No more heroes: portuguese punk and the notion of subculture in the global south

Abstract

This chapter is based on two main objectives: to provoke a transdisciplinary approach to the study of subcultures by facilitating the encounter between sociology and cultural studies that has remained historically far away; and to provide a critical application of the concept of subculture outside its Anglo-American comfort space in the context of Portugal-a country in Southern Europe that starts from a sociohistorical position of modernity that is radically different from the central hegemonic context. When we launched ourselves into the study of youth cultures more than a decade ago, the question we asked was: 'And after Hebdige?' It is undeniable that many of Hebdige's (1979) positions have not aged particularly well-often because of the 'holes' identified in our previous research works. But this statement is, above all, a privilege that comes from knowing the end of the story-or, more correctly, from having already had access to some of the 'scenes from the following chapters'. We are talking about a theoretical perspective that has taken its positions politically, endowing itself with a transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological source that, even today, makes many of those espousing the current transdisciplinary research rhetoric blush: nowadays, the word 'punk' denotes not so much a specific subculture or style of music, but commodification and incorporation of this juvenile subculture by the mainstream; consequently, it has been deprived of its original critical force.