Missing Youth: Reflecting on <i>Resistance through Rituals</i> and the sociological study of working-class youth and youth culture since then

Resistance Through Rituals ( RTR ) remains one of the most important texts in the history of British youth sociology. The influence of CCCS sub-culture theory was profound and far-reaching. Nevertheless, criticisms soon came and, arguably, one of the most significant of these was about the apparent absence of the mass of working-class young people from subcultures and subcultural analysis and their implicit framing, therefore, as less interesting and more conformist than the stylish and ‘spectacular few’. In this short and occasionally autobiographical paper, I will, firstly, note some of the key criticisms of the work of the CCCS on youth sub-cultures. Secondly, I will sketch out the ‘two traditions’ of youth sociology in the UK since RTR and locate my own research in relation to youth cultural studies and studies of youth transitions. This is followed, thirdly, by a brief critique of the turn to post-modern, ‘post-subcultural studies’ in the 1990s and, fourthly, by an explanation of the abeyance of a concerted youth cultural sociology in Britain since then. Finally, in conclusion, I suggest that the theoretical framework developed by the CCCS writers – which went beyond the tight focus on narrowly-defined, stylistically spectacular subcultures – still has great relevance for contemporary youth sociologists.