Digital Youth Subcultures : Performing "Transgressive" Identities in Digital Social Spaces

This book draws together both primary and secondary empirical research and existing literature to examine transgressive subcultural activities and engagement in digital social spaces (DSS).

The book addresses four objectives:

1. To understand how young peoples’ subcultures arise online and they are constructed and experienced in DSS

2. To understand how and why DSS matter to young people

3. To understand if any DSS controls exist in these online spaces and

4. To understand how identity locations such as social class, gender and ethnicity and/or their intersections shape young peoples’ engagement and behaviour(s) in DSS.

In addressing these objectives with a focus on European contributions, the text provides a holistic understanding of the purpose of digital social spaces in shaping young peoples’ identities and self-perceptions. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, secondary school teachers, lecturers and scholars in education, sociology, youth studies and technology.

Kate Hoskins is a reader in Education at Brunel University London. Her research interests rest on the intersections between education policy, identity, inequalities in relation to early years and further and higher education. Among her recent publications is Youth Identities, Education and Employment Exploring Post-16 and Post-18 Opportunities, Access and Policy (2017).

Carlo Genova is an associate professor in Sociology of Culture at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin. His main fields of research are youth cultures and youth activism, with great attention to urban space and material culture. Among his latest publications: “Young activists in political squats. Mixing engagement and leisure,” in Leisure Studies (2021) and “Participation with style. Clothing among young activists in political groups,” in Societies (2020).

Nic Crowe is a qualified Teacher, Youth and Community Worker and Play Worker and currently leads the undergraduate programme in Education at Brunel University. His main research focuses on Digital Stories of Transgression – currently Pro-Ana Communities and Lolicon – and Comics, Anime and Manga, as well as digital games and learning. Among his latest publications: “Researching transgression: Ana as a youth subculture in the age of digital ethnography,” in Societies (2019).