realm of consumption as well. For example, “brand communities” develop around particular brand name products (Todd and Soule 2018). Harley-Davidson motorcycle riders are one such subculture (called HOGs, for Harley Owners Group), with distinctive clothing, events, and norms. Brand communities have formed around a number of Apple products, such as the Macintosh computer (the “Mac”) and the iPad. The members of these communities share a number of cultural elements, including norms. In the case of the Mac, for example, some community members positively sanction “jailbreaking,” a method for hacking into Apple’s software to get around its restrictions and limitations.
Any society includes many subcultures, such as hackers or those devoted to fishing, that develop around particular styles of life and share special vocabularies. A great deal of attention has been devoted to “deviant” subcultures, such as those of punks, goths, and the like (Barmaki 2016). In Great Britain, “football hooligans,” those who often engage in violence at or in regard to soccer matches, constitute a deviant subculture largely specific to that society (Ayres and Treadwell 2012; Dunning, Murphy, and Williams 1988). However, there are also many “straight” subcultures, such as those who play online games (e.g., Fortnite) or “straight” fans of clean eating (e.g., the Whole30 program [https://whole30.com] or the Paleo diet; Wood 2006).
Another example of a subculture is the world of skateboarders. The majority of skateboarders accept most of the larger society’s culture, norms, values, and language, but they also differ in some ways. Many are more willing than most members of society to take physical risks, for example, by participating in the sport known as parkour, which involves using the body to overcome urban obstacles such as walls and ledges (Kidder 2012; Thorpe and Ahmad 2015). Skateboarders in general, as well as those who practice parkour, see such obstacles as enhancing the thrill of their activity.
Skateboarding has developed a subculture with its own norms, values, language, and environments. Do you belong to any similar subcultures?
Peet Simard/Corbis Documentary/Getty Images
Countercultures
Countercultures are groups that not only differ from the dominant culture but also adhere to norms and values that may be incompatible with those of the dominant culture. They may, in fact, consciously and overtly act in opposition to the dominant culture. The term counterculture was introduced by Theodore Roszak ([1968] 1995) in the late 1960s in reference to hippies, antiwar activists, and radical students.
Computer hackers are a contemporary example of a counterculture. Many hackers simply seek to show their technical mastery of computers through relatively benign actions, such as writing free computer software, but a minority are devoted to subverting authority and disrupting the internet, and some are involved in stealing personal identification data (identity theft) and money (Alleyne 2018). They may write malicious code in order to interrupt or even shut down the normal operations of computers. In one famous case in 1988, Robert Tappan Morris unleashed what was thought to be the first worm that slowed down thousands of computers, making many of them unusable. Since then, many attempted and successful break-ins have threatened government and corporate computer systems (e.g., the Equifax break-in of 2017); the hackers’ goal has been to steal secret or personal information (like consumer credit data in the case of Equifax). A rash of break-ins into corporate computers was aimed at stealing credit card numbers and account information. For example, the account information of 56 million Home Depot customers was compromised; information on 40 million Target accounts had been hacked the year before (Perlroth 2014). Hackers also exposed the names of 30 million people who had accounts with Ashley Madison. This was particularly troublesome to the account holders because those who participated on the Ashley Madison website were interested in having adulterous affairs. The site’s slogan was “Life is short; have an affair” (McPhate 2016). Personal accounts have also been hacked and locked until the account holders paid ransom demanded by the hackers (Simone 2015). Hacking became a huge public issue in late 2016 when the Russians were caught hacking the accounts of Hillary Clinton and her supporters during the U.S. presidential campaign. Many believe that the Russians’ goal was to help Donald Trump win the election (Lipton, Sanger, and Shane 2016). While there is clear evidence that the Russians did hack Clinton’s e-mail account, as well as those of others associated with her campaign, and intervene in the 2016 election in other ways, preliminary analysis of the 2019 Mueller Report did not find sufficient evidence to clear Trump of the charge of colluding with the Russians in this effort. However, we can expect more revelations about this in the years to come as at least some of the report becomes public.
In the realm of consumption, an important contemporary counterculture is formed by those associated with or sympathetic to the “voluntary simplicity” movement (Elgin 2010; Pelikán, Galcanova, and Kala, 2017). Sociologist Juliet Schor (1993, 1998) has critiqued the dominant American culture’s emphasis on what she calls “work and spend.” That is, we are willing to work long hours so that we can spend a great deal on consumption and live an ever-more elaborate lifestyle. In addition, Schor (2005) points out the ways in which our consumer culture has led to the commercialization of childhood, with advertising pervading all aspects of children’s lives. As a countercultural alternative, she suggests that we both work less and spend less and instead devote ourselves to more meaningful activities. Living a simpler life means avoiding overconsumption, minimizing the work needed to pay for consumption, and doing less harm to the environment.
Globalization, especially economic globalization, has also spawned a number of very active countercultural groups. They are not necessarily antiglobalization, but they favor alternative forms of globalization (Kahn and Kellner 2007; Obara-Minnitt 2014; Pleyers 2010). In fact, many of them are part of the process of globalization. The World Social Forum (WSF) was created in 2001 following a series of antiglobalization protests, particularly one in Seattle in 1999. Its members come from all over the world. The WSF’s slogan is “Another world is possible.” That other world would be less capitalistic. It would also allow for more democratic decision-making on matters that affect large portions of the world’s population. Those who accept this kind of perspective are clearly part of a counterculture. They oppose the global spread of the dominant capitalist culture that prioritizes maximizing profits over democratic decision-making.
Culture Wars
In the 1960s, the hippies, student radicals, and Vietnam War activists vocally, visibly, and sometimes violently rejected traditional American norms and values. Among other things, they rejected unthinking patriotism and taboos against recreational drugs and sexual freedom. The term culture war was used to describe the social upheaval that ensued. More generally, a culture war is a conflict pitting a subculture or counterculture against the dominant culture (e.g., antievolutionists versus evolutionists; Silva 2014), or a conflict between dominant groups within a society. Culture wars sometimes lead to the disruption of the social, economic, and political status quo (Hunter 1992; Luker 1984).
In the United States today, the major culture war being fought is between those who place themselves on the conservative end of the sociopolitical spectrum and those who place themselves on the liberal end. It is largely viewed as a political battle over such things as government spending, taxes, social services, national defense, and environmental measures. Conservatives generally favor less government spending, lower taxes for the wealthy, fewer entitlements for the poor, aggressive national defense, and minimal environmental regulations. Liberals usually support higher government spending on education, health care, and services for the poor; less spending on national defense; and stricter environmental regulations. Today, this battle is epitomized by struggles between Donald Trump and his conservative allies in the Republican Party and liberal Democrats in the Congress.
There are important differences in fundamental values between these groups. Consider, for example, the long-running battle over abortion. The political battle is over legal limits to abortion and contraception. However, the underlying values have to do with differing