![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
There has been much debate about the study of British youth cultures, often involving the analysis and critique of two dominant theoretical frameworks: the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) ‘subcultural’ position and the ‘post-subcultural’ position. This paper, will engage in this debate by offering an alternative set of arguments, drawing attention to the early empirical contribution made by the Chicago school of sociology to the study of youth, and the inadvertent role some of their work played in developing the first model of ‘subculture’. To demonstrate this, the work of Cressey (1932), who explored the ‘social world’ of young female taxi-hall dancers, will be considered, and in highlighting its relevance to the study of contemporary youth cultures, his work will be discussed in relation to a recent ethnography of lap dancing in which a hierarchical occupational subculture of dancers has been identified. Both Cressey's (1932) ‘social world’ of taxi dancers and the subculture of the contemporary lap dancers, share similar features that define the unique, enclosed worlds of which each respective group is part. By drawing on Cressey (1932) and this recent study of lap dancers, not only are mainstream notions of youth culture questioned, but it is suggested that modes of work, as well as leisure, may hold ‘cultural’ significance.
Notes
1. This study was for a PhD funded by the ESRC.
2. For an example of occupational culture of other sex workers, see Sanders (Citation2005).
3. There has, however, been some unresolved debate about the extent to which their observational approach should be referred to as ‘participant observation’ (e.g. Platt Citation1994) and therefore seen as truly ‘ethnographic’.
4. Including observations, use of various official documents, personal documents, and ecological mapping (Cressey Citation1927/1983, Blumer 1984).
5. There are exceptions; see, for example, Nayak (Citation2003) and Hodkinson (Citation2002).
6. The dressing room in which taxi dancers would dress and prepare for work.
7. A patron who can be easily exploited for personal gain.
8. Girls who work as dancers; i.e. taxi dancers or chorus girls.
9. A burlesque show.
10. An easy mark.
11. A novice and unsophisticated taxi dancer.
12. A taxi dancer.
13. In the UK, non-commercial erotic dancing, commonly known as ‘stripping’, refers to independent peep shows, strip-o-grams, and private strip shows.
14. This is reflected in the recent discussion of lap-dancing clubs under the Policing and Crime Bill (2008) and the high-profile campaign, led by the feminist group Object, to relicense lap-dancing clubs, currently under the Licensing Act (Citation2003), as ‘sex encounter establishments’.
15. In the taxi-dance hall and lap-dancing club, a dancer's wages are based on the tips paid. However, in a lap-dancing club, dancers could also earn money by charging customers for ‘sit-downs’, which would be charged at a set fee at an hourly rate.
16. There are distinct differences between the style of dance performed by taxi hall dancers and lap dancers; moreover, the attire worn by these women during performance is also different. For example, taxi dancers were likely to be more formally dressed than lap dancers, who can work in anything from an ‘evening’-style dress to a bikini.
17. Observations were predominantly conducted inside ‘Starlets’, although a number of observations were made outside this setting while both socializing and living with dancers.
18. All observational data presented in this paper were recorded in a field diary between November 2003 and February 2006; pseudonyms have been used.
19. The dressing room in ‘Starlets’ in which dancers dress for work.
20. The main area in ‘Starlets’ in which dancers perform stage shows and private dances for customers.
21. Refers to a small area of the club in Starlets in which dancers perform stage shows and private dances for customers on selected weekend shifts.
22. Slang for semen.
23. ‘New girl’ and ‘old school’ are terms which originate from ‘Starlets’; ‘transition’ originates from the author.
24. This is often referred to by the dancers as ‘dirty dancing’; what is also indicative here is the way in which the dancers at ‘Starlets’, like Cressey's taxi dancers, construct their own language, giving conventional words and phrases unique meanings.
25. These are created and maintained by the lap-dancing club management team, and are intended to regulate, govern and protect staff members and customers.