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This article asks if the concept of subculture can still be used in sociology, by illustrating the potential application of the term to analyses of European autochthonous jihadist terrorism. It provides a history of the concept in reference to explanatory factors of subcultural membership, including socioeconomic condition, cultural identity, housing placement and social control. Issues of postmodernity and the evolution of ICT are also take into consideration. The article first reflects on the origins of the concept of subculture. General definitions of the term emphasize ‘sub’cultures as differentiated from a mainstream group, especially in reference to young people. Several theoretical approaches are taken into consideration: first, an initial current that referred to different theoretical areas, such as the anomie, the anomic strain, and relative deprivation theories; second, a trend that derived from the Chicago School’s ‘social disorganization’ approach; third, the theory of cultural conflict; and finally, subcultural theory as implemented by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in the UK. While the mid-Sixties approach of the CCCS emphasized subculture and its self-expression in terms of collective, youth-working class resistance, from the Eighties, scholars emphasized youth subcultures as the result of individual choice. In the last twenty years, debates on subcultures have been applied to computer-mediated communication. The article reflects on this digital, ‘post-subcultural’ direction, particularly in relation to jihadist terrorism. Recent scholarship on this phenomenon has read it in relation to group dynamics, social networks, and to indoctrination in prisons, but without sufficient attention given to the explanatory potential of subcultural elements. Given that young, native-born Europeans adhere to terrorist subcultures after having participated in subcultural groups or gangs, the importance of the subcultural perspective is manifest and provides original analysis of an emergent social problem.
