The Subcultural Imagination examines young adults in subcultures, and how sociologists use qualitative research methods to study them. It applies the ideas of C. Wright Mills to the development of theory-reflexive ethnography. Looking at the experiences of young people in different subcultural settings, this book shows how young people in subcultures interact in the wider context of society, biography and history.

Introduction: The Social Imagination ¿ Towards the Subcultural Subject Part I: History, Biography and Subculture 1. From Here to Modernity: Rethinking the Youth Question with C Wright Mills 2. Subcultural and Post-Subcultural Compatibility: The Case of Cuban Underground Rap 3. From Bad to Worse? Marginalised Youth and `Road Life¿ (Mis)Representations and Realities Part II: Practising Reflexivity in the Field 4. The Emotional Imagination: Exploring Critical Ventriloquy and Emotional Edgework in Reflexive Sociological Ethnography with Young People 5. Rachela through the Looking Glass: Researching the Occupational Subculture of Lap-Dancers 6. `Biography in the Laboratory¿: Applying the Chicago School Approach to Dual Researcher Positionality within the Night-Time Economy 7. Temporary Reflexive Disempowerment: Working through Fieldwork Ethnography and Its Impact on a Female Researcher Part III: Epistemologies, Pedagogies and the Subcultural Subject 8. Understanding Nightlife Identities and Divisions through the Subculture/ Post-Subculture Debate 9. Feminism, Subculture and the Production of Knowledge: Developing Intersectional Epistemologies amidst the Reflexive Turn 10. Bulgarian Post-Transitional Subcultures: Insider Ethnographic Research of the Underground Scene 11. Connecting Personal Troubles and Public Issues in Asian Subculture Studies 12. Conclusion: C. Wright Mills, the `Subcultural¿ Imagination, Reflexivity and the Subcultural Subject