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Youth culture as a context of political learning: How young people politicize amongst each
other
Nicolle Pfaff
Young 2009 17: 167
DOI: 10.1177/110330880901700204
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ARTICLE

Young
Nordic Journal of Youth Research

Copyright 2009
SAGE Publications
(Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,
Singapore and Washington DC)
www.sagepublications.com
Vol 17(2): 167189
10.1177/110330880901700204

Youth culture as a context

of political learning
How young people politicize amongst each other
NICOLLE PFAFF
Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Abstract
Research on the political socialization of the young currently focuses on the
following life spheres: family, school, media, service institutions, socio-structural
and socio-economic conditions. Studies mainly rely on standardized methods, for
example, reports on elections or youth surveys on political culture. Just as the
voices of adolescents are not heeded, youth culture as youth-specific styles of
music, symbols and values is only rarely taken into account by the current research on political socialization. Based on quantitative and qualitative methods,
this article outlines the importance of youth cultural styles for the development
of civic competencies. In the case of Germany it can be shown that particular
youth cultural styles provide space for the analysis of current social and political
problems and provide chances for young people to take political action.
Keywords
youth culture, political socialization, youth protest, civic education, mixed
methods

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Young 17:2 (2009): 167189

INTRODUCTION

tudying scientific findings on the political culture of youth can give the
impression that democracy has significant problems with its children. In
nearly all western countries, pedagogues, researchers and politicians report
disenchantment with politics and decreasing voter turnout, lack of interest
and participation and violence against the state by excluded and marginalized
groups (see for example, Putnam, 2000; Torney-Purta et al., 2001; Youniss et al.,
2002). Youth research is required to explain the ongoing process of political
socialization and the development of citizenship by the young in democratic
societies. It can also develop and describe methods of civic education and intervention, which help to integrate young people back into the processes of civil
society and politics. Therefore, citizenship, political attitudes and participation once again became a topic of interest to social scientists during the 1990s
(see Forbrig et al., 2005; Torney-Purta et al., 1999; Wallace et al., 2005), and
much research has been done during the last decade, especially in Europe and
Northern America. The results indicate that public institutions such as schools,
social services and the community but also family, the media and politics
itself can provide knowledge and critical interpretations of political processes
as well as provide chances for participation to enable young people to develop
civic competencies for their later citizenship (Brady et al., 1995; Sherrod, 2003).
While these agencies of socialization are widely explored, the influence of youth
cultural styles has been only rarely investigated (Youniss et al., 2002: 270). Up
to now only a small group of mostly reconstructive studies has dealt with the
political culture of young people in the context of selected youth cultures (see
Mller, 2000; Rose, 1994; the contributions in Schildt and Siegfried, 2006). A
few quantitative investigations discussed connections between popular music
styles and political attitudes or youth participation (see Fung, 1994; Jackson,
2002; 2005); however there is a significant lack of empirical research on the
relevance of youth cultural styles for political learning and socialization.
In this article, selected findings of an empirical study on political socialization
in the context of youth cultural styles will be presented. These findings underline that youth culture has to be taken into account as one sphere of political
and civic learning next to family, school and service organizations. I will call
attention to the impact of youth cultures concerning the development of competencies such as the ability to discuss and analyze political issues, processes
and current lines of conflict, or the capability to express political values and
opinions.
The first part of the article provides an introduction to some aspects of the
current state of research on political socialization and citizenship and to the
main influences on the development of political attitudes and participation
during adolescence. Thereafter the empirical investigation will be presented
in a methodical manner. The following sections present selected results of
the study and draw some conclusions for the further investigation of political
socialization during adolescence.

