Youth culture in ireland

Abstract

Abstract: The forms of youth cultures which exist among school-going adolescents in Ireland are explored in this article. A survey, using a comparative research design of eight groups of school-going adolescents, was carried out in an attempt to explore a range of youth cultural behaviour patterns in Ireland. The eight groups were differentiated by social class, locational (urban-rural), gender and educational status positions. The findings of the survey indicated that the majority of the pupils were committed to school and were also involved in out-of-school youth cultures. Quite clearly pupils were not forced to choose one of two fundamentally opposed cultures, but could subscribe in varying degrees to both. While the work of Murdock and Phelps (1973), Willis (1977), Cohen (1972) and Clarke et al. (1976) was drawn upon to provide an interpretative framework to assist in the understanding of the findings of the study, it was found necessary to go beyond their paradigms in order to reach an adequate understanding of the range of Irish teenage cultural practices.