J. Patrick Williams 
Interpreting Subcultures 
Approaching, Contextualizing, and Embodying Sense-Making Practices in Alternative Cultures

The concept of ’subculture’ is an invaluable tool to frame the study of non-normative and marginal cultures for social and cultural scholars.
This international collection uncovers the significance of meaning-making in the processes of defining, studying and analyzing subcultural phenomena.
Examining various dimensions of interpretivism, the book focuses on overarching concerns related to interpretation as well as day-to-day considerations that affect researchers’ and members’ interpretations of subcultural phenomena. It reveals how and why people use specific conceptual frames or methods and how those shape their interpretations of everyday realities.
This is an unprecedented contribution to the field, explaining the interpretive processes through which people make sense of subcultural phenomena.

Tabla de materias

Part 1: Approaching Interpretive Practice
1. Making Sense of Subcultures: Interpretive Practice and/in Subcultural Theory – J. Patrick Williams
2. Subculture, Scene, Lifestyle, or Movement? Conceptualizing Straight Edge from Insider and Academic Perspectives – Ross Haenfler
3. Ghosts in the Machine: (Post)subculture and the ‘Problem’ of Contemporary Youth – Andy Bennett and Daniel Bennett
Part 2: Contextualizing Interpretive Practice
4. No More Heroes: Portuguese Punk and the Notion of Subculture in the Global South – Paula Guerra
5. Still Crazy After All Those Years: A Trajectory of Discourses on Youth Subcultures in Korea, from Exclusion to Recognition to Legitimization – Hyunjoon Shin
6. Interpreting Chinese Punk: From Doing Nothing to Hermit Lifestyle – Jian Xiao and Xinxin Dong
7. The Dynamic Meaning of Subculture among DIY Indonesian Musicians – Oki Rahadianto Sutopo
Part 3: Embodying Interpretive Practice
8. “That’s Not Punk!” Authenticity, Older Punk Women, and the ‘Doing’ of Punk Scholarship – Laura Way
9. “Let’s All Be Friends”: Emotional Labor and Insider Research of Punk Subculture – Stanislav Vysotsky and Donna Manion
10. Intimacy, Exchange, and Friendship as Sensitizing Concepts: Interpreting and Teaching Subcultures through Ethnographic Fieldwork – Shane Blackman and Laura Barnett
Part 4: Conclusion
11. Approaching, Contextualizing, and Embodying Interpretive Practice in Subcultural Studies – J. Patrick Williams and Samuel Judah

Sobre el autor

J. Patrick Williams is Associate Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.