Note
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Independent subculture In this form of subcultural grouping the members of the group adopt a set of norms and values that are effectively self-contained and specific to the group. Where these values, in particular, differ from those of the wider culture in which the subculture exists, they may not necessarily (or consciously) be in opposition to such values. Such subcultural values represent is an independent product of - and solution to - the problems faced by the members of the subcultural group in their everyday lives. The basic idea here is that a subcultural group develops around the interests and experiences of the people who come together to form such a group. In this respect, such groups are independent of other groups in the sense that they do not necessarily arise as a reaction to what some other group is doing. This does not mean that independent subcultures have no contact with other cultural or subcultural groups (although in some instances this may be the case when a subcultural group decides to cut itself off from contact with wider society - some religious subcultures, for example, frequently chose to do this). For our purposes, however, the idea of independence relates to the reasons for the formation of such subcultural groups, rather than to the idea that there is a necessary - and total - separation between subcultural group members and wider society. |