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION, CITIZENSHIP AND

THE YOUTH CULTURE: CURRENT THEORETICAL
PERSPECTIVES AND RESEARCH EFFORTS
Present research in the area of youth and politics mainly consist of two lines:
studies on the political culture of the young on the one hand and research on
the process of political socialization and the question of how political attitudes
and participation develop on the other. The first tradition deals with political
attitudes towards the state, the idea of democracy and parties, or with traditional forms of participation, such as voting or party membership (see, for
instance, Hurrelmann and Albert, 2002; 2006 for Germany; Putnam, 2000 for
the US; Goerres, 2007; Helve and Wallace, 2001 for Europe). The results of this
research on the political culture of the young have been widely interpreted
as disenchantment with politics and political disaffection, which has led to a
comeback for empirical research on political socialization. The second tradition
understands the process of political socialization on a microlevel approach as
the patterns and processes by which individuals engage in political development
and learning, constructing their particular relationships to the political contexts
in which they live (Sapiro 2004: 3). Focusing on very specific sets of opinions
like racism (see Heitmeyer and Mller,1995; Mller, 2000) or on the effects of
certain agencies of socialization (in general for this approach see Setterston and
Owens, 2002), such as the family (Bock, 2000; Hopf and Hopf, 1997), or media
(Horowitz, 2005), diverse influences on the process of political socialization
have been documented for most of the relevant fields of life, such as family,
school, media, but also socio-economic conditions for instance, income disparities or the environment (summarizing Sapiro 2004; Sherrod et al., 2002;
Torney-Purta et al., 2001). In addition recent studies took into consideration
the peer group (see Pfaff and Krger, 2006), non-governmental organizations
(such as Glanville, 1999; Warleigh, 2001), as well as music styles (Dolfsma,
1999; Fung, 1994; Jackson, 2002; 2005).
Nevertheless, a fundamental critique can be levelled at both traditions concerning their measurement as well as their perspective, which is based on an
adult-centered point of view and does not include youth-specific expressions
and phenomena in the fields of politics (Pfaff, 2006). The research on the political socialization of the young has always been normative; successful socialization up to now has mainly been seen as the perpetuation of values and
practices consistent with the existing political system (Gimpel et al., 2003).
However, from the perspective of youth research this approach must be
seriously questioned. Especially, studies on youth cultural styles always assumed
the use of cultural and aesthetic expressions as forms to understand and mediate, but also to denounce youth-specific perspectives on their spheres of life
as well as on current social problems (see Brake, 1980; Hebdige, 1979). Subsequent to this assumption, a vast number of mainly reconstructive studies in many
different social and cultural contexts showed how certain dress and dancing
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styles, music and media preferences, given codes of behaviour or forms of interaction of young people can be read as cultural and aesthetic expressions of
their life experiences and current and future orientations (see studies such as
Bennett, 1999; Muggleton, 2000; Willis, 1977). Most of this work did refer to
the relations of young people with their social class origins, societal norms and
values, school achievement expectations among others, but did not understand
youth cultural practices and styles as types of political expression (for early work
in this tradition see Corrigan and Frith, 1976; as well as other contributions in
the volume of Hall and Jefferson, 1976).
However, based on these early attempts to understand youth cultural styles
not only as cultural but also as political expressions especially in recent decades, a number of studies dealt with the political perceptions and practices
of young people in the context of certain youth cultural styles. For example
there are various recent studies on the student movements of the 1960s and 70s
(Schildt and Siegfried 2006; Seidman, 2004; Thomas, 2003) or the current antiglobalization movement (Capling and Nossal, 2001; Nur, 2005). Another youth
movement studied in relation to their political attitudes and practices is right
wing youth styles as they emerged in great number all over Europe during the
1990s (Hagan et al., 1995; Koopmans, 1996; Mudde, 2005). In addition, other
youth protests have been investigated under the rubric of political practices
of the young (Eckert and Willems, 1986; Roth and Rucht, 2000). Most of these
investigations simply look at the distribution and the social context of youth
protest; some also explore the perceptions and practices of the young people.
But even though the examined groups can be described in terms of protest
styles, only a very few studies delve into the concrete interactive matters of
production and negotiation of political attitudes and practices of the investigated groups and movements in a perspective of political socialization research
(Hagan et al., 1995; some papers in Roth and Rucht, 2000).
The investigation of protest cultures, such as the peace or globalization movement, goes along with a critique of the socialization approach. This critique points
out that the socialization approach does not take into account new innovations
and developments in the context of political participation. Meanwhile, there
are plenty of studies on new youth-specific forms of participation, which show,
for example, that traditional forms of membership in political organizations
have been replaced by short-term engagements in political actions and events
(see Bennett, 1998; Roker et al., 1999; Roth and Rucht, 2000; Younnis et al.,
2002). Furthermore, new emerging forms of engagement such as internet activism (Delli Carpini, 2000; Earl and Schussman, 2007; Scott and Street, 2000),
concious consumerism (Nava, 1992; Stolle et al., 2005) or music events with
political impact (Burgess et al., 2000; Cloonan and Street 1998) have been
subjected to scrutiny. However, most work on political culture as well as on
political socialization does not take the newly produced and dynamic forms of
youth political participation into account.
Beyond studies on explicit protesting youth cultures it seems that hardly any
work has been done on the relevance of youth cultural styles, which do not

