Figurative Methods: Towards ‘Bridging the Gap' Between ‘Transition' and ‘Cultures' Research

The study of ‘youth transitions’ has consistently highlighted the persistence of class influences on life chances and opportunity. The study of 'youth cultures' has had a more troublesome and fluctuating relationship with class. The foundational subcultural studies and more recent work continuing that tradition has been critiqued for (among other things) over-romanticising working class practice; finding ‘resistance’ everywhere; and having an unhealthy focus on the ‘spectacular’ while disregarding the ‘mainstream’. Work done under the loose banner of ‘post-subcultural’ studies (including ‘scenes’ and ‘neo-tribes’) has been critiqued for giving too much heed to fluid notions of identity; ignoring structural constraints; and over-romanticising ‘choice’ in consumer culture. In general, youth researchers have tended to focus on ‘people like us’ or young people for whom we have empathy. There has not been a lot of work on what I would call the more ‘mundane vulgar’ end of youth cultural practice. By utilising Tyler’s ‘figurative method’, this paper proposes that tracing the use of terms such as ‘bogan’ or ‘hipster’ can enable an understanding of the ways symbolic violence is disseminated at the same time ‘class’ is shunned from public discourse. Rather than (just) seeing class as something that is static and to be measured, a figurative method can shed light on the ways classes are relational categories produced through constant symbolic and moral struggles. This can help bridge the gap between ‘transitions’ and ‘cultures’ research and work towards ensuring that youth researchers do not unknowingly reproduce unhelpful stereotypes. Further, figurative methods can enhance knowledge of the ways young people are represented and the impact this has on their experiences of social (in)justice, symbolic and material inequalities and moral economies.