TOWARDS A PSYCHOSOCIAL UNDERSTANDING OF YOUTH SUB-CULTURE: A STUDY OF BODY SUSPENSION PRACTICE Willy Aagre a, Arnbjørg Engenes a, Stephen James Minton b a = Høgskolen i Vestfold, Norway; b = Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
MUNCHGRUPPEN Professor Willy Aagre og Arnbjørg Engenes Høgskolen i Vestfold, Norway Dr Stephen James Minton Trinity College Dublin, Ireland The principal area of focus Munchgruppen is achieving an understanding of sub-cultures.
Topics of Discussion Approaching the Study of Sub-Cultures Sociological Perspectives Psychological Perspectives Findings I Entrances II Shared Aesthetics and Values III Magic IV Counter-Magic Conclusions
Approaching the Study of Sub- Cultures (I) When social researchers discuss sub-cultures, they often refer to the classical CCCS-studies. Since 2000, a kind of organised critique against the dominant CCCS research has been raised from the so-called post-sub-culturalists. Recently, there have been some attempts to bridge these positions, e.g. Jensen s (2010) study of marginalised young men in a Copenhagen. The concept may be too inclusive in its academic use; see Gelder s (2005: 1) definition: Sub-cultures are groups of people that are in some ways represented as non-normative and/or marginal through their particular interests and practices, through what they are, what they do and where they do it. Groups that are forced into a marginal societal position may be understood within the same conceptual frames as groups that are significantly more intentionally different through their style, their aesthetic practices and their symbolic rituals. Some groups want to be different, and succeed in their efforts to be recognised as non-conforming, authentic, profiled and interesting.
Approaching the Study of Sub- Cultures (II) Given our own background from psychology, pedagogy and sociology, we will try to create a melting pot where these traditions are combined in fruitful ways. In order to do this, we need a kind of constant and stable point as our mutual empirical focus Engenes (2006) qualitative sociological study aimed at understanding body suspension (BS), built upon fieldwork at Oslo SusCon, followed by in-depth interviews with eight BS performers. Engenes (2006) concentrated on four different aspects: (i) Entrance: including 1) who informed them about BS in the first place, 2) motivation, 3) class background, 4) education/socialization and written/unwritten rules. (ii) Shared aesthetics and values: including 1) style, symbols and image, 2) feeling of community regarding taste, 3) political views, 4) feeling of community regarding values, 5) lifestyle.
Approaching the Study of Sub-Cultures (III) Engenes focus (cont d): (iii) Magic: including 1) scenography and choreography of the suspension performances2) transition, 3) sense of achievement, 4) energy boost, 5) meaning-making, 6) varieties of suspension roles presented as ideal types, 7) rites of passage, technical and biographical suspension knowledge, 8) perspectives on pain, 9) identity construction and expression of individuality, 10) inside discourses, 11) declarative vs regulative symbolic systems. (iv) Counter-Magic: Who are the Others? Both generally (mainstream-opposition), and specifically (neo-nazis being the distinct and named out-group ).
Sociological Perspectives
Psychological Perspectives (I) Identity, Belongingness and Psychological Approaches to Development (I) A good deal of classic developmental psychology IS lacking in attention to social context (Donaldson, 1978). Bronfenbrenner (1977) asserted that,.it can be said that much of contemporary developmental psychology is the science of the strange behaviour of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time (p. 317). Not universally upheld; witness Vygotsky s scaffolding, and Erikson s emphasis on the importance of social and cultural processes in development. In more recent times, Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979, 1989) has offered an ecosystemic model - a conceptualisation of the child s ecology as a multi-layered set of nested and interconnected environmental systems.
Psychological Perspectives (II) Identity, Belongingness and Psychological Approaches to Development (II) Bronfenbrenner s model (1977, 1979, 1989): The micro-system comprises those who are physically and emotionally closest to the child usually, the family of origin. The meso-system includes socialising influences such as the neighbourhood, the school and the child s other peers. The exo-system comprises influences in which the child is not directly involved, but nevertheless has an effect for example, the parents places of work. The macro-system includes regional, international, or global changes. The chrono-system is the temporal component in which the ecosystem is immersed. The ecosystemic approach has important implications for how we may consider belongingness and identity.