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

show an obvious interest in political protest. However, a deeper look at different

research traditions reveals some interesting findings. First, some reconstructive
studies on certain music scenes, such as hiphop (Androutsopoulos and Scholz,
2002; Weller, 2003) or techno (Bornemann and Senders, 2000; Welniak, 2001)
describe socially critical attitudes and participative approaches as part of the
aesthetic practices within these styles. Second, there are limited quantitative
studies on the relation between pop culture or entertainment and political attitudes (Fung, 1994; Jackson, 2002; 2005). Also, those studies mostly lack integration into or even a relation to the paradigm of political socialization and civic
learning and therefore are not referred to by the current work on the development of political attitudes and practices of the young.
Taking into account some basic principles of youth culture research, this
analysis is based on an advanced concept of political socialization, which not only
normatively understands the process of socialization as one of the production
of a (positive) personal relation to a given political system and initiation into its
structures of participation, but also as a process of the construction of political
processes and practices in ones own contexts (Hall and Jefferson, 1976). This
includes understanding cultural and symbolic expressions as important aspects
of political action and therefore political participation and civic engagement in
a broader sense as age- and context-specific perception and expression of social
structures and problems.

METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH

Based on a conceptual and theoretical framework, which understands socialization as adaptation as well as construction (see Cook et al., 2002) and a concept
of participation, which takes into account cultural and micropolitical practices next to traditional governance-related forms of engagement, I aim to shed
light on the importance of youth cultures as agents in the process of political
socialization of adolescents. Two basic research questions head the following
presentation. First, I look at members of various youth cultural styles and their
selected political attitudes as well as their involvement with certain forms of
political participation. Second, I ask in which way youth cultural styles support
the political thinking and practices of their members.
Both questions are addressed using different research methods. The political
culture of members of different styles will be explored based on a youth survey
carried out in 2003 with eighth and ninth graders at schools in one East and one
West German region, overall approximately 4800 respondents (see Helsper et al.,
2006; 2007). To facilitate identification with youth cultures, we adopted measurement instruments established in youth studies (see for example, Hurrelmann
and Albert, 2002; 2006) to discover the degree of individual identification with
23 popular youth cultural styles such as music styles and political youth scenes.
The construction of the 16 items on political engagement and participation
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relate to the IEA Civic Education Study (see Oesterreich, 2002; Torney-Purta
et al., 2001). Further, some more youth-specific forms of political expression,
such as online activism on political issues, participation in local initiatives,
strikes or riots have been added based on previous multi-method research
exploring forms of youth participation and civic learning in a selected East
German federal state (Krger et. al., 2002). The analysis of the quantitative data
conducted for this article mainly relates to the systematization of the landscape
of youth cultural styles in East and West Germany and to their specific political
attitudes and experiences with political participation. Socio-demographic and
socio-economic attributes as well as information about school, family and peer
integration have been taken into account at each stage of the analysis.
The question of how youth cultural styles support certain political positions
and practices is connected to the concrete daily practices and interactions
of young people and therefore has been investigated using a methodological
approach, which addresses orientations and practices in the sense of the modus
operandi or habitus of specific social contexts (Bohnsack, 2003; Bohnsack and
Nohl, 2003; Weller, 2003). The analysis is based on transcribed discussions with
all four groups of young people, two in a HipHop scene and two in a Gothic
Punk scene. The left-wing youth cultural styles in eastern and hiphop in western
Germany have been chosen based on a quantitative analysis where adherents of
both styles appeared to hold distinguishable political attitudes and to be highly
politically engaged in certain ways (as shown in the following paragraphs).
Contacts with the two gothpunk groups in an East German and the two rap
crews in a West German city were made in schools that were already involved
in the antecedent quantitative study. The discussions had been carried out with
groups of friends who talked about the youth cultural style and practices of the
young people, about the relation between their style and society, public views
of their specific style, society and social problems as well as about the political
opinions and actions of the group members. The discussions were transcribed
and analyzed; for this article, quotations were chosen that related to the current
subject of presentation (see Pfaff, 2006 for detailed description of methods,
groups and field access as well as for more results).
The overall triangular design of the study assumes that quantitative and qualitative approaches can complement each other in relation to certain aspects of
the basic research questions (see Bryman, 1992; Newman and Benz, 1998).
In the study the present paper is based on, the quantitative survey has been
carried out first to investigate existing distributions of diverse youth cultural
styles, political attitudes and forms of participation and to relate youth cultural
styles to different political positions and types of engagement. Additionally, the
reconstructive study was based on first results of the youth survey concerning
youth cultural styles and was meant to investigate the specific processes of construction of political attitudes and practices in selected youth cultural styles.

