Youth Studies, Birmingham School

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS, or Centre), located at the University of Birmingham, is the home of youth studies, Birmingham school. CCCS is credited for establishing youth culture as a key subdiscipline of cultural studies. The Centre gave rise to interdisciplinary research grounded in critical theory, located at the nexus of anthropology, sociology, literary criticism, and history to study youth culture as politically, socially, economically, and culturally significant. The sociopolitical context in which youth studies emerged is itself significant. Post–World War II United Kingdom was marked by increased affluence and changing class relations owing to shifts in employment opportunities related to industrialization and globalization. Simultaneously, there was an increased academic and popular interest in youth and adolescence, with the term ‘teenager’ entering the ...