Sub-cultureA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWthus style represents the outer part of a whole
structure that is made up of personality, experi-
ence, learning, theory, belief – and fused, if
the style is successful. Th ose coming after may
slavishly imitate the style of the master or, like
the Cubists in the case of Cézanne, assimilate
the style and then re-create it, thrusting it in new
directions. See culture; dress; folk devils;
label libel; labelling process (and the
media); sub-culture; youth culture. See
also topic guide under representation.
Sub-culture Alternatives to the dominant
culture in society, sub-cultures have their
own systems of norms, values and beliefs and
in some cases their own language codes. Such
systems are often expressions of rejection of or
resistance to the dominant culture. Members of
sub-cultures are frequently those to whom the
dominant culture awards low, subordinate and/
or dependent status: youth, for example. Each
sub-culture represents the reactions of a particu-
lar social group to its experience of society.
Some sub-cultures and their members may be
labelled deviant by others in society. It has been
argued that because of the fragmented social
nature of modern society, the mass media play
an increasingly important role in relaying images
of such sub-cultures both to their own members
and to members of the dominant culture. Dick
Hebdige in Subculture: The Meaning of Style
(Methuen, 1979, reissued 2002) writes that
in doing so, the media tend to accommodate
the sub-cultures within the framework of the
dominant culture, thus preserving the consen-
sus; a procedure which he calls the ‘process of
recuperation’.
The postmodern (see postmodernism)
perspective is that the solidarity of sub-culture
has given way to a more fl uid and fragmented
sense of association; an association that might
be more transitory, with styles and experiences
drawn from a diverse range of influences –
including those found in cyberspace. Contem-
porary groupings, it is argued, are more likely to
resemble small tribes than the larger youth sub-
cultures of the past. Further, it can be argued
that the media, fashion and cultural industries
now play a more signifi cant role in shaping and
marketing youth culture and associated identi-
ties.
As regards style, in Ted Polhemus and UZi
PART B, Hot Bodies, Cool Styles: New Techniques
in Self-Adornment (Th ames and Hudson, 2004)
Polhemus argues that whilst there are still sub-
cultures that express their group membership
through style, the emphasis for many younglinked with the study of sign systems or semi-
ology/semiotics.
Structuralists would argue that language has
both a natural and a cultural source. Th e natural
source refers to language as a genetic endow-
ment of the human race, and this is framed
within a network of meanings derived from the
culture of society. Structuralism explores the
deep and often unconscious assumptions about
social reality that underlie language and its use.
In particular, it examines the way language is
employed to construct meaning from social
events. However, assumptions about social
reality are themselves also a product of social
conditioning. Th us diff erent cultures and sub-
cultures, and indeed individuals, may generate
different patterns of meaning from the same
objective event or situation. See postmodern-
ism. See also topic guide under communica-
tion theory.
Style A means by which the individual or group
expresses identity (see identification; self-
identity), attitudes and values, about self,
about others and about society. Style takes many
forms – hair style, dress style, aesthetic style,
or a complete pattern of living: lifestyle. Styles
may enable the individual to secure a sense of
personal identity; to acquire a sense of belong-
ing, of being ‘in’ with a favoured group; to make
a gesture of rebellion (against the conventional
style of parents, for example, or the older genera-
tion in all shapes and forms); and to achieve
status, that is a status awarded him/her by
others in the favoured group, and by his/her
peers generally.
Defi ance of society at large is often cited as a
reason why certain styles are adopted. Th is may
or may not be true in all cases, but what is certain
is that society often interprets such styles as acts
of defi ance or rejection, and the arbiters in this
process of interpretation (or mediation) are the
mass media. Coverage by the media, research-
ers have found, tends to overdramatize the
signifi cance of style, to create stereotypes and
summon up exaggerated fears in the community.
In the world of the arts, style is that particular
set of characteristics of approach and treatment
which gives a work its identity. As with styles
in hair or dress, styles are first created, then
imitated. In painting, the style of Paul Cézanne
(1839–1906) is highly distinctive and instantly
recognizable by anyone with a particular interest
in art.
However, it took Cézanne many years to
develop that style, which was a visible manifesta-
tion of everything he believed about visual art;