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

THE LANDSCAPE OF YOUTH CULTURE

IN EAST AND WEST GERMANY
There is a long tradition of quantitative youth research exploring the landscape
of youth cultures in western Germany starting with the youth studies conducted by the Youth Office of the Shell consortium in 1985 (Fischer et al.,
1985; Zinnecker, 1987). From the 1950s, youth culture in Germany has been
investigated, periodically tracing trends and developments such as the political
movements during the 1970s and 1980s or the prevailing music styles of the
1960s. With the reunification of Germany at the beginning of the 1990s, these
investigations have greatly increased, remarking similarities concerning sympathies with youth cultural styles. Later on, fundamental differences related to
living conditions and also in matters of the relationship of the young to social
and political movements have been noted (Behnken et al., 1991; Bois-Reymond
et al., 2001).
Since the mid-1990s, a rising spread of right-wing youth cultures that conducted violent attacks on immigrants all over Europe, but especially in the East,
has led to an intensification of the research on the political culture of the young
in Germany (Fritzsche, 1997; Hurrelmann and Albert, 2002). The position on
a leftright continuum in Western Europe up to now has been used as a measurement to describe the ideological and political orientation of citizens. This
political code reduces the complexity of ideologies for politicians and political scientists, citizens, the media and also the young. Thus the codes are considered to reflect general attitudes towards the socio-economic structure of
society: a position on the left indicates a favorable attitude towards changes
in the direction of greater (social, political, and economic) equality, while a
location on the right side represents opposition to such changes (Eisinga and
Franses, 1996: 345). However, the continuum is used as the central ideological
schema of orientation expressing the lowest common denominator of existing
structures of societal conflicts (Mair and Castles, 1997). Even if the importance
of the leftright scale as a reference for ideological and political thinking seems
to have declined during recent decades (Eisinga and Franses, 1996), for certain
youth cultures it still provides a point of reference in terms of ideology and
decision-making, as the next section of this article points out.
As stated before, in Germany, as well as in other European countries, youth
culture historically has been strongly connected to societal movements and
organizations. Since the 1970s, the leftist peace and environmental movement
in Western Europe has been closely associated with certain youth cultural styles
and youth organizations (Schildt and Siegfried, 2006; Strandbu and Krange,
2003). Even in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic), the youth
supplied a wide range of members for the Christian peace movement (Pfaff,
2006). During the 1980s, these sometimes radical leftist youth cultures have
been distinguished by tending towards non-political music and media styles.

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Oppositional styles also cropped up in the form of diverse right-wing youth cultural styles, such as skinheads or neo-nazis (Stock and Mhlberg, 1990). These
new styles culminated in the mid 1990s, reaching frequencies of diffusion of up
to 10 per cent of the youth population in Eastern Germany (Pfaff and Krger,
2006). The research on the emerging right-wing youth culture in Germany has
pointed out that these styles have an important impact on the development and
diffusion of ethnocentric and violent ideologies among young people (Brown,
2004; Merkl and Weinberg, 1997; Pfaff, 2005; Virchow, 2004).
However, during the 1990s, music styles associated with these right-wing
groups were also propagated further among youth and reached a much greater
diffusion than any other youth cultural style related to political ideologies or
protest movements (Fritzsche, 1997; Pfaff and Krger, 2004). In Germany at the
end of the 1990s, techno and hiphop were the most popular youth cultural
styles, even if they were enjoyed by young people in different areas under different socio-economic conditions. While hiphop has been both the music
of immigrant youth as well as highly educated male young people in urban
areas (Androutsopoulos and Scholz, 2003; Bennett, 1999), techno especially
belonged to young rural people all over the country independent of gender, race
or education. At the beginning of 2003, hiphop was the most popular youth
culture among adolescents in East and West Germany. Yet overall most respondents identified with or showed sympathy with different music styles. Following
the results of the youth survey the following section aims to systematize the
landscape of youth cultural styles in Germany. Therefore cluster analyses (unweighted pair groups) have been carried out to distinguish groups of young
people with different youth cultural orientations. The resulting constructed
classification has been tested in relation to socio-economic attributes (for a detailed method description see Romesburg, 2004; Pfaff, 2006: 108ff).
However, the statistical differentiation between groups of the young distinguishes between two forms of youth cultural affiliation: two-thirds of the
respondents sympathize with certain youth cultural styles (specialized selflocalization) and one-third position themselves across the styles by evaluating
youth cultures all together (see also Strzoda et al., 1996, for an analogue result
on youth survey data).
For further analysis, groups belonging to the specialized form of youth cultural
self-localization are of special interest. These groups can be distinguished as
sympathizers with youth cultural protest or alternative music styles (30 per cent)
and young people identifying themselves with popular music styles (35 per
cent). A more differentiated breakdown leads to four groups of protest and alternative music styles (presented in Figure 1) and three groups of sympathizers
with popular music and media styles: hiphop, techno and computer freaks.
This article focuses on protest styles and alternative music styles, which can
be distinguished in the four groups presented in Figure 1. Two of the four
groups belong to both ends of the political spectrum in Germany. These sides
have been depicted for years with the terms left and right as it is common in
most European countries. The data show one of the groups being more closely

