
Dr Vlad Nicu
About
My research project
Youth Culture, Music, and Resistance: A Qualitative Investigation of the Punk and Electronic Music Scenes of Bucharest Within the past forty years, the field of cultural sociology has been marked by a theoretical clash between modern and postmodern views on how oppositionality and resistance can take shape inside non-normative youth groups called subcultures. In line with the wider goal of enriching subcultural theory through overcoming this conflict, my thesis consisted of an in-depth examination of the way in which young members of the contemporary punk and electronic music communities of Bucharest articulate and express subcultural resistance through their music-centred narratives and practices.
Using extracts from 27 qualitative, semi-structured interviews and field notes from 22 participant observation sessions collected in situ between March and October of 2018, the study argued that these young people construct complex, multi-dimensional, and multi-faceted systems of resistance which encompass two distinct, interdependent levels – discursive and practical. In this context, it also argued that the coexistence and complementarity of a set of diverse and conscious articulations of disaffection support the case for the subversive potential of music and music-mediated social interaction.
The contributions of the thesis to the sociology of youth culture are both empirical and theoretical. From an empirical point of view, it offers insights into a previously unexplored socio-geographical and cultural space whose unique evolution calls for more nuanced and context-sensitive analyses of how resistance is reified and what its functions are. On a theoretical level, it introduces a new model of resistance based on the specificity of the targets being resisted by subcultural participants. It proposes a novel framework for studying resistance – one that integrates the innovations of both the modern and postmodern schools of thought, and points to the possibility of formulating a more unified and comprehensive type of subcultural theory.
Supervisors
Within the past forty years, the field of cultural sociology has been marked by a theoretical clash between modern and postmodern views on how oppositionality and resistance can take shape inside non-normative youth groups called subcultures. In line with the wider goal of enriching subcultural theory through overcoming this conflict, my thesis consisted of an in-depth examination of the way in which young members of the contemporary punk and electronic music communities of Bucharest articulate and express subcultural resistance through their music-centred narratives and practices.
Using extracts from 27 qualitative, semi-structured interviews and field notes from 22 participant observation sessions collected in situ between March and October of 2018, the study argued that these young people construct complex, multi-dimensional, and multi-faceted systems of resistance which encompass two distinct, interdependent levels – discursive and practical. In this context, it also argued that the coexistence and complementarity of a set of diverse and conscious articulations of disaffection support the case for the subversive potential of music and music-mediated social interaction.
The contributions of the thesis to the sociology of youth culture are both empirical and theoretical. From an empirical point of view, it offers insights into a previously unexplored socio-geographical and cultural space whose unique evolution calls for more nuanced and context-sensitive analyses of how resistance is reified and what its functions are. On a theoretical level, it introduces a new model of resistance based on the specificity of the targets being resisted by subcultural participants. It proposes a novel framework for studying resistance – one that integrates the innovations of both the modern and postmodern schools of thought, and points to the possibility of formulating a more unified and comprehensive type of subcultural theory.
ResearchResearch interests
My broad research interests include youth culture, subcultural theory, urban nightlife, cultural hybridity, the sociology of music, Marxist and post-Marxist sociological perspectives, and the relation between philosophy and sociology. I have previously been awarded a BA with Honours in History and Criminology from the University of Essex in 2012, and an MRes in Social Research from the University of Aberdeen in 2013. Outside of academia, I maintain a long-standing interest in the arts, and have worked as a music writer for Surrey’s Subcultured magazine from October 2016 to May 2017.
Research interests
My broad research interests include youth culture, subcultural theory, urban nightlife, cultural hybridity, the sociology of music, Marxist and post-Marxist sociological perspectives, and the relation between philosophy and sociology. I have previously been awarded a BA with Honours in History and Criminology from the University of Essex in 2012, and an MRes in Social Research from the University of Aberdeen in 2013. Outside of academia, I maintain a long-standing interest in the arts, and have worked as a music writer for Surrey’s Subcultured magazine from October 2016 to May 2017.