The Lads in Action

This anthropological account of an urban youth subculture is based on a participant observation study in Western Australia. The study examines the day-to-day lifestyle of Perth skinheads, an exported and modified version of the original English youth subculture. The focus is on the construction of English ethnicity in multicultural Australia. The work begins with a critique of existing studies of youth and ethnographic method. It then analyzes the meaning of skinhead expressive activity for the skinheads themselves, in terms of the anthropology of social process. After dispensing with the static concept of "gang" in favour of a framework of process, the text explores the meaning of visual and performatives style for skinheads, interaction between skinheads and the members of other youth subcultures, the significance of drinking, and the public and private representations skinheads make about the young women with whom they form relationships. The book outlines the role of "memories" - the stories of past exploits which skinheads tell one another - in the creation of the skinhead's categorical and personal identity.
The author examines these issues in the light of extensive ethnographic material and concludes by presenting a model of social processes which shape this urban lifestyle and which underpin the social groupings which characterize and constitute urban youth scenes. These young men and women are not encountered in the vast literature on youth. This book should be of interest to the general reader and to the specialist in urban anthropology, the sociology of youth, cultural studies and popular culture.