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

Figure 1 Forms of youth cultural self-localization in Germany

Global Self-localization (1/3)

Protest styles and Alternative

Music Styles (30%)

Proximity to
Skinheads,
Neo-Nazis and
Hooligans (4%)

Fans of Mainstream
Music with Sympathy
for Right-wing Styles
(10%)

Specialized Self-localization (2/3)

Popular Music and

Media Styles (35%)

Fans of Mainstream
Music with Sympathy
for Left-wing and
Alternative Styles
(9%)

Proximity to
Punk, Gothic,
Metal und
Antifa (7%)

connected to the political sphere and another group always identifying with
rightist or leftist groups as well as with certain music styles. These groups are
more widespread in the East than in West Germany, and male youth join them
more often than females. Concerning education, it can be stated that the more
the orientation to right-wing styles, the lower the level of school attended, and
the more the alignment with the left, the higher the level of education.
However, there are several peculiarities related to the political culture of
young people in these four groups: they are more interested in politics, are
much more able to locate themselves in the German political sphere, show
clearer party affiliations and lower percentages of youth who would refuse to
vote in national elections, and most groups have a variety of experiences of political protests and participation.
Table 1 shows the two polarizing protest cultures that sympathize with rightor left-wing youth cultural styles and compares them with all respondents of
the survey and with those who identify with the hiphop style as one culture
of popular music. The table reveals some highly differentiating politically related attitudes and types of participation. It can be seen that the affiliation with
certain youth cultures not only makes a difference in political attitudes but also
civic and political actions. While most youth cultures show no impact on the
political culture of their sympathizers, youth belonging to the selected groups
show more political engagement. Furthermore, these cultures seem to provide
both opportunities for conventional and unconventional participation in politics
as well as in civic actions, including instances of violent action in connection
with the expression of their political aims or critiques. At the same time, adopting certain youth cultural styles seems to overlap the effects of special sociodemographic attributes such as the educational level of the parents. Especially,
the young people identifying with right-wing youth cultures, who mostly come
from less educated families, evidence a higher degree of political interest and
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175

Overall
Proximity to right-wing youth cultures
Proximity to left-wing youth cultures
Identification with the hiphop style
Note: p 0.05, p 0.01.

Self-localization Towards
Youth Cultures
12%
20%
24%
16%

Interest in
Politics
17%
37%
59%
22%

12%
17%
31%
11%

Identification with Experience with

Political Poles Demonstrations

Table 1 Political attitudes and experiences for selected youth cultures

29%
29%
47%
26%

Experience with Political

Discussions on the Internet
or Petitions

10%
27%
23%
13%

Experience
with Riots at
Demonstrations

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

participation than do other teenagers or even adults from these social backgrounds (see, for example, Bhm-Kasper and Krappidel, 2006; Heitmeyer, 2002).
Additional path and regression analyses on the youth survey data show a
clear effect of belonging to right- and left-wing youth cultures as regards certain
political attitudes, namely interference with the impact of other contexts of
political socialization, such as the educational level of parents or their interest
in politics. This analysis also shows that regarding the two protest cultures,
effects of affiliation with right- or left-wing cultures appear in experiences with
unconventional political behavior and in actions that include or are related to
violence (see Pfaff, 2006: 172ff; Pfaff and Krger, 2006).
Even if these results have to be proved in additional longitudinal studies,
they highlight the impact of certain youth cultural styles in the process of political socialization. Moreover, they raise the question of how this influence is
developed in concrete styles and groups. To answer this question by example,
the next section draws upon selected results from the qualitative case study of
a left-wing youth culture in an East German city.

