Introduction
The paper is a case study that focuses on subculture theories. As such, the paper will take an application approach where the theory is explored in the context of Pachuco subculture. The subculture relates to Mexican-American gang which developed in the 1930s (Sanchez, n.d.). The subculture was characterized by delinquent behavior thus forming a suitable case to apply the subculture theories.
Understanding the Emergence of Pachuco Subculture
Bourdieu argues that there are four forms of capital namely social, economic, and cultural and symbolic. To understand the emergence of the subculture, first, the social form of capital is applied. According to Bourdieu, social capital refers to people’s networks together with these people shared values, norms, and understanding that facilitates corporation among the people (Longhofer & Winchester, 2013). According to the social capital theory, social capital takes several shapes. However, for this case, one shape is most suitable. Examining the Pachuco subculture, one will observe the existence of the bonding social capital. Bonding social capital creates a bond between horizontal ties between individuals within the same social group. As such, this capital will be strongest in local communities since there are many Mexican-American people that known each other in the same network closure (Whitehead & Lab, 2012). In addition, this form of capital is highly associated with trust and strong norms which may lead to both negative and positive manifestation and implication in relation to social exclusion. From the inception of the subculture, the subculture was formed by Latino youth who are Mexican-American adolescents that were members of the juvenile gangs which developed in the southwestern part of USA. As such, due to this locality and commonality in access to network assets, bonding social capital is evident thus facilitating the formation and the emergence of the subculture in the 1930s.
Role of Capital
According to Bourdieu, the world is divided into various fields. He further argued that it is through the differentiation of social activities that lead to the creation of various social spaces that are relatively autonomous where competition in these spaces revolves around given species of capital. Bourdieu argues that the fields have a hierarchical structure with the economic power proving to be the dominant field. Education is one of the factors that will influence the success of a member of a society in terms of economic power. Consequently, since access to quality education is highly influenced by the economic field, it follows that schools will be a good focus to understand the disparities between the lower class and the middle class. Through school, the lower class members attempt to achieve a status by meeting the standards that have been set by the middle class. In this attempt, the poor Chicano students will start at a disadvantageous position compared to the middle class primarily due to the limitation in economic resources. When they fail to meet the standards, the poor Chicano boys will experience “status frustration” which exposes these boys to a psychological complexity called the “problem of adjusting” (Peterson, Krivo & Hagan, 2006). As such, this problem unifies the failed Chicano boys thus forming a group that aims to overturn the dominant middle-class success matrix (Peterson, Krivo & Hagan, 2006). As a result, when the lower class Chicano youth was abandoned in the high-density urban centers facing a common problem, they embraced any activity that would give them a sense of some status. Consequently, they ended up rejecting the acceptable society norms and accepting the behaviors that make them feel they had a social status. To support this claim, there is resounding evidence that shows that the Mexican-American citizens were denied a fair shot to life in the early and mid-1990s which culminated in the Chicano student strike for equality in 1969 to 1970 (Palazzolo, 2013). The students were demanding that the government addresses factors that hampered Chicano student from excelling in education such as reduce the class size among (Palazzolo, 2013). Teacher to student ratio affects the quality of education that the learner receives. As such, compared to the middle-class children, the middle class could afford to educate their children in better schools with the recommended student-teacher ratio thus enhancing the education of their children which in turn enables them to better opportunity thus improve the economic capital.
The fact that the education system undermined the Chicano student education eroded the chance that the lower class Chicano boys will meet the expectation and standards that have been set out by the middle class. According to Bourdieu, symbolic capital is an instrumental source of power. It follows that when a social member that has a higher power uses the power, the member will alter the actions of the one that has less symbolic capital thus Symbolic violence is instituted whereby the one that has the higher symbolic power will impose thought and perception upon the dominated social members. The dominated social members, in turn, conceptualize the social order to be right. Since education is one of the aspects that contribute to the formation of an individual symbolic capital, the fact that the education system undermines the Chicano boys’ chance to a quality education created a situation created that increased chance that most of the Chicano boys will not have a status that results from the prestige of being educated and access to better opportunities. Consequently, to compensate for the lack of status, the Chicano boys will choose to join a gang in order to create an alternative form of success that is not based on the middle-class definition of success such as violence which will bring them attention which is another source of symbolic capital (Whitehead & Lab, 2012). In addition, once the Chicano boys fail to gain the status and are abandoned, they will unite and find an activity that will give their life some meaning and acquire what they think is a substitute to mainstream success. As a result, searching for this alternative led to the formation of a delinquent gang since it gives them the psychic satisfaction in rejecting respectable values that these boys cannot meet.
