Subcultural theory

David H. Downes, The Delinquent Solution A Study in Subcultural Theory (London Routledge Kegan Paul, 1966), p. ix. 

When the Second Edition appeared in 1980, I wrote an Introduction ( Symbols of Trouble ) that dealt almost entirely with the Folk Devils part of the book s title (the Mods and Rockers), especially the developments in subcultural theories of delinquency associated with the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. In this Introduction to the Third Edition, I deal only with the Moral Panics part of the title reviewing uses and criticisms of the concept over the last thirty years. A selected reading list can be found on pages 241-8. 

Compared with physicists, these chemists expressed a different culture when it came to formulate a theory and to impose their demands on such a theory—such as the constitutive and regulatory role of empirical data in theory building. Can one, then, pose the question whether reductionism may not be independent of the subculture of chemists and physicists Is it the case that the question up to now has been formulated almost exclusively in terms of the physicists culture Different scientific communities impose different explanatory demands on their theories, and this constitutes an important cultural characteristic of each community. It may, perhaps, be the case that the formulation of many of the philosophical issues in the different scientific (sub)disciplines is dependent on the specific cultural characteristics of the particular communities that comprise the practitioners of each of these (sub)disci-plines. And, it may thus be the case that the discussion of these issues may be greatly enriched through such a perspective when the history of the (sub)disciplines does not only come to the fore in order to clarify theoretical or technical issues, but also in order to articulate practices and cultural strands. 

---