The Subcultures Reader: Second Edition

By: Gelder, Ken

Book Overview

This revised and updated edition of a hugely successful book brings together the most valuable and stimulating writings on subcultures, from the early work of the Chicago School on 'deviant' social groups to the present day reasearch and theories.

This new edition features a wide range of articles from some of the biggest names in the field including Dick Hebdige, Paul Gilroy and Stanley Cohen, and expertly combines contemporary essays and critique with classic and canonical texts on subcultures.

Examining an eclectic array of subcultures, from New Age travellers, to comic book fans, The Reader looks at how they are defined through their social position, styles, sexuality, politics and their music, and this new edition gives expression to the diversity of subcultural identifications, from scenes and 'tribes' to the 'global underground'.

With specially selected articles, grouped sections, editors introductions and a general introduction which maps out the field, it gives students and teachers of cultural studies an invaluable study aid.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415344166
• ISBN13: 9780415344166
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.9" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

A must for contemporary subculturalists

Gelder and Thornton have pulled together a book that I could have based my entire senior thesis upon as the sole source. Most subculture studies anthologies rely too much on the British school of thought. While that was the seminal work in the field, there's been a *few* more developments since the sixties :) Gelder and Thornton realize this, and draw from almost a full century of subculture studies. Each progression in the field is grouped into a new chapter, with a cohesive introduction section. Some chapter will take a serious sociologist to manage full appreciation - the "sociologese" can get thick when individual authors are trying to obscure the fact that their thesis is a "stretch" to put it mildly. But the book on the whole is a great resource for anyone involved in subculture studies - a good range, considerable depth, and reader-friendly organization for those not yet versed in the particulars of the field.