All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go«

Spaces and Conventions of Youth in 1950s Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID11982037
AuthorsKlaus Nathaus (corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume41
Issue1
Pages40-70
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeschichte und Gesellschaft (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0340-613X • E-ISSN: 2196-9000
PublisherVandenhoeck & Ruprecht (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.13109/gege.2015.41.1.40
OpenAlexW2280588937
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

Based on an analysis of streets and entertainment venues, the article stresses the importance of post-war changes in the urban environment for the emergence of 1950s British youth culture. It explains how and why young people in Britian in this period developed conventions and modes of self-presentation such as "coolness" and overt enthusiasm as face-saving and socializing strategies, thus creating a distinct own social worldwhich was viewed and criticized by adults and authorities as the culture of a counterworld. The article acknowledges the creativity of young people in making up their own conventions and modes of being, but argues that their influence on wider social and cultural change was limited; rather than seeing young people of the 1950s as countercultural pioneers, the article suggests that they appear to have been inheritors of late nineteenth-century mass culture

Aesthetics · Art · Creativity · Criminology · Entertainment · Enthusiasm · Face (sociological concept · Mass culture · Media studies · Period (music · Political science · Popular culture · Presentation (obstetrics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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