations of youth which were deemed to be normal in their times. It is evident that youth has changed between 1961 and 2011. Also David Buckingham believes that A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups. This can be deemed to be relevant due to the fact that in modern times there is much more technology and media in everyday life.