Local Substream and global Mainstream. An international enquiry on urban and virtual pop substreams with the aim of the development of a renewed theory of subcultures - a six cities-cooperation

Field of research of the analysis is the field of popular culture. Subject of enquiry: New substream networks that replace authentic subcultures as described by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Aim of the enquiry is the development of an extended theory of subcultures labelled "Theory of Temporary Substream Networks" which holds up to the changes of the societal framework. The research premise (antecedent hypothesis) of this project is the replacement of the traditional sharp dichotomy between mainstream and pop-subcultures with a new social formation which is not characterized by a strict contrast between mainstream und subcultures. We call this new and more open social formation with reference to Lawrence Grossberg "the new, radically electic mainstream". Our first hypothesis is that in spite of the growing degree of incorporation of pop-subcultures by the entertainment industry a continuous process of new formation of substreams which try to differentiate themselves from the hegemonic culture will stay constitutive for popular culture itself. We proceed from the assumption that the new radically electic mainstream still enables the composition of subcultural capital and deviance related to traditional subcultural resistance in spite of the incorporation efforts of the entertainment industry. The second hypothesis is that the new subcultural formations of the present are loosely connected substream networks which are looking for temporary niches of self-organization instead of "authentic youth subcultures". These substreams are not related to a specific class (e.g. working class) and have no fixed group identity. They have only little or no group loyalties and their styles are far more pluralistic than those of an authentic youth subcultures (as punks or mods) used to be. Our research approach is a combination of a semiotic cultural studies approach which we will use for the secondary analysis and an ethnographic sociological approach which we will use for the participant observation and the surveys.

The main result of the project was the establishing of an empirical and theoretical basis for forming a new theoretical approach on subcultures and/or post-subcultures. With the research cooperation on this project an international network of experts has been built up that jointly works on a re-thinking and re-formulation of subcultures theories. The primary aim of the project was to further develop the theoretical approach to subculture-related formations in order to descibe the changes within these formations as well as the changes in the social framework. The new approach combined semiotic and ethnographic elements. Scientific questions raised in the project Can we identify new micro-formations that use subculture-derived life styles and sign systems under the changed societal framework? If yes: How is the structure of these new post-subcultural formations? Which parts of the theoretical work on subcultures of the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) should be further developed and which should be abandoned in favour of new theoretical approaches? On the basis of the secondary analyses and the participant observation we developed 30 hypotheses on the character of the new formations. These 30 hypotheseses were the basis for the designing of the surveys: We designed a questionnaire with 16 questions for the cities New York, Los Angeles, London, Manchester and Vienna (with identical questions except the language). The results of the surveys differed but concerning the key questions for the development of a new theoretical approach to subcultural and / or post-subcultural formations we found important similarities in the answering patterns. In New York, Los Angeles, London, Manchester and Vienna the forming of new subculture-related groupings was thought to be realistic by a broad majority of respondents. Concerning the character of the new formations the respondents in all cities developed consensus as well: The new formations are interpreted as post-traditional forms of community with loose, only temporarily binding structures.