POLITICAL CODES AS YOUTH CULTURAL BORDERS

The following section is based on results from case studies using the example
of two groups of friends that belong to a left-wing goth and punk scene in an
East German city that is characterized by high unemployment rates, a low portion of immigrants and a relatively high number of right-wing youth groups in
the neighbouring countryside.
During the group discussions, both groups independently spoke about
their political affiliations at the beginning of their discourses and described
themselves as leftists when asked for their attitudes and opinions in relation
to politics. Results of the youth survey show that this is true for most of the respondents who have been allocated to left-wing youth cultures, whereas overall
only about 17 per cent of all respondents locate themselves at both ends of the
political continuum.
The first group gave themselves the name alternative 4, parodying a German
hiphop band called The Fantastic Four, which suggests that borders between
different youth cultures are of special importance for the self-representation of
all styles. In the group, the question regarding their position in terms of politics led to a discourse on politics and radicalism (group Alternative Four: section
radicalism):
Interviewer: If you are talking about politics already, how would you describe
yourself in these terms? Is there any allocation (...)
Boy 1: Well of course leftists or (laughing)
Boy 2: So politically extreme left or left, how you define it, the one more the
other less (4 seconds silence) leftist actually, so to speak that we
deny many things the state presents to us: certain laws, programs,
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taxes, democracy, and fight against this, and not like other people go
to elections and say: well, the Christian Democratic Union, they want
to increase taxes.1

This group of 16 and 17 year old males define themselves as leftists and the
following description of their political attitudes is mainly related to their refusal of state expectations on its citizens. Therefore, their understanding of
democracy and of the current form of government in Germany is based on a
critique of the responsibility that goes along with citizenship. As in other parts
of the discourse, the boys use the term we to describe political attitudes and
actions, which indicates two things. First, the boys have a clear understanding
of shared political opinions, which indicates that political discussions in this
group are pretty common. Second, the young people see themselves as a part
of a larger political movement: a unified Left that also includes smaller political
parties who fight against social inequality and for more transparency in political
processes and decisions. Thus, the groups denial of democracy as reflected in
their discourse seems to be ambivalent. It is related to the current system of
established parties where new political organizations and smaller parties face
serious difficulties in reaching governmental power on local, but even more
on county and national levels. They distance themselves from citizens who,
in elections, vote for the party that makes the most hopeful promises for their
own use and advantage.
Later on in the discussion, the young people addressed the topic of extremism
and radicalization once more (group Alternative Four: section radicalism):
Boy 3: For example radicalism I cant understand at all because left-wing
extremism for me is just like right-wing extremism. Both result in obtrusions
and this I dont like so much. Everybody is supposed to do what he wants
and nobody should be forced into anything.
Boy 2: But this is somehow wrong because right-wing extremism thats only
idiots aiming a dictatorship, wanting one idiot who kicks out all the
immigrants and left-wing extremism, thats people wanting anarchy, not
giving a damn about politics any more. Thats how I see it.

One member of this group distances himself from radicalism in any form, describing it as political obtrusion. This section of the discourse indicates disunity
amongst the group members concerning the question of how far left they
localize themselves on the leftright continuum. It can be seen that the young
people negotiate group positions and collective opinions by addressing political questions in group discourses. While dealing with prevalent attitudes and
positions in an interactive manner, they learn to carry on political arguments
and establish interest in the political discourse of their country. This group addresses major problems of society such as the integration of immigrants, political disenchantment and the depreciation of democracy.
Another group, consisting of girls and boys age 14 to 20, also addressed politics at the beginning of the discussion when one boy told how he was fired

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

from his job because of his leftist political opinions and the punk style he wore
while working. When asked for their political position as a group, they also
located themselves on the left side of the continuum yet not as clearly as the
other group did (group PParque: section work and politics).
Interviewer:
Boy 4:
Girl 1:
Boy 2:
Boy 1:
Boy 4:

And how is this going in this group?

Mainly leftists.
Actually more likely leftist.
Yes.
In the proper sense yes.
There are some who dont show that they have a right opinion but
I think they dont have any chance to be accepted here. Not that we
would organize entry tests, but if someone expresses something
right-wing
Girl 1: They will not be accepted.

In this group the self-localization as leftists is related to the defeat of right-wing

opinions and attitudes and the immediate exclusion from the group. Political
attitudes tend to be constitutive for the group and have to be negotiated in a
political discourse with new members. This indicates that political topics and
positions have a substantial impact within the group whose members search
for mutuality in relation to a common understanding and position vis vis major
societal lines of conflict. Nevertheless there are indications of a restriction in
the identification with the leftists, which has not been addressed in the discourse directly. In the following sections of the discussion, the opposition to
right-wing attitudes is generalized. Instead of describing their own opinions in
form and content, an even stronger opposition to the rightists is expressed.
Right-wing positions have been criminalized, Right wing is no opinion, its
criminal and antagonized among punks this is always very dangerous. The
following section from the focus group explains the restrictions against the
leftist opinions and reveals that the common attitudes within the group appear
to be precarious concerning the question of a general tolerance against others,
which does not only exclude rightists but also groups of foreigners (group
PParque: section violence):
Boy 2: There are always some nations one can say I dont like them very
much. Not everybody can tell he likes everybody.
Boy 3: Because you dont know everybody.
Boy 2: But in the end nevertheless one can tell one is a leftist. Sure, as
said before, one cant like everybody. Especially related to, lets say
immigrants, if I am in another country then I belong to the unpopular
foreigners. Thats why you arent a rightist. I dont know how to
address (3 seconds silence) yes, one doesnt like everybody, thats
impossible.
Boy 3: But again this is a difficult topic. I would say there are Germans who
are assholes and there are foreigners who are assholes, even if there
are immigrants who are just like we are.
Boy 2: Thats what I wanted to say more or less.
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Despite their description as leftists, one member of the group is legitimizing

