Name: Emily van der Veen
ANW: 872375
Student Number: 2007063
Course: Knowledge in the Digital World

Assignment 1

Subcultures are groups certain people belong to. In the book ‘Outsiders’ Becker describes that subcultures arise when a group faces a common problem. Their problem is that the view of what they do is not shared by other members of society. He uses homosexuals as an example. Homosexuals think their sex life is normal, but other people who are not homosexual do not. People that engange in the same deviant activities face the same problem, which is that other members of society have another definition of what they do or should do. It is likely that when people who face the same problems interact that they develop a subculture that is built around these problems.

Some people occasionally commit deviant acts without developing a pattern of deviant behavior, this is because they do not get caught and remain ‘secret deviants’. A deviant career is developed when someone gets caught and is publicly being labeled as deviant because there is a pattern of deviant behavior. When you are being labeled as a deviant, for example when you are a drug addict, you can be denied from a respectable job.  I can relate to the concept of a career in subcultures because this is something that happens in real life. In my opinion it is normal and logical that a employer would rather hire someone that is not a drug addict, but I do not agree with people being denied from a job if they can perform the same work because for example they are a mirgrant.

In my own life I see some of the mainstream subcultures such as hipsters, geeks, emo’s and skaters. I do not think I belong to a particular subculture. I do not think I behave deviant. I do think some subcultures can be considered deviant but that is not necessarily a negative thing. For example I consider homosexuals a deviant group but I do not disapprove of their deviant behavior. I also consider criminals a deviant group but I do not think it is appropriate to commit crimes.

I think there is a difference in subcultures when you compare now to for example 50 years ago. Years ago, it was normal that there was one leading subculture for example the hippies in the 60’s. But nowadays there are a lot of subcultures at the same time and not really one leading subculture.