Capital Reproduction
Bourdieu further argues that the education system plays a role in the reproduction of capital from one generation to another (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990).According to this argument, the education system will capture a wide range of elements that will include both academic and nonacademic aspects whereby the nonacademic aspects will be highly linked to the cultural behavior such as dress code and the accent of the learner (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Children from the middle class will have learned these behaviors while the children from the low class will not have had that privilege to learn these behaviors that are dominant in the middle class. In addition, the teachers are acquainted with these behaviors (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). The consequent effect is the emergence of docile student and the difficult student with the latter characterizing the children from the low class. According to Bourdieu, children will behave in a manner that reflects their upbringing (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Therefore, he attributes the middle-class children success in the education system to parental social labor whereby the parent is accredited with teaching the middle-class child the necessary manners, thoughts and attitudes towards the education system (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). The children will then be in a position to reproduce the parent position in the social system. The opposite is true for the low-class children and their parent. According to this argument, it is, therefore, correct to observe that Chicano boys, being offspring of uneducated low class, are not adequately prepared with the right attitude, thoughts, and manners necessary to succeed in the education system. Since the boys will grow to be parent lacking this attributes necessary to succeed in the education system, the cycle will continue. Therefore, the reproduction of capital is reproduced through the education system where the middle class will remain dominant in dictating social success since their children are adequately prepared to succeed. Constant failure to succeed created a constant supply of new members to join the Pachuco subculture as the boys attempt to acquire necessary capital in alternative means. The view is further supported by the concept of habitus. According to Bourdieu understanding of habitus, Chicano boys will tend to want what is available to them and shun what is not available (Bourdieu, 1984). Therefore, since gaining a quality education is largely unavailable to these boys while Pachuco subculture is largely readily available, by Bourdieu understanding of habitus, the Chicano boys will want to join the gang.
According to Bourdieu’s theory of class distinction, distinction refers to a social force that assigns values to society members (Luhmann, 2012: Bourdieu, 1984). The value allocation is based on, among others, race. Therefore, examining the scope of discrimination that persisted, it is evident that the dominant race is highly distinct. In addition, according to this theory, Bourdieu argues that the manner in which an individual chooses to present their social space to the world shows how such an individual depicts their status (Gartman, 2013: Longhofer & Winchester, 2013: Bourdieu, 1984). As such, this is the sole parameter that shows a distinct distance that such a person maintains with the lower class. In addition, the theory suggests that the children internalize this position at a tender age thus developing behaviors that suit them. As such, the dominant race, due to the availability of opportunities, continued to excel thus exercising their oppressive nature on the minorities, a trait that is adopted by their children thus facilitate its continuation. On the other hand, the oppressed children develop resistant traits. Therefore, the riot in 1942 involving Pachuco as detailed by Baeder (2013) in Los Angeles can be understood as an end result of an imbalanced society as the oppressed attempt to break the social barrier and gain some reputable respect in the society thus realign social distinction (Daniels, 1997).
According to Bourdieu theory of action, social agents are poised to develop strategies that resonate with the needs of the society that they inhabit (Bourdieu, 1998). The strategies are based on bodily logic and are mostly unconscious (Bourdieu, 1998). Since Bourdieu argues that social classes have varied influence, it is, therefore, correct to view that the dominant class will dictate these strategies. According to Omi and Winant (2014) racial formation theory, race is a social construct. As such, the importance of a race was derived from the perceived social and economic importance of members of a given race (Bartollas, 2007). The theory argues that in the modern days, race has been used as a means to distinguish one group from another. However, more importantly, race has been wide used as a means of control where the dominant culture will assign differentiated identities to other minority cultures (Gartman, 2013). The tag assigned to the minority group will have the effect of lowering the social and political status of the minority group thus enhancing the control the dominant race has over the minorities (Longhofer & Winchester, 2013). The ultimate effect of racial profiling is the minimization of economic gain in relation to the minorities thus limiting their upward mobility in the social ladder. Other effects include limiting the movements of the minorities and developing an inferiority complex since the oppressed groups will see themselves as less important compared to the dominant races (Gartman, 2013). In the 19th and 20th century, scientists at the time took the issue of racism and subjected it to scientific study where they justified European supremacy based on social Darwinism and Cranial Capacity (Gartman, 2013). These elements ensured the continued growth of Pachuco subculture since many Chicano youths will seek compensation by joining this gang.
In a response to dictates of the dominant class, the dominated class will adopt alternative strategies. According to Cloward and Ohlin (2013), there are three sets of people that are highly susceptible to joining a delinquent subculture namely a person that blames the system for their failure, a person that is convinced that they have all the official criteria but lack the pragmatic criteria and finally those that are alienated from the legitimate system (Gartman, 2013). According to this theory, the Chicano poor youths are likely to join the delinquent group by virtual of the fact they can be categorized into the first (a person that blames the system for their failure) and third (those that are alienated from the legitimate system) set of people. Gathering evidence from the 1970 strike by the Chicano students, the system totally blamed the system for their woes. The student demands such as the introduction of Mexican and increased cultural celebration shows that the student experiences a general feeling that the system has alienated them. As such, this shows how vulnerable the Mexican youths were vulnerable to joining the Pachuco since the education system, alternative to delinquent subculture, was working against this group. Second, the student strike reveals that the student feels as though the system sets them up to fail. The strike shows that these students feel that the education system does not promote their development thus contributing to their inability to compete effectively with the middle-class children (Palazzolo, 2013). Therefore, the theory justifies the large membership in the Pachuco subculture. According to Cloward and Ohlin, discrimination activities alienated the Mexican from the legitimate system thus making them blame the system for all their failures. Consequently, this led to the Mexicans under the Pachuco subculture revolting to fight racism. The crude violent behavior is understood to be the outcome of isolation of abandoned poor Chicano youths who have forced a subculture that aims to eliminate white supremacy thus attaining some status by different means (Luhmann, 2012).
Conclusion
The paper has explored five theories and related each of the theory to the case. Therefore, the paper has endeavored to understand the Pachuco subculture as viewed using the existing theoretical frameworks that relate to contemporary subculture theorists. As such, the examination has served to assist the learner in appreciating the application of sociological theories in real life experiences hence understanding the underlying factors that lead to the social order that exists in the community (Bartollas, 2007).
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