Patchwork: The Life-Worlds and "Cultures" of Young Australians: 1900-1950 (From Youth Subcultures: Theory, History and the Australian Experience, P 80-86, 1993, Rob White, ed. -- See NCJ-162536)

• NCJ Number: 162548
• Author(s): J Bessant
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

The author believes that traditional notions of youth culture in Australia have been applied too narrowly and suggests that young people's sense of responsibility and independence has steadily eroded.

Abstract

A central feature of the youth studies tradition has been reliance on various youth culture models. Experiences of working class young people in Australia and their life worlds indicate that youth culture is often interpreted as a form of larrikinism involving deviant or gang-related activities. Youth culture has been explained as a distinctive form of class struggle usually enacted by working class boys and young men. In addition, the idea has been perpetuated that group behavior is determined by sameness or perceived aspects of the individual's identity, a highly problematic assumption. What were once significant features of young people's lives, a sense of responsibility and independence and a feeling of being useful and valued, have steadily eroded to the point where young people are increasingly dependent until their mid-20's. Although popular images characterize childhood and adolescence as periods of dependence, innocence, naivety, and the need for protection, accounts of lived experiences show a significant feature of being young in the early part of the 20th century involved being responsible and independent. 36 references and 1 photograph