The Centre Of Contemporary Cultural Studies

Dick Hebdige, a member of the CCCS, subjected Punk specifically, and the subcultural milieu more generally, to a form of historical, neo--Marxist, semiotic analyses inspired by the work of Roland Barthes that typifies the work of the CCCS. Describing the movement as ‘style as a form of refusal’ he posited Punk as the (then) most recent subculture that sought not only to challenge the hegemony of the dominant culture, but also as an attempt by youth to reconcile the tensions inherent within that culture; arguing that the subcultures of the post war period represented an attempt by working-class youths to reconcile racial tensions bought about by increased levels of immigration. Thus the Teddy Boys, Skinheads, Mods and Rockers were explained with reference to this dialectic, and were characterised by Hebdige as having strong group boundaries. By interpreting the subculture as a form of resistance and as an attempt to overcome the contradictions inherent within the dominant culture Hebdige followed Clarke. However, no studies of the actual consumptive practices of individual Punks were used to support this argument, and little attention was paid to the philosophy of the movement.

Cultural Studies has, however, been concerned with the subculture generally within Europe and America, with arguments centring on the degree to which the proliferation of subcultural identities indicates a shift to the post modern and whether such consumption represents resistance to capitalism. Whereas in traditional societies identity was perceived to be unproblematic in modernity identity becomes mobile, multiple, personal, self-reflexive, and subject to change and innovation and is expressed increasingly through consumption. Thus identity becomes a theoretical and personal problematic and anxiety a major component of the modern individual. In post modern theories of identity construction identity is described as unstable, almost disappearing in the flux and fluidity of contemporary society; postmodernism is the ‘cultural dominant’ of the post-war consumer society.