Psychological Perspectives (III) Verbondenheid ( Linkedness ) (I) An ecological approach (drawing heavily from Bronfenbrenner) Since the late 1990s simultaneously a conceptual position, and a practical method of working with whole-school communities on the issues of non-respectful behaviour and school violence. The conceptual position holds that so-called delinquency and nonrespectful behaviour at school are non-accidental, and in broad terms, involve the interaction between person-related factors (both endogenous and exogenous) on the one hand, and context-related factors on the other (Deboutte et al., 2006, p. 10). Practically, as de-linq-ency is held to be.always the expression of the lack of a link between the offender and (one or more dimensions of) the victimised environment (Deklerck, et al., 2003, p. 321), re-linking is the logical answer (Deboutte et al., 2006, p. 11).
Psychological Perspectives (IV) Verbondenheid ( Linkedness ) (II) The natural world, the totality of life Society, the cultural world Materials The other(s) Oneself Dimensions in the Linkedness Model (freely reproduced from Deboutte et al., 2006)
Psychological Perspectives (V) A revised Bildung psychology approach (I) An integration of the Eriksonian psychosocial stages of development (1963) with the ecosystemic approach of Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979, 1989) has been suggested in a revised version of the Bildung psychology model suggested by Spiel et al. (2008): Dimensions in the Bildung-Psychology Model (Spiel et al., 2008)
Psychological Perspectives (VI) A revised Bildung psychology approach (II) Mc Guckin & Minton (in press) suggested a set of variations of aspects of Spiel et al. s (2008) model in order to recast it in an educational psychology / paedagogical light, rather than its general psychological position: (i) the use of age-specific educational phases of the longitudinal dimension grounds the model in European middle-class norms, hence suggested replacing these with the more cross-culturallybased Eriksonian Eight Ages of Man (1963); (ii) the horizontal dimension specifies the functions of psychologists, whereas it would be quite possible to re-imagine what the functional areas for other professionals might be; (iii) the vertical dimension is said to be orientated in accordance with the ecological model presented by Bronfenbrenner, but should include the exosystem ; and, (iv) suggest that the chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1989) is reflected in the temporal, longitudinal dimension (the Bildungcareer ) of the model.
Psychological Perspectives (VII) Social Phenomenology and the Approach to Collection of Data (I) The overall focus of Munchgruppen is to understand youth sub-cultures (Engenes et al., 2013); to locate ourselves in the research, as mature adults, certain methodological paths are closed (e.g. participant observation). Ethically and methodologically, the potential to mystify and do psychological violence through the inauthentic research encounter is unacceptable. So how can we genuinely meet our informants? Laing (1967, p. 53) reminded us that,...human beings relate to each other not simply externally, like two billiard balls, but by the relations of two worlds of experience that come into play when two people meet, and uses this standpoint to describe how a science which should mean a form of knowledge adequate to its subject (p. 17) - of persons and experience was possible (see next slide):
Psychological Perspectives (VII) Social Phenomenology and the Approach to Collection of Data (II) I do not experience your experience. But I experience you as experiencing. I experience myself as experienced by you. And I experience you as experiencing yourself as experienced by me. And so on... Social phenomenology is the science of my own and others experience. It is concerned with the relationship between my experience of you and your experience of me. That is, with inter-experience... Since your and their experience is invisible to me as mine is to you and them, I seek to make evident to the others, through their experience of my behaviour, what I infer of your experience, through my experience of your behaviour. This is the crux of social phenomenology. (Laing, 1967, p. 16 17).
Findings (I): Entrances
Findings (II): Shared Aesthetics and Values
Findings (III): Magic
Findings (IV): Counter-Magic
Conclusions
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