Ağ Toplumunda Neo-Altkültürler: Instagram'da RKOT Örneği

Subcultural theory based on the ground of delinquency and deviance studies of the Chicago School of scholars in the 1920s was conceptualized with a Marxist theory based on a Gramscian perspective in post-war England by CCCS scholars in the 1960s and the 1970s. CCCS scholars developed the concept of subculture in relation to collective working class youth groups who were considered to resist against hegemony through collective style. Based on a symbolic analysis of subcultures, CCCS scholars contributed to the realm of cultural studies with numerous sociological works regarding youth cultures such as mods, punks, and skinheads. However, after the 1990s, post-subcultural scholars highlighted the need for abandoning the neo-Marxist subcultural theory of CCCS scholars due to their deterministic, rigid and homological symbolic interpretation of class, identity, and ethnicity in relation to subcultures. Thus, they suggested dismissing the term of "subculture" but adopting a new terminology (i.e. neo-tribes, scenes, lifestyle) since youth cultures today, in the neoliberal network society, are based on fluid, loosely grounded, consumerist and individualistic acts and practices. Nevertheless, some contemporary scholars critique this post-subcultural turn highlighting the significance of CCC's approach in youth culture studies today. Accordingly, a few scholars have recently suggested a reconsideration of CCCS's subcultural theory due to its analytic potential for many youth culture studies even though it is likely to be an inappropriate concept for some projects. Based on this approach, this study has aimed to find whether RKOT on Instagram can be considered a subculture on cyberspace in today's neoliberal network society. There are three reasons for choosing this universe in relation to subcultural studies. First of all, RKOT as a derivative of RKOI have attracted the public's attention negatively across national and international media since they have a "collective identity" and a particular "style" that display an ostentatious and vulgar representation of wealth. Secondly, the concept of "class" which was seen as the ultimate resource of "resistance" in traditional subcultural theory is also inherent in RKOT although it manifests itself as the upper class. This shift from the working class subcultures to the upper class youth culture has been thought to have the potential for investigating today's dominant ideology resulting from social structures of established society. Lastly, the concepts of "leisure" and "media" regarding subcultures have provided a basis for the choice of RKOT since Instagram is the most penetrated social media platform among young people in Turkey. In addition, based on contemporary studies highlighting the potential of social media for subcultural formation and participation, it has been assumed that Instagram could be the new social and leisure space of youth subcultures in the globalized network society. Within this context, grounding on the CCCS's neo-Marxist approach with a Gramscian perspective and drawing upon the Chicago School's and contemporary subcultural studies' core components in conceptualizing youth subcultures, a holistic approach has been adopted to investigate RKOT as a subcultural entity. Thus, a multimethodology of symbolic content analysis and interviews data analyses has been applied in the course of the study centering around the signs and symbols (i.e. style) that distinguish RKOT on Instagram and other core components of subcultural theory (e.g. resistance, space, class, etc.) observed in RKOT. In addition, the function of consumerism and media in RKOT's identity formation, their communication patterns on Instagram and their relation to real life have been investigated through these (n)ethnographic analyses. The data collected through symbolic content analysis has suggested that the internet and social media which have the potential for rule-making, labeling, marginalizing, and crusading can be considered to serve as the agents of the cultural hegemony that labels both RKOT and RKOI as a "marginalized outsiders" in the globalized dominant culture carried out through digitality. The photographic and netnographic observations have shown that both RKOI and RKOT reposition and recontextualize luxury commodities and lifestyle by subverting the conventional forms of wealth representation similar to the spectacular subcultures of post-war England. They construct new uses and meanings as a subcultural style through "bricolage" which may open up new covertly oppositional readings. Hence, neither RKOI nor RKOT exactly abides by the social norms and values which are "normal", "natural" and "appropriate" for "the rich" in the dominant ideology. Thus, the "re-appropriated", "subverted" and "radically adopted" uses of luxury consumer goods (e.g. expensive cars, designer clothes, private jets, etc.) stand for a set of common shared interests, values and rules that establish "extreme orderliness" as Hall et al., (2003) suggested, among the members of both RKOI and RKOT. Hence, luxury consumer goods, provocative captions, ostentatious lifestyle, and so on also indicate the homology within the group despite their non-normative image in the eyes of society. In other words, both RKOI and RKOT display a symbolically "intentional style" which does not coincide with the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant culture, yet rather feeds and reinforces frustration, disturbance and jealousy due to their indifferent and provocative attitude towards the problems of society (e.g. politics, income inequality, poverty, etc.). Thus, this "intentional style" which is reproduced and reinforced through "bricolage" and "homology" is contagious across the world since it is communicated through Instagram which eases the process of the formation and diffusion of subcultures. The data collected through the interviews attempts to contextualize the phenomenon by centering on the core components of subcultural theory such as "social class", "subcultural style", "resistance", "leisure", "space", "media", "societal reaction", "identity and authenticity". The findings have indicated that the concept of "class" and of "class consciousness" can be still inherent up to a certain extent in today's virtual subcultures due to the potential of cyberspace for more fluid, loose and heterogonous formations which also allow subcultural formations among different class segregations. The distinctive and spectacular "style" of RKOT has been reported as a consequence of "intersubjectivity" which also shows individual consumer creativity. In addition, it has been seen that RKOT have a "covert" and "passive" forms of "intentional resistance" against the commodified culture, vulgarity of peers and stereotyped choices of the opposite gender at "micro" and "meso" levels since majority of the members regarding the subcultural acts and rituals are both self-conscious and other(s)-conscious. Also, it has been seen that RKOT's Turkish identity displays a covert and a passive forms of resistance based on nationality against Western society even though there is no explicit representation of chauvinist behavior on the profile. Accordingly, it can be claimed that in today's neo-liberal Turkish society, apart from the traditional subcultures' concept of ethnicity, the concept of nationality can be a crucial component for establishing subcultural identity. In relation to "leisure space" and "media", it has been seen that RKOT on a particular social media space (Instagram) display a collective and creative agency through which they determine the criteria that constitutes the subcultural capital. Thus, in the networking society, cyberspace can function as the social environment of subcultures where they can also have leisure. The findings have also indicated that members of RKOT understand not only others' but also their own existence through images produced and defused by the social media (Instagram). Hence, RKOT who find meaning in "appearing" rather than "purely having" refer to a generation who reinforces a specific pattern of consumption on Instagram which is based on an extravagant and ostentatious style. In short, they represent "the society of the spectacle" that reduces their own universe of speculation to a concrete lifestyle which is idealized with luxury consumer good, lifestyle and choices. Within this context, it has been reported that Instagram is the most popular social media among RKOT due to its user-friendly, ephemeral and discipline free and ideology free characteristics. The interviews have also revealed that RKOT also serve the "attention economy" since the administrator and some RKOT have the intention of making financial profits out of it. It has been explained as the "commodification" process of RKOT as a consequence of the neo-liberal society in which the social media, especially Instagram is used as a platform for the attention economy. Regarding the "societal reaction" coming through Instagram DMs, the findings have also indicated that the subcultural formation of RKOT, which started with the desire of attention and popularity, has also resulted in an increased awareness and sensibility among RKOT towards the lower classes of society since they have led to philanthropy. In terms of "ethnicity", it has been suggested that in today's neo-liberal Turkish society, apart from the traditional subcultures' concept of ethnicity, the concept of nationality can be a crucial component for establishing RKOT's subcultural identity. However, gender plays a crucial role in establishing subcultural identity since patriarchy negatively affects the females' participation and sense of belonging to the subculture regarding nationality. Moreover, it has been suggested that subcultural capital plays a crucial role in addressing "authenticity" in relation to RKOT's subcultural identity formation since the social identification of RKOT consists of hierarchies in internal dimensions which represent a more socio-psychological practice. Hence, RKOT's "individuality" and "intersubjectivity" have a big impact on the identification of authenticity. Accordingly, it has been suggested that "authenticity" which is considered as an absolute resistance against the mainstream in traditional subcultural theory, today refers to a supremacy of social, cultural, political, economic, and sexual dimensions of subcultural identity. The findings have also shown that RKOT both keep up-to-date in the global context by following other RKOIs' profiles and being influenced by them, and manifest themselves in the local context through distinctive features that are peculiar to Turkish culture. Hence, it has been suggested that similar to the concept of "translocality" suggested by contemporary subcultural theorists, RKOT can be defined as a glocalized subculture which is interlocked through indirect visual communication in spite of no physical or territorial interaction. Thus, RKOT, that stand for a "diffused", "glocalized", "loosely focused" and "fluid" entity, still have a resistant and collective youth identity. Also the internet and social media as fundamentals of today function as the most important tools for the formation of this subcultural identity. In brief, the findings of this multimethod research have indicated that RKOT can be defined as a neo-subculture on cyberspace under the social structures of the neoliberal network society.