module specification

SS5098 - Youth in Modern Society: Consumers, Deviants and Rebels (2024/25)

Module specification Module approved to run in 2024/25
Module title Youth in Modern Society: Consumers, Deviants and Rebels
Module level Intermediate (05)
Credit rating for module 15
School School of Social Sciences and Professions
Total study hours 150
 
24 hours Assessment Preparation / Delivery
90 hours Guided independent study
36 hours Scheduled learning & teaching activities
Assessment components
Type Weighting Qualifying mark Description
Seen Examination 100%   2 hour exam
Running in 2024/25

(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change)
No instances running in the year

Module summary

In the current period a plethora of youth resistance actions, movements and subcultures
have developed in response to socio-economic deprivation on a global scale. From
youth riots to graffiti writers in the UK to the politicised Latin Kings and Queens gang in New York, young people are developing cultural, political and deviant responses to their dispossession and exclusion. In this module we will focus on case-studies and theories of youth social, cultural and deviant resistance over time. Questions of race/ethnicity, class, gender and age will be addressed as we explore the e meanings and representations of youth reactions to industrial and post-industrial societies.

This is a an interdisciplinary module which combines the perspectives from sociology, ciminology and cultural studies to address contemporary youth experience.

Prior learning requirements

Available for Study Abroad? YES

Syllabus

- Young People in a Historical Perspective
- Youth in Consumer Society
- Consumerism and Violence
- Youth Riots
- The Chicago School: The City and Delinquent Subcultures
- The Divided City: Danger, Violence and Seductions of Crime                                                                                                  
- The Meanings of Youth Crime and Violence
- Resistant Masculinity
- Youth Resistance and Conformity in the Digital Age
- Youth and Resistance in Late Modernity: Structure, Social Control and Social Isolation

Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity

Teaching will comprise weekly lectures followed by exercises and reflexive discussion in seminars. Teaching will be informed by research and scholarly activities of the tutors.


Learning: Learning will be supported by the Weblearn site for the module which will include all the teaching materials and guidance for assessment.

The students will be encouraged to engage with contemporary issues and follow the current debates in the media.  This will be supported by Weblearn-based materials and forums.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

1. Outline the key themes and issues  in sociology surrounding the nature of youth identity and consumerism
2. Have a critical understanding of youth social, criminal and cultural resistance
3. Recognise the ways in which youth subcultures are accommodationist, resistant and/or transformative.
4. Recognise the relevance of sociological and criminological knowledge to understanding the position of youth in modern society

Assessment strategy

1. Formative: The students will be asked to submit an extended plan of their seen exam answer to the tutor by week 10. Feedback will be provided.
2. Summative: a two hour seen exam

Bibliography