negative opinions about other nations. This also explains the restrictions of
the identification with left-wing positions in the group. The boy points out that
there are nations he doesnt like. He doesnt express stereotypes against other
cultures in general but prejudices against certain ethnic groups. His opinion
is generally rather more xenophobic than racist. This attitude is contentious
within the group, but there is no argument emerging from the boys views.
Instead, his opinion is corrected by other group members: a developmental
model is placed against his racist argumentation indicating that knowledge and
understanding of other cultures leads to more tolerance in dealing with them.
Furthermore the boys prejudices against immigrants in general have been replaced by an argumentation that emphasizes personal attributes rather than
ethnic characteristics.
Similarities between these two groups mainly exist in how they address political issues. First of all, politics are important for the representation of their
style and for their understanding of themselves as groups. Political attitudes and
interests are constitutional for being a member of the group and the discussion
about political issues and major societal problems belongs to their understanding
of themselves as sympathizers of a special style. Or, as one of the boys in the first
groups put it: I never saw a goth with right-wing attitudes. Even if the truth of
this statement remains open to discussion and other experiences are reported,
the expression targets why these young people localize themselves at one end
of the left-right continuum and consequently argue about their position and
about political issues: identification with a style is concomitant with holding
a certain political position. The opinions and attitudes related to this position
have to be negotiated within the group and with the political opponent. Oliver
Bhm-Kasper (2006) highlighted the importance of peer communication about
politics for the political engagements of adolescents using a multi-level approach
for the quantitative youth survey presented in this paper. He pointed out that
the impact of peers discussing political issues on their civic competencies was
even higher than the measured family influences. The quotations and their interpretations in this section suggest why this is so: political debates belong to the
central practices within the investigated left-wing youth groups. At the same
time the argumentations and discussions about current political issues must
be understood as important interactions in the process of political socialization.
Even if a certain political opinion seems crucial for membership in a particular
style-related youth group, the specific arrangement of these attitudes is a matter
of the style-specific practice of political debate.

STYLES AS SPACES OF PARTICIPATION

Chances of political participation for youth in Germany are limited even if public institutions make massive efforts to create settings for young people to learn
how to act politically. With some local exceptions, people under 18 are not

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

permitted to vote in elections, and political parties youth organizations rarely

are allowed to participate in political decision-making. Two institutions that
provide opportunities for participation and political engagement for young
people will be presented in the following section. It will be shown how youth
cultures apply to them and how young people use the political structures provided there for their critical actions.
As has been stated already (Oesterreich, 2002 for the German educational
system; Torney-Purta et al., 2001), school is undertaking measures to provide
chances for participation and political action for their students in terms of
student councils and participative decision-making structures. In the case
studies of the groups from left-wing youth cultures, the young people from
the first group discussed an instance from their own school where the school
leadership, teachers and student council have not been able to solve a problem.
During a school reform in the system of higher education of the county, the
following problem had arisen: for the students of grade 11 and their teachers,
it was unclear how to calculate the final results of the first term. For those
students of this comprehensive school (which was the only one in the county
at this time) who wanted to leave school and apply for further education or
vocational training, this turned out to be a serious problem. In spite of diverse
efforts by teachers and student council, the school leadership still didnt tackle
the problem. Some students from the group opted for another unconventional
way (group Alternative Four: section engagement):
Boy 2: //Him and me, Im the class representative and he is my deputy, went
to an event where we could talk directly to supervisors from the school
administration, without dealing with the school leadership again. We
went directly to the school administration to tell them about the problem
and to make a suggestion. And they turned out to be quite tolerant and
understanding.

