Paul Willis And British Youth Subculture Studies

The paper aims to focus on the Paul Willis'contribution to youth subculture studies in the background of culture studies of Birmingham School. Paul Willis'major achievement and contribution towards youth subculture studies can be best studied from his famous book"Learning to labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs".The present paper is designated to discuss different aspects of his contrubition and related topics in the following five chapters. The introductory part deals with the background for Willis'work and related studies on it. The first chapter explains some basic concepts and simply introduces Paul Willis'studies on youth subculture. The second chapter discusses about the main characters in learning to labor, including the analysis of ethnography and the concepts (penetration and limitation) related to the theory of reproduction. The third chapter deals with the study of culture commodity. The chapter also discusses about the Willis'main contribution i.e. the creative concepts"homology"( the early studies),"symobolic analysis"and"the grounded aesthetic". The forth chapter deals with Willis'views on the theories to study youth subculture from early time to the modern time. Finally, the conclusion summarizes Willis'achievements in the field of youth subculture studies and its inspiration towards subculture and commodity study in modern China.