Functionalists on Youth Culture Flashcards
What is the Functionalist view on youth culture?
They believe children experience social integration through the family.
There’s an importance that individuals feel integrated into society.
PARSONS ‘YOUTH IS A TRANSITIONAL STAGE’
This is through stressful times where individuals must learn to leave the family and become independent as they break ties with their parents as children and become adults.
Youth becomes a ‘right of passage’ that individuals must go through.
PARSONS ‘YOUTH AS A SOCIAL CATEGORY’
Youth emerged with the development of capitalism which created a divide between the role of the family as a purely nurturing environment.
People feel social solidarity with others and learn to share the value consensus.
EISENSTADT ‘YOUTH BRINGS PEOPLE INTO SOCIETY’
Youth brings people into society and provides shared set of norms and values with peers, it also provides a safe outlet from tensions of childhood and adulthood.
Those who aren’t socially integrated feel isolated and anomie is a result.
Youths seek independence from families and have a sense of belonging with their peers.
ABRAMS ‘YOUTH CREATED BY MEDIA’
The emergence of youth culture linked to the emergence of a distinct group with spending power targetted by businesses and the media.
EVALUATION OF THE FUNCTIONALIST VIEW
They generalized youth culture as a whole and forgot to account for the individual subcultural difference between youth.
Race, gender, age and social class weren’t considered.
Evidence by functionalists comes from white, middle-class American males - similar to the sociologists themselves (thus can be seen as having a biased perspective)
