Bristol University Press
2 Subculture, Scene, Lifestyle, or Movement? Conceptualizing Straight Edge from Insider and Academic Perspectives
Abstract
In this chapter, I reflect on my long-term study of straight edge to demonstrate connections and disjunctions between participants’ perspectives and sociological concepts used to understand them. Straight edgers variously interpret their refusal of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs as an individual/personal commitment and as a collective challenge/social movement. Some view their abstinence as part of recovery from substance use disorders, others as part of a radical political project. Straight edgers routinely discuss their collective identity in terms of subculture, scene, lifestyle, and movement. Each of these parallels an academic concept with a long history, meant to illuminate patterns of social phenomena. I show how each provides tools useful to the sociological analysis of straight edge. While concepts guide and emerge from both the research process and the interpretation of data, more important is the emergent meaning-making that transcends conceptual boundaries. Rather than make a strong case for the best concept, I argue that the complexity of straight edgers’ lived experience warrants multiple conceptualizations. Finally, I show how an ethnographic, inductive research process, incorporating a variety of data sources and sites, helps develop sociological concepts while also revealing their limitations.
Abstract
In this chapter, I reflect on my long-term study of straight edge to demonstrate connections and disjunctions between participants’ perspectives and sociological concepts used to understand them. Straight edgers variously interpret their refusal of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs as an individual/personal commitment and as a collective challenge/social movement. Some view their abstinence as part of recovery from substance use disorders, others as part of a radical political project. Straight edgers routinely discuss their collective identity in terms of subculture, scene, lifestyle, and movement. Each of these parallels an academic concept with a long history, meant to illuminate patterns of social phenomena. I show how each provides tools useful to the sociological analysis of straight edge. While concepts guide and emerge from both the research process and the interpretation of data, more important is the emergent meaning-making that transcends conceptual boundaries. Rather than make a strong case for the best concept, I argue that the complexity of straight edgers’ lived experience warrants multiple conceptualizations. Finally, I show how an ethnographic, inductive research process, incorporating a variety of data sources and sites, helps develop sociological concepts while also revealing their limitations.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology—On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvi
-
Approaching Interpretive Practice
- Making Sense of Subcultures: Interpretive Practice and/in Subcultural Theory 3
- Subculture, Scene, Lifestyle, or Movement? Conceptualizing Straight Edge from Insider and Academic Perspectives 21
- Ghosts in the Machine: (Post)subculture and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Youth 41
-
Contextualizing Interpretive Practice
- No More Heroes: Portuguese Punk and the Notion of Subculture in the Global South 59
- Still Crazy After All Those Years: A Trajectory of Discourses on Youth Subcultures in Korea, from Exclusion to Recognition to Legitimization 75
- Interpreting Chinese Punk: From Doing Nothing to Hermit Lifestyle 93
- The Dynamic Meaning of Subculture among DIY Indonesian Musicians 107
-
Embodying Interpretive Practice
- “That’s Not Punk!” Authenticity, Older Punk Women, and the ‘Doing’ of Punk Scholarship 127
- “Let’s All Be Friends”: Emotional Labor and Insider Research in Punk Subculture 150
- Intimacy, Exchange, and Friendship as Sensitizing Concepts: Interpreting and Teaching Subcultures through Ethnographic Fieldwork 168
-
Conclusion
- Approaching, Contextualizing, and Embodying Interpretive Practice in Subcultural Studies 189
- Index 205
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Series Editors’ Preface: Interpretive Lenses in Sociology—On the Multidimensional Foundations of Meaning in Social Life vii
- Notes on Contributors xii
- Acknowledgments xvi
-
Approaching Interpretive Practice
- Making Sense of Subcultures: Interpretive Practice and/in Subcultural Theory 3
- Subculture, Scene, Lifestyle, or Movement? Conceptualizing Straight Edge from Insider and Academic Perspectives 21
- Ghosts in the Machine: (Post)subculture and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Youth 41
-
Contextualizing Interpretive Practice
- No More Heroes: Portuguese Punk and the Notion of Subculture in the Global South 59
- Still Crazy After All Those Years: A Trajectory of Discourses on Youth Subcultures in Korea, from Exclusion to Recognition to Legitimization 75
- Interpreting Chinese Punk: From Doing Nothing to Hermit Lifestyle 93
- The Dynamic Meaning of Subculture among DIY Indonesian Musicians 107
-
Embodying Interpretive Practice
- “That’s Not Punk!” Authenticity, Older Punk Women, and the ‘Doing’ of Punk Scholarship 127
- “Let’s All Be Friends”: Emotional Labor and Insider Research in Punk Subculture 150
- Intimacy, Exchange, and Friendship as Sensitizing Concepts: Interpreting and Teaching Subcultures through Ethnographic Fieldwork 168
-
Conclusion
- Approaching, Contextualizing, and Embodying Interpretive Practice in Subcultural Studies 189
- Index 205
