Punk Identification With Middle-Class Values
type: CreativeWork
description: Punk has been studied as a social movement and as a form of youth subculture, in this paper, both sides of punk research will be bridged to see how punk draws in participants and instills new values into them. Punk changes the values of its participants through its recruitment of adolescents and introducing them to new values in DIY punk spaces. Data was collected from 15 punks in Reno, Nevada using semi-structured interviews. This research confirmed that there are two main values that punks generally believe, and they are: a sense of community created within the scene and the other value is that of anti-establishment ideals. Those values are then the basis of punks rejecting middle-class values that are prevalent throughout American society. Namely, the ideas that underpin the American meritocracy as allowing anyone to climb the social ladder if they participate in the system correctly. This was both seen in the answers given by the participants of this study and the political organizations they participated in. Several participants are part of mutual aid organizations that are organized in non-hierarchical manners adhering to punks' anti-establishment nature and that directly tackle perceived systemic issues in American society through community building. However, punk in Reno has a blind spot when it comes to race issues within the scene and understanding the issues faced by people of color attempting to enter the scene by white punks. There is still a vibrant punk scene that has a history of political actions and printing political zines and has allowed for the changing of the value sets of the people that participate within it.
abstract: Punk has been studied as a social movement and as a form of youth subculture, in this paper, both sides of punk research will be bridged to see how punk draws in participants and instills new values into them. Punk changes the values of its participants through its recruitment of adolescents and introducing them to new values in DIY punk spaces. Data was collected from 15 punks in Reno, Nevada using semi-structured interviews. This research confirmed that there are two main values that punks generally believe, and they are: a sense of community created within the scene and the other value is that of anti-establishment ideals. Those values are then the basis of punks rejecting middle-class values that are prevalent throughout American society. Namely, the ideas that underpin the American meritocracy as allowing anyone to climb the social ladder if they participate in the system correctly. This was both seen in the answers given by the participants of this study and the political organizations they participated in. Several participants are part of mutual aid organizations that are organized in non-hierarchical manners adhering to punks' anti-establishment nature and that directly tackle perceived systemic issues in American society through community building. However, punk in Reno has a blind spot when it comes to race issues within the scene and understanding the issues faced by people of color attempting to enter the scene by white punks. There is still a vibrant punk scene that has a history of political actions and printing political zines and has allowed for the changing of the value sets of the people that participate within it.
author: Landivar, Bruno
keywords: Mutual Aid, Punk
date published: 2024
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:46:08Z
provider: University of Nevada - Reno
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Nevada, Reno