The young people use their knowledge about political structures and institutions to address the next higher level of decision-making when efforts within
the hierarchies of their own institution failed. Their interest in politics and their
critical understanding of political processes provided them with the knowledge
of whom to address and also with the necessary cheekiness to ignore the hierarchies within the school system to seek a fast solution in their own interest.
Experienced in political discussions and in their roles as representatives of
other students, they took the problem to representatives of an institution that
actually could solve it directly. Even if both did not participate in the student
council themselves, the implicitness of their political action seems to be an
indicator for a very clear understanding of democratic processes and successful political action. It must be assumed that their general political interest,
which is mediated and supported by their youth cultural style, encourages
such processes of learning about political structures. At the same time, their experience with political action outside of school in the context of their style,

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as is presented below, equips them with the necessary self-awareness to act as

political representatives beyond the political structures of their own school.
Another example from the same group explains how youth cultures use
participation in social movements for both political action for a clear purpose
on the one hand and protest and provocative conflict in form of actions on the
other. Even if youth culture research states a decline in young peoples sympathy for social movements in Germany, and especially in East Germany during
the 1990s (see Pfaff and Krger, 2004), the movement against right-wing attacks
and politics in the East still tries to elicit the support of many young people,
in particular sympathizers with left-wing and alternative styles. In a section of
the focus group where the young people talked about their experiences with
political action, two boys explained how the demonstrations they took part in
proceeded (group Alternative Four: section engagement):
Boy 1: Well, one moves around mostly in a group that depends and then one
delivers ones message.
Boy 4: With speakers in a car or screaming.
Boy 1: Posters.
Boy 4: Posters.
Boy 1: There are battles about and there are these other entirely right-wing
people who have something against it, well this might become quite rude
sometimes [...]
Boy 3: Is this fun or what?
Boy 4: Well its connected to fun (laughing), you look forward to it, and you go
there and deliver your message, what you like to, what you stand for in life.
You tell that to the rest of the citizens.

First, in this example the two boys describe the political practice of demonstrations in a highly interactive manner and with precision, which indicates rich
experiences with several demonstrations against the right-wing actions in their
city. Second, it can be seen that this experience leads to a further understanding of the process of gaining publicity for political aims and positions while
demonstrating in public. These boys understand the mechanisms of delivering messages to the public and of addressing issues to a broader population.
They are also used to dealing with their political and, at the same time, youth
cultural opponents not only through battles but also through discussions.
Third, the quotes in this section underline that demonstrating for these youth
is not only a form of political action but also a way to have fun and achieve a
feeling of community in the practice of participation: demonstrations for them
work as an actionism (see Bohnsack and Nohl, 2003). Ralf Bohnsack et al.
(1995) developed the concept of actionism from a large qualitative study indicating that groups of young people use shared performances and rituals to produce community and common orientations. In the focus group example, the
actionism of demonstration for the young is a way to perform and develop
their understanding of political participation and to make sure of and deepen

Pfaff Youth culture as a context of political learning

their political attitudes and civic competencies. In that sense for these young
people, youth cultural styles and their embedded peer groups work as agents
of political socialization.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings presented in this article demonstrate that the identification with
certain youth cultural styles and the affiliation with peer groups, which are part
of subcultures has an impact on the political culture of adolescents. Thereby,
youth cultures serve as agencies of socialization concerning the political attitudes
and civic competences of young people. As shown above, the outcomes of these
processes include greater competence concerning participation in political debates and discussions, more knowledge about politics and political structures,
a better understanding of current lines of conflict and political processes and
more confidence in the expression of ones own political goals and opinions.
This article aimed to highlight the impact of political learning in a youth cultural
environment and the results indicate that it would be worth taking into account
youth cultures as agents of political socialization, to investigate these cultures
in longitudinal and cross-cultural perspectives, and last but not least, to support
them, take them seriously and involve them in decision-making in school and
other places.

Acknowledgements
The research on which this article is based was funded by the Hans-Boeckler-Foundation
and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany. Furthermore I wish
to thank the members of the Center of School and Education Research (ZSB) at the
University of Halle (Germany) where I conducted and discussed this investigation many
times, colleagues at the Stanford Center on Adolescence (USA) as well as the reviewers
of Young who offered helpful suggestions on this article.

Note
1 The quotes used in this paper are translated from German.

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NICOLLE PFAFF is a research scholar at the German Research Foundation

on a cross-cultural project that explores the performance of gender in preadolescent peer groups within different social classes and races in Brazil and
Germany. She holds a PhD in Educational Science from the Martin-LutherUniversity Halle-Wittenberg and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center of
Qualitative Research in Education, Counseling and Social Science (ZBBS).
Her research interests include identity development, especially political
socialization and gender identity, mixed method designs in educational
science as well as research at the juncture of school research and studies on
childhood and youth. [email: pfaff@paedagogik.uni